Customer Reviews: Read 39 more reviews...
 Would be worth 5 stars if it was 50 pages long January 8, 2009
Four years ago, Mack's little daughter was brutally murdered in a crumbling old shack. Since then, he's been consumed by The Great Sadness, which has distanced him from his wife and other children. Now Mack receives a cryptic note inviting him to the scene of the crime. Little does he know he'll come to terms with his anger and grief - and the Holy Trinity.
This unusual book is part riveting drama and part Christian philosophy. The parts about Mack's terrible childhood and the loss of his daughter are very well-written - edge-of-your-seat scary and grab-the-tissues sad. But they're only the bookends around the main part of the book which is an explanation of the nature of God and his relationship with Man, as explained by some very folksy people who happen to be the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The problem I had is that the ethereal conversations between Mack and God were so drawn-out, tedious, and repetitive that I grew impatient for them to end and for the fictional story to resume. The same platitudes are repeated ad nauseum for 150 pages, told in (to me) an annoyingly homespun manner. It would have been much better and more effective if this section of the story had been massively reduced, because the endless droning could really be reduced to a simple, "God is Love."
The fiction part of the story about Mack's coming to terms with his past is excellent - taut and tear-jerkingly tragic; but the endless cutesy theology was tiresome for me. I do think this would make a good movie, though, and hope to see it one day. (3.5 stars)
 Read this Book! January 8, 2009
Read this book! It is intense,funny,sad, loving, and on and on. It will strike every emotion you have and change your life. It is wonderful!
Wow! This book had me thinking for days... January 2, 2009
This book drew out every emotion I had. I cried, I laughed, I was heartbroken, I was uplifted...the whole shebang. I personally loved it. I know there are those who say it is not "doctrinally sound" but I don't believe it's meant to be a book of doctrine. It's so much more than that. I found it staggering and I mulled it for days after I read it. I need to re-read it now. I gave it to a friend (and didn't tell her anything about it or it's affect on me) and lo and behold, she was as affected as I was. I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone.
A must-read book! January 2, 2009
This was the most amazing book! It's as though I finally know God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, and I like them! And I want to be with them, as my friends. I will be recommending this book to everyone!
Sharing the Love Allegorically January 2, 2009
The easy part of this story is reading it at face value; the tough part comes in trying to make sense of the many lessons it wants to teach us about our relationship with God. Without delving too much into the plot which, essentially, involves the supernatural experiences of a young father 'wrestling' with God for answers as to why his daughter was murdered, this book challenged me to reassess how I view the spiritual realm. Perhaps, in my rush to be an orthodox Christian, with a one-sided view of belonging to God, I have overlooked the important truth that it works both ways. God, as embodied in the Trinity, also seeks to dwell intimately with humankind, his creatures, if we would only allow it. The author, William Young, describes how Mack, the protagonist, in a dream similar to John Bunyan's in "Pilgrim's Progress", comes to a liberating realization that only in a relationship with God could he make sense of his young daughter's death and, finally, bring closure to it. It is God's infinite power to see beyond the present circumstances that makes Him a critical person in this tale. Young has taken some theological risks in this book by giving his readers both a transitory but creative glance into the wonders of eternity. If C. S. Lewis were alive today, he might be very pleased with the results.
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