Review: Thunder Bay

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Cover image for "Thunder Bay" by William Kent Krueger

Thunder Bay (Cork O’Connor Number 7), William Kent Krueger. Atria Books (ISBN: 9781439157824) 2009

Summary: A search for Henry Meloux’s son leads to an attempt on Meloux’s life and a love story from the 1920’s.

This is a novel where Cork O’Connor learns things about people close to him that he had not known before. For one, that his studious, college-bound daughter, Jenny, is pregnant. And he learns that his wise advisor, Henry Meloux, has a son.

The latter revelation comes to light when Henry suddenly is afflicted with a heart condition, threatening his life. But the doctors can’t find a problem. When he tells Cork about his son and wanting to find him and Cork agrees to search, he suddenly gets better. Cork tracks him down to Thunder Bay, Canada, and tries to see him, using a watch with a picture of his son’s mother Henry gave him, as an entree.

There’s a problem. Henry’s son is a hermit, living on an island. But Cork makes a convincing case to be seen with his half-brother who had taken over the profitable mining business Henry’s son had formerly presided over. He gets the meeting, but not without a dustup with Hank’s bodyguard, Morrissey. And Henry’s son does not want to see his father.

Cork returns and assumes its all over and turns to deal with Jenny’s situation together with Jo. Until, that is, someone makes an attempt on Henry’s life, which costs the assailant his life. The assailant was Morrissey.

Why would someone try to kill Henry for wanting to see his long lost son? Cork, although no longer sheriff, wants to understand. He assumes Henry is still in danger. So Henry tells him the story, one that runs for 85 pages of the novel. As a young man, Henry had agreed to serve as a guide for a couple of prospectors, one of whom brought along his beautiful daughter. They fall in love beside a scenic lake in the north woods in Canada. They meet a Black man, Maurice, living in the woods who they befriend. He has a huge stash of gold, what the prospectors were seeking.

Sadly, the love affair between Henry and the girl is discovered. In a confrontation with her father, the father is fatally hurt. Things end badly, with Henry wounded and Maurice dead. Somehow, Henry survives and walks out of the wilderness, discovering his calling as a spiritual guide. The girl, Maria is pregnant, and marries the surviving prospector, Wellington, naming her son Henry. She dies a few years later and Wellington remarries and has another son, the half-brother running the company.

Despite the threat on his life, Henry wants to go to his son. Cork agrees and they take retired sheriff, Wally Schanno with them as backup. They discover the “hermit” is a front and locate where the real Henry is living. But murder pursues as well. Why the attempt to kill an old man? And will Henry see his son?

Obviously, the big feature of this novel is the development of the Meloux character, with an explanation of how he became a mide. And we also learn how Stevie gets a dog and what happens to Jenny. In it all, Krueger portrays the bittersweetness of life — of love and wonder and violence and loss — and that we must hold onto the former to sustain us when facing the latter.

Review: The China Governess

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Cover image of "The China Governess" by Margery Allingham

The China Governess (Albert Campion Number 17), Margery Allingham. Open Road Media (ISBN: 9781504087247) 2023 (First published in 1962).

Summary: An engaged orphan adopted by the Kinnits hires Campion to find his roots, stirring up a crime spree and a family secret.

Tim Kinnit is engaged to marry Julia, the daughter of a wealthy tycoon. There is one problem. Tim is a war orphan, rescued from a district of “ill repute,” the Turk Street Mile, during the war and adopted by the Kinnits, another well-to-do family. The worry is that there may be some mental defect in his background, whatever it is. He recruits Albert to investigate.

All of a sudden, a crime spree arises on Turk Street, now renovated. An apartment is ransacked and someone commits arson. Meanwhile, Campion’s investigations uncover a skeleton in the Kinnits’ closet. Thyrza Caleb was a governess to the family in the nineteenth century, accused of murder, and who reputedly took her own life.

Campion and inspector Luke try to figure out how the crimes on Turk Street are connected to Tim’s paternity, And what further danger does the criminal pose? Amid all the puzzlement, one thing is sure. Tim’s childhood nanny, Nanny Broome, believes in him and that he’ll make a good husband to Julia.

Allingham has always had complicated plots, but I found this one particularly hard to follow. The “China Governess” part of the plot seemed extraneous. And Campion, once eccentric, seems muted and uninteresting, in contrast to Lugg and Luke who seem to grow more interesting as the stories go on.

Review: Answering the Psalmist’s Perplexity

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Cover image of "Answering the Psalmist's Perplexity" by James Hely Hutchinson

Answering the Psalmist’s Perplexity (New Studies in Biblical Theology Number 62), James Hely Hutchinson. IVP Academic/Apollos (ISBN: 9781514008867) 2024 (Apollos-IVP UK website).

Summary: How would God fulfill the promise of an everlasting Davidic throne when the kingship had ended in exile?

Psalm 89 poses an agonizing question. God had promised (Psalm 89:3-4):

You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
    I have sworn to David my servant,
‘I will establish your line forever
    and make your throne firm through all generations.

Yet with the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC, the line of kings had ended and the throne had fallen (Psalm 89:38-39):

But you have rejected, you have spurned,
    you have been very angry with your anointed one.
You have renounced the covenant with your servant
    and have defiled his crown in the dust.

And so the psalmist asks (v. 46):

How long, Lord? Will you hide yourself forever?
    How long will your wrath burn like fire?

This is the psalmist’s perplexity alluded to in the title of this work. How would God keep his covenant, when by exile it appeared null and void? The question is one set against the backdrop of prior covenants with Adam, Noah, Abraham, and at Sinai. And there is the question of whether and how these covenants find fulfillment in the new covenant.

James Hely Hutchinson believes the Psalms have much to contribute to our understanding of a question that spans the whole of scripture. After laying out his approach, Hutchinson reviews the spectrum of covenant-relationships. This spans a continuum of seven positions from Westminster covenantalism to classic dispensationalism.

Then over three chapters, he elaborates how the Psalms reflect the covenant relationships. Chapter three covers Psalms 1-89, setting the stage for the perplexing conclusion of book three of the psalms in Psalm 89. He begins with Psalm 2, key, he believes, in setting a new covenant agenda. Chapter 4 then shows how Book four of the Psalms (90-106) provides building blocks to answer that complexity, particularly in envisioning the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant closely tied to the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant. Chapter five shows how Book five (Psalms 107-150) reflects the outworking of the answer in the convergence of all the covenants and their fulfillment in the new covenant.

Hutchinson proceeds to consider the import of the law for the new-covenant believer. He argues for continuity without seeing the new covenant as a renewal of the Sinaitic legislation. From here he proceeds to summarize his argument and how the covenant relationships answer the Psalmist’s perplexity. He summarizes his argument in twenty-eight statements and evaluates the seven models from Chapter 2, concluding that progressive covenantalism most closely corresponds to his study of the Psalms. Five appendices expand on particular details in his study.

There were several aspects of the work I especially appreciated. One was looking at the Psalms through the ‘hinge point” of the question in Psalm 89. His discussion suggestion a structure to the psalter I had not previously seen. And his discussions of the transitions between books three, four, and five were especially interesting.

At the same time, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. spoke of “the simplicity on the other side of complexity.” In this case, I felt Hutchinson never got to a “simplicity on the other side of perplexity.” His discussion proceeds from one intertextual discussion to the next. The fact that he needed to summarize his argument in 28 statements that he distills into two abstractions (eschatological satisfaction and transcendent inauguration) suggests to me that he never quite got there. I suspect that all but the most acute readers will find the argument in this book difficult to track.

That’s unfortunate, because the big idea of new covenant fulfillment of the prior covenants offers so much in helping the reader of scripture grasp the big story. In this case, I felt we spent so much time looking at all the trees that it was difficult to glimpse the overstory of the whole forest. I hope this author will keep working on unpacking that story.

_____________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Bob on Books Best of 2024

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Image of book covers from "Bob on Books Best of 2024"

It’s that time again! Here are my picks for my personal “best reads of 2024.” Most of the books were published either in 2023 or 2024 and all were reviewed this year. I chose a “best overall” and then books in a number of categories, reflecting what I read–seventeen books out of the over two hundred I reviewed so far in 2024 (including one I just finish and haven’t yet reviewed).

Best of the Year

The Covenant of Water, Abraham Verghese. New York: The Grove Press, 2023. Verghese is a magnificent writer, the story is beautifully told, spanning several generations in colonial and post-Colonial India. I wrote, “To read Verghese is to read a consummate story weaver who has thought deeply about the human condition in its frailty and fallibility, in the powerful bonds upon which our lives and loves depend, and in the hopes and holy aspirations that represent the best in human striving.” Review

Best Non-fiction

The Kingdom, The Power, and the Glory, Tim Alberta. New York: HarperCollins, 2023. Tim Alberta spent a couple of years traveling the country to figure out why so many evangelicals aligned themselves with the politics of the right. Probably the best exploration of this topic I’ve read from an investigative reporter who is also a person of faith. Review

Best Science Book of the Year

Pillars of Creation, Richard Panek. Little, Brown (ISBN: 9780316570695) 2024. I just finished reading this and was amazed at the discoveries that have emerged in the few short years that the James Webb Telescope has been online that are changing our understanding of the cosmos. Review forthcoming.

Best Memoir/Biography

An Unfinished Love Story, Doris Kearns Goodwin. Simon & Schuster (ISBN: 9781982108663) 2024. Doris Kearns Goodwin writes a fascinating memoir of going through her husband’s papers from the 60’s when he was a speech writer and advisor for Kennedy and Johnson. It is fascinating to read about his part in some of the speeches and policies of those two administrations as well as the somewhat different perspective of Doris Kearns Goodwin, whose first book was on Johnson. Review

Best History

Challenger, Adam Higginbotham. Avid Reader Press (ISBN: 9781982176617) 2024. Adam Higginbotham combines research into the Challenger with profiles of the crew. My son and I agree on the major lesson underlying this narrative: “Listen to your engineers.” Review

Best Fiction

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse, Charlie Mackesy. HarperOne (ISBN: 9781529105100), 2019. This one is actually hard to classify. It is a short and charming hand written and illustrated story that explores the things that matter most in life, particularly unconditional love. Review

Best Historical Fiction

The Women, Kristin Hannah. St Martin’s Press (ISBN: 9781250178633), 2024. I’m not sure why Kristin Hannah doesn’t receive the critical acclaim that some other writers have received. She writes compelling plots with strong characters, in this case chronicling the under told story of combat nurses in the Vietnam war Review

Best Mystery

The Grey Wolf (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Number 19), Louise Penny. Minotaur Books (ISBN: 9781250328144) 2024. Louise Penny took a year off and came back with a page-turning plot with a “trust no one” theme. And guess what? The plot includes the story of two wolves, the grey and the black. Guess what the title of Penny’s next book is. Yep. The Black Wolf, releasing fall of 2025. Review

Best Poetry

Contemporary Catholic Poetry: An Anthology, Edited by April Lindner and Ryan Wilson. Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9781640606463), 2024. An anthology of works from 23 poets including Dana Gioia that is a great introduction to a variety of contemporary poets–a great way to discover ones you like! Review

Best Children’s

Saint Valentine the Kindhearted, Ned Bustard (text and illustrations). Downers Grove: IVP Kids, 2024. Ned Bustard tells and illustrates the story of Saint Valentine for children upholding the virtue of kindness, something we need in our coarse and cruel world. The woodcut illustrations are exquisite! Review

Best Graphic Work

By Fire: The Jakob Hutter Story (Heroes of the Radical Reformation, Number 2), Jason Landsel, Richard Mommsen, Sankha Bannerjee. Plough Publishing House (ISBN: 9781636081434), 2025. Hutter was a leader of the Radical Reformation and a martyr for his faith. This graphic biography tells the story of his life and the ideas for which he died with an economy of words by using graphics to complement dialogue and narrative. Review

Best Devotional

Diary of an Old Soul, George MacDonald, with introduction and notes by Timothy Larsen. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514007686), 2024 (originally published in 1880). In 1880, George MacDonald wrote an extended poem with 365 seven line verses, one for each day with blank pages opposite the verses. Timothy Larsen introduces and lightly annotates a new edition of the work, a pocket sized volume ideal for devotional reflection. Review

Best Formational Resource

Moms at the Well, Tara Edelschick and Kathy Tuan-Maclean. IVP Bible Studies (ISBN: 781514006788), 2024. Being a mom is hard. The two moms who wrote this knew this not only from their own experience but through a survey of 700 moms. Out of this, they developed a seven week Bible study experience looking at seven moms in scripture, including personal study, group discussion and videos accessible via QR codes in the book. Review

Best Christian Life Book

Chastity and the Soul: You Are Holy Ground, Ronald Rolheiser. Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9781640609471) 2024. “Chastity” is one of those cringe words. Fr. Rolheiser argues for an understanding of chastity that extends far beyond our sexuality that treats our whole lives as holy ground. Review

Best Christianity and Culture Book

Word Made Fresh, Abram Van Engen, foreword by Shane McCrae. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing (ISBN: 9780802883605) 2024. This book is a great doorway to the world of poetry for those who don’t read poetry but might be open to try reading some. Van Engen helps us find poets we like and to understand how words and form are used by poets to convey meaning. I can’t think of a single book that has been more helpful to me in reading poetry. Review

Best Theology Book

Bonhoeffer for the Church, Matthew D. Kirkpatrick. Fortress Press (ISBN: 9781506497822) 2024. Matthew D. Kirkpatrick distills Bonhoeffer’s theology of the church from his writings, underscoring the centrality of Christ for the life of the church. For anyone concerned about what it means to be the church, this is a text marvelously rich in insight. Review

Best Apologetic Work

On the Resurrection, Volume 1: Evidences, Gary R. Habermas. B & H Academic (ISBN: 9781087778600), 2024. This is volume 1 of a four part work and considers the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus using a minimal historical facts approach, making a strong case for the historicity of the bodily resurrection of Jesus. At 1072 pages, Habermas is exhaustively thorough, yet highly readable! Review

This hardly exhausts the great books I read in 2024. Check with me tomorrow and I might have a different list. In fact, before the year is out, I will have one more list, my “most read reviews” list which is kind of a “people’s choice” award–at least what my readers found of greatest interest. Hopefully, you;ll find something here worthwhile for your own reading and for gift-giving.

The Weekly Wrap: December 8-14

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parcels in beige wrapping paper and christmas decorative lights
Photo by Nur Yilmaz on Pexels.com

One Hundred Pages a Day

I found myself chuckling while reading Matthew Walther’s “The Hundred Page Strategy.” Partly to keep up with my review schedule on the blog, I read more than that. Every day. I say that not as a point of pride. There was a time when I would not have thought Walther’s goal possible. Now I can say that it is and he offers good suggestions for those of us who want to read more.

Some are simple, like put the smartphone in a drawer. Some are sensible–don’t try to read nothing but heavy, dense books. He reads at times when other people are either sleeping or otherwise engaged. And he carries a book wherever he goes.

There’s nothing special about one hundred pages. His adherence to this goal felt a bit slavish to me. But his recognition of the ways to make space for reading, for doing something one wants to do more of, is laudable. And a stretch goal does help one become ruthless in eliminating what I would call “voluntary distractions” –the ones we choose that fritter away time.

For some, a goal of reading 30-40 pages a day might be more reasonable. You can finish most average size books in about a week. If you’ve wondered how some people read a book a week, this is how.

But the real deal is not how many pages or books we get through but what gets through to us from them. Maybe it is engaging a diverting plot. Or it could be a piece of social analysis of an issue that matters to you. And Walther’s tips can be helpful, no matter how many pages you read and no matter how consistent you are. Read on, friends!

Five Articles Worth Reading

Since I’ve piqued your interest, here’s Matt Walther’s “The Hundred Page Strategy.”

Nikki Giovanni died this week, at age 81. Veronica writes an appraisal of her work for The New York Times, exploring in “When Nikki Giovanni Was Young, Brilliant and Unafraid” how she maintained her vitality and focus over sixty years.

Rhian Sasseen reviews a new series by Solvej Balle that explores the concept of time through a character caught in a time loop in which she wakes up to November 18 every morning after going to bed on November 18 every night. Sassen’s review, “A Novel That Disrupts a Fundamental Law of the Universe,” appears online at The Atlantic.

“Sci-Fi Writer Arthur C. Clarke Predicted the Rise of Artificial Intelligence & the Existential Questions We Would Need to Answer (1978)” reprises a 1978 NOVA special including interviews with Clark and other luminaries in the history of AI. And yes, the questions we are asking now were being asked over 45 years ago.

in “American Literature and the Liberal Way of Life,” Scott M. Reznick proposes that American literature, particularly from the nineteenth century, is an important resource as we engage our politically fraught landscape.

Quote of the Week

Gustave Flaubert, born December 12, 1821, made this succinct statement for all who pursue success to consider:

“Success is a consequence and must not be a goal.”

Miscellaneous Musings

I’m totally going science geek on William Panek’s Pillars of Creation on the Webb telescope. It’s changing our understanding of the universe (and even our own solar system) as it allows us to see further back in time.

I spent one of the most wonderful hours of my life interviewing Matthew Levering a few years ago. He is a Catholic theologian at Mundelein Seminary, and my one overpowering impression was of sitting with a man who deeply loves the Triune God. It was a conversation where I felt I was beholding wonder and beauty. I just began reading his new, Why I Am Roman Catholic and felt like I was back in that interview. I posted an edited transcript of the interview in two parts: One and Two.

I’ve been reading Maigret and the Wine Merchant by Georges Simenon. The wine merchant, who is the murder victim, is a despicable man, a misogynistic womanizer who used his sexual prowess and business power to humiliate men as well as use women. Yet for Maigret, a human life has been taken, a fundamental rent in the fabric of society. I’m deeply disturbed at the valorization of the alleged killer of United Health Care’s CEO. I’m troubled by UHC’s business practices and believe them unjust. But they do not warrant this vigilante justice. And if we valorize it, there will be more such incidents, and over far more petty grievances. And where will it stop?

Next Week’s Reviews

Here’s the lineup for next week:

Monday: My “Best Books” post, the books I read that I thought best in various categories.

Tuesday: James Hely Hutchinson, Answering the Psalmist’s Perplexity.

Wednesday: Margery Allingham, The China Governess.

Thursday: William Kent Krueger, Thunder Bay

Friday: Christopher M. Hays, Eight Million Exiles.

Well, that’s The Weekly Wrap for December 8-14, 2024!

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

Review: By Fire: The Jakob Hutter Story

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Cover image of "By Fire" by Jason Landsel, Richard Mommsen, and Sankha Banerjee

By Fire: The Jakob Hutter Story (Heroes of the Radical Reformation, Number 2), Jason Landsel, Richard Mommsen, Sankha Bannerjee. Plough Publishing House (ISBN: 9781636081434), 2025.

Summary: A graphic biography of this early leader of the Anabaptist movement, marriage to Katharina, and martyrdom.

The Radical Reformation arose among Christians who believed the Reformation did not go far enough. Because adherents believed in baptizing only those professing faith, they became known as Anabaptists. The early movement taught holding all in common, living peacefully, including refusing to pay taxes for war. This incurred the wrath of the rulers of the lands they inhabited, resulting in the deaths of many.

This graphic biography portrays the life of one such figure, Jakob Hutter, after whom the Hutterites, a continuing movement are named. But Hutter was not always a peaceful Anabaptist. The first part portrays him, along with a friend who saved his life (and later betrayed him), Peter, engaging in the failed Peasants Revolt.

Through a refugee, Ursula, he comes to hear Georg Blaurock, who preaches removing from the existing church, and the way of peace and community according to the gospels. Jakob is convinced and parts ways with his friend Peter to join the Anabaptists, soon becoming one of their teachers. Meanwhile, Peter is growing more in love with Katharina, a young woman in the village, who also knew Jakob.

During this time, as the Anabaptists refused to pay taxes to fund Ferdinand’s war against the Ottoman empire. Arrest, drowning, hanging, and death at the stake followed. Katharina had joined the Anabaptists after hearing Jakob, was arrested, and saved her life by recanting. Meanwhile, the Anabaptists had fled to Moravia. Katharina, convinced she has made a mistake, joins them. Eventually, she and Jakob marry.

They live peacefully for a time until driven to live in the open fields. As a result, Jakob wrote a plea to the governor of Moravia, further engendering hostility.

Peter, in his anger and jealousy for losing Katharina, agrees to spy on the Anabaptists, and betray them to the authorities. And so, when Jakob and Katharina secretly return to Tyrol, he betrays them. The authorities arrest them and take them to Innsbruck. Jakob endures torture and preaches repentance as the flames mount around the stake. (This may not be a good scene to show younger children.) Katharina, after escaping, was recaptured and executed, probabably by drowning.

A few things about this graphic portrayal. I appreciate the artistic detail, the use of muted colors, and the willingness to let images rather than words tell the story at points, giving the reader a chance to imagine and reflect. “Peter” is a fictional character. However, he is based on the life of Jorg Frue, who actually betrayed, for money, Jakob and other Anabaptists. This story appears in the after matter, which also includes the mandates against Anabaptists, maps, profiles of historical figures, a timeline, and two of Jakob’s letters.

This is not a pretty story, even though a plaque marks the site of Hutter’s death, a picturesque square in Innsbruck. The denomination of which I’m a part traces its lineage back to the Radical Reformation as do the present-day Hutterites. I wonder if many of us realize that we have martyrs in our spiritual lineage. And I wonder if we reckon with the possibility that some of the radical values we embrace, at least in theory, might require us to follow Jakob and Katharina, and the One they loved.

_____________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out!

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Cover image of "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!" by Quentin Schultze.

You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out!, Quentin Schultze. Edenridge Press LLC (ISBN: 9781937532017) 2024.

Summary: Life lessons from the movie “A Christmas Story” from a friend of storyteller and screenplay writer Jean Shepherd.

We all have our favorite classic Christmas movies that we can watch over and over again. “It’s a Wonderful Life” is probably at the top of my list. But in second place, I would probably pick “A Christmas Story.” Part of the reason is that we lived in the Cleveland area during the filming of the movie. There really was a Higbee’s store! In addition, there are so many memorable lines:

“You’ll shoot your eye out!”

“Frah-JEE-lay”

“The line ends here. It begins there.”

“That [Olds SOB] would freeze up in the middle of the summer in the equator.”

“Mom hadn’t had a hot meal for herself in fifteen years.”

“Triple dog dare”

“Oh, f-u-u-u-d-g-e”

I’ll bet you can remember the scenes just from the lines!

Quentin Schultze, who taught communications for many years at Calvin College, had the unusual experience of inviting Jean Shepherd, who wrote the film’s screenplay, to co-teach a course on storytelling. Along the way, he had the chance to gain an inside glimpse into the storytelling behind the movie. Specifically, he contends that, embedded in the different scenes, are a number of parables, life lessons as it were reflecting Shepherd’s keen insights into human nature.

Schultze begins with Ralphie’s dream to get a Red Ryder “200-shot range model air rifle” to protect his family from Black Bart and the villains of Cleveland Street. He pursues the dream the whole movie, and Schultze believes that lesson of pursuing dreams is a good one, even if we make fools out of ourselves.

Subsequent chapters draw from other scenes, warning us against obsessions like leg lamps or bullies like Scut, who inhabit not only schoolyards but companies, churches, and even government. Ralphie and Randy teach us about caring for family.

Some of the lessons go deeper. The tension with the unseen next door neighbors, the Bumpuses, and their hounds leads to an exploration of who the Bumpuses our in our lives, and perhaps whether we are Bumpus-like. When Randy hides under the sink after Ralphie beats up Scut for fear of “the Old Man,” mom’s response reflects the reality that we all have times of needing refuge. Perhaps the most appreciated was Schultze discussion of heroes, and the everyday sensibility of mom that makes her the hero in the story.

Of course, there are the lighter moments that remind us of the playful. Singing ‘Jingle Bells” in the car, Ralphie’s disquisition on different soaps, and the wax fang episode in which Mrs. Shields adds them to a draw of gags, including still-chattering teeth, all reveal Shepherd’s playful outlook. The fact that we love the trivia from this movie suggests how successful Shepherd was.

There’s still probably time to get and read a copy before watching the movie again. Schultze helps us understand why we love this film. He helped me appreciate the storytelling genius of Jean Shepherd. And if you haven’t seen the movie in a while, it will remind you of all your favorite scenes, and some you may have forgotten.

____________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author for review.

Review: Poverty, By America

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Cover image of "Poverty, By America" by Matthew Desmond

Poverty, By America. Matthew Desmond. Crown (ISBN:9780593239933) 2024.

Summary: An argument that poverty in America is the result of choices made knowingly or not by affluent who benefit as a result.

Most discussions of poverty find the cause of poverty in one of two places. Either the poor are poor because of their own bad choices. Or the poor are poor because of systems and structures stacked against them. Matthew Desmond contends that the data offer a different picture. Poverty exists because the rest of us knowingly or not benefit from it. He shows that the poor who graduate from high school, get full-time jobs, and delay child-bearing until marriage are still poor. And he shows that our structures, at least governmentally, have vastly expanded resources for the poor. Without them, things would be far worse.

First of all, workers are vastly underpaid, particularly in light of corporate balance sheets. The “gig” economy makes this even worse. Government aid in the form of food stamps and the Earned Income Credit (when it is used) prevent their state from being worse. Thje rest of us subsidize low wages unknowingly.

We also force the poor to pay more for housing, mostly on the rental market, excluding them from home ownership, the monthly payments for which may be lower than rising rents. In addition, payday lending operations charge exorbitant interest for short-term loans. Desmond asks, “Who is feeding off this?”

We actually have a welfare system that most benefits those who least need it. Government subsidized retirement benefits, 529 college savings plans, child tax credits, and mortgage deductions and other subsidies benefit those well above the poverty line. But we just don’t think of that as “welfare.”

We use zoning practices to bar affordable housing creating de facto segregation while priding ourselves that it has been outlawed. We create cities that are patchworks of private splendor and public squalor.

Desmond argues that the resources are there to change this situation. If the wealthy paid even the current taxes they owe, substantial funds would be released to help the poor. Desmond points to the extra assistance given during COVID and how it kept people out of poverty as well as released funds into a struggling economy.

Desmond argues that all of us can make different choices, about the wages we pay, the zoning of our neighborhoods. He also argues for restoring power to workers through unions that make collective bargaining rather than a “gig” existence possible. Of course, companies could voluntarily empower their workers through such things as employee ownership options.

What Desmond is asking is what kind of country do we want? He argues that we all pay a cost for poverty. By changing things like zoning, empowering, and properly compensating workers, we create a better country for all of us.

What struck me reading this just after the 2024 elections was that it seems we want a very different country than what Desmond advocates and that even many of the working poor believe their lives will be better in this kind of country. I cannot believe Desmond is oblivious to our political discourse. Yet I think, as compelling as is the case he makes, he talks past the majority of the country, including many of the populations for whom he advocates as well as many who he needs to persuade among the more affluent.

Review: Lieberman’s Day

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Cover image of "Lieberman's Day" by Stuart M. Kaminsky

Lieberman’s Day, Stuart M. Kaminsky. Open Road Media (ISBN: 9781480400207) 2013 (first published in 1994).

Summary: Abe’s nephew is killed and his wife shot in a mugging while a murderer stalks the abused ex-wife Hanrahan is sheltering.

Moments after walking out the door from a dinner party on a cold winter night, David Lieberman and his wife Carol confront two muggers. Things go awry and one mugger shoots David, the other, Carol. David dies, but Carol, critically wounded and pregnant, survives. Abe Lieberman, who hasn’t yet fallen asleep gets the call at 12:02 am. David is Abe’s nephew.

The book chronicles the next twenty-four hours as Abe, and his recovering-alcoholic partner Bill Hanrahan track down the killers. At the same time, Abe must try to comfort his brother and sister-in-law in the loss of their son, drawing on the help of his tight-knit Jewish community, including the Alter Cockers, a group of older men who hang out at his brother’s diner.

Abe relies on his street connections, cutting a deal with El Perro, a drug kingpin, to find the killers. Shooting a pregnant woman is an offense even to them. Meanwhile Hanrahan learns that the violent ex-husband of an abused woman and her son, who he has sheltered, is back in town. Will Hanrahan find him before he finds them?

Both men also struggle with domestic issues. Abe’s daughter’s marriage has broken up but now she struggles as her former husband is seeing another woman. Abe is loyal to his daughter while liking the father of his grandchild. He’s met the woman he’s seeing and likes her as well. Bill’s wife walked out some time ago. Despite a relationship with an Asian woman who is ready for more, he cannot let go.

Meanwhile the plot is building toward double climaxes in Bill’s apartment and Carol’s hospital room. For one of the killers, Carol, while alive, is a threat.

This is a relatively short novel. The fast-paced double plot unfolds in the span of one very long day during a very cold Chicago winter. Amid all this, I enjoyed Lieberman’s street-savvy wisdom combined with the restraint that accompanies others in their grief, never saying the stupid thing.

Review: The New Anabaptists

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Cover image of "The New Anabaptist" by Stuart Murray

The New Anabaptists, Stuart Murray. Herald Press (ISBN: 9781513812984) 2024.

Summary: An effort to describe the practices emerging Anabaptist communities embody with three case studies as examples.

In 2010, Stuart Murray published The Naked Anabaptist, articulating the core convictions that have shaped the Anabaptist movement. In recent years, working with Mennonite church planting efforts, it became evident that a follow-up work was needed to, as it were, “clothe the naked Anabaptist” (this was considered as a title for this book). What Murray offers here is a description of common practices, reflecting Anabaptist heritage, that characterize these emerging communities. In six chapters, he explores twelve practices common to these communities. Following this, three case studies of diverse Anabaptist communities exemplify these qualities.

Murray’s first practice is a commitment to start with Jesus. He offers examples of war, baptism, tithing, oaths, and women in leadership to show how a commitment to start with Jesus works in each of these matters. Rather than treat the Bible as a “flat” book in which all parts have equal weight, he proposes that Anabaptists read all scripture in light of Jesus and treat the gospels as starting points.

Building on this, the other practices include baptism of would-be disciples and communion as a peace meal. Communion is understood as a celebration of Jesus’ radical work of peacemaking and it is a real meal, enjoyed in community. Closely related to this is the Anabaptist practice of hospitality, extending from shared meal to offering refuge. A commitment to a multi-voiced church in which members listen to each other include multi-voiced worship and biblical interpretation, non-hierarchical leadership, and consensual decision-making. I especially appreciate these last two in light of the abuses of leadership power and the stifling of dissent in authoritarian churches. Murray follows this by practices of truthtelling–mutual accountability and truth-telling, extending beyond not needing oaths to trustworthiness in our speech and actions.

The next two practices affirmed are simplicity and sharing. The author argues here against tithing, which he believes to have no New Testament foundation. Rather, the call is to live an uncluttered and generous lifestyle. This is reflected in a commitment to mutual aid and commonality. Finally, he describes practices of Anabaptist witness. This includes ethical evangelism: inviting without inducing, persuading without pressuring, friendship without strings, sensitivity without compromise, and humility that foreswears having all the answers. Anabaptist witness is also a peace witness. This means emphasizing restorative justice. And it means building bridges of understanding between different cultures and faiths.

In the second part of the book, three women offer case studies of emerging communities. Alexandra Ellish describes the Incarnate project of planting Anabaptist communities in the UK. Karen Sethuraman describes one of these communities, SoulSpace Belfast. She also shares the core values of a spinoff, Soulspace Bristol, an embodiment of Murray’s practices. Finally, Juliet Kilpin offers an account of Peaceful Borders. It offers support to a concentration of asylum seekers and refugees in Calais, France. Appendices to the book summarize core convictions and practices, and offer a liturgy for gathering around the table.

In concluding, Murray proposes that what he is doing is to articulate the spirituality and practices of post-Christendom churches. I think he properly diagnoses our moment. Rather than trying to return to the Christendom project, Murray returns to Jesus and practices reflecting a gospel-centered understanding of discipleship.

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Disclosure of Material Conection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.