I now know why this book has been considered "controversial." There are many things that would offend readers: swear words, strange portrayals of God, and weak writing.
I know also what attracts readers and prompted the celebrity endorsements on the book's jacket: the brutal authenticity of the main character's pain, the truths about man's relationship to God, and . . . well, the controversial reputation of the book.
The basic plot is given on the back of the book: Mack Phillips, a father of five, is devastated by the abduction and murder of his six year old daughter, Missy. In the months that followed her death, he has withdrawn from his relationship with God and is living in a depression he calls The Great Sadness. The book opens with a letter in the mailbox--from God--requesting that Mack meet him in the shack where his daughter was murdered.
From that point, the book can be divided into two halves. The first half reveals the background of Mack Phillips, from his childhood to his marriage and family, leading up to the story of his daughter's abduction from their family camping trip. The second half is Mack's confrontation with God the Father, Jesus, and "Sarayu" (the Spirit). Over a weekend spent in the shack with God, Mack reveals the extent of his anger against God, while God reveals the extent of His love for His Creation.
The second half is the better half, in my opinion. I only made it that far, because I felt obligated to finish the book, having mentioned it on the blog already. Otherwise, I would have given up about three chapters in. Once Mack starts venting his spleen about God allowing evil to happen to his daughter, the book gets better. In fact, the tragedy of Missy's death was so realistic, so painfully true to life, I cried when God described how His Spirit was with her the whole time.
There are some great truths in the conversations that God has with Mack; for example, Jesus tells Mack that humans were made to live in the present, but because of our memories and our imagination, most of us get trapped living in the past or the future. We worry so much about what might happen (what if?) that we stop living in the presence of God in the moment. The writer asserts that sin, in its basest form, is being independent of God, and once we've become independent of Him, we no longer have the ability to evaluate anything,whether good or bad, right or wrong. We have no wisdom or Truth on our own. These may not be new thoughts to the reader; after all, thousands of books on God's character and Man's sinful nature contain these facts. Those books just aren't as entertaining as a novel.
In spite of some intriguing theological paragraphs and some emotional pages, I didn't like the book. The editing was its biggest fault; over-detailed, didactic, and sometimes trite, I wanted to mark it up with a red pen and send it back to the author. Everyone--even brilliant writers--writes garbage at times, and a good editor will prune it and polish it until genius is all that's left.
I personally didn't care for the personification of God in the book. Without giving away the whole plot, I can only say that I understand why the author chose to give God certain human forms and personalities, but it didn't endear me to those characters. At times it was just weird.
If I could sum up my thoughts in one sentence: this book is a work of fiction, not a theological treatise, not The Pilgrim's Progress of our generation(sorry, Eugene Petersen), and it's certainly not the Gospel. It's just a novel, and you have to take it for what it's worth.
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