A rather large Christian literary uproar was caused by the release of Wm. Paul Young‘s The Shack in 2007. Why? Because Paul Young enjoys stretching our feeble Christian minds with unusual descriptions of the Trinity and forcing us to think in uncomfortable directions. But, The Shack is sheer brilliance and Young writes the way I hope to write someday. My brilliant mother-in-law gave me The Shack (I refer to her as the “Christian Book-of-the-Month Club.”) and I was not sure I had time to read it, but again, the title intrigued me and I undertook it anyway.
I am a stoic Scot by ancestry and so, bursting into tears without explanation is not okay in my family. But, I found myself doing exactly that as I read The Shack. Was that a terribly bad thing? Nope. It was something I apparently needed. Paul Young knows how to reach our deepest hurts and reassure us that God knows those hurts and plans on healing them completely. Not only does he do this with his writing, but also with his speaking. I was privileged to be in the audience to hear Paul Young speak about The Shack and he is as warm in person as he is in his writing.
Of course, his sophomore effort, Cross Roads, has been much anticipated. And fortunately, a good friend lent me Cross Roads so I wouldn’t have to budget it into the household account. Let me say, at the outset, that any writer’s sophomore effort is most likely not going to be as surprising and “brilliant” as an inaugural book. Why? Because we are already used to having our minds “bent” in that writer’s particular style. This is also true of Cross Roads.
However, any time Paul Young wants to mess with my mind is fine with me. And yes, he messes with your mind once again. In Cross Roads we meet another man who is unwilling to deal with his past, but in a completely different way than in The Shack. About the time you think you cannot be surprised by Young‘s writing, he surprises yet again. And I love how Young weaves another famous writer into his storytelling in such a way that only the well-read reader will discern. It’s like an “inside joke” that only a few of us understand.
Oh, how I wish George Lucas or Steven Spielberg would undertake to make movies of his books. Of course, they would probably make a mockery of the poignancy of such writing, but it would be sure to capture the rich “textures” of Young‘s writing and the incredible imagination of his “world.”
But, until such time, I guess I will have to wait for Young‘s next book.
Or do I?
Paul Young is the featured keynote speaker at the Faith and Culture Writers Conference this coming April in Portland, OR. Guess who has her flight booked to listen to him…for the second time? Yep…that would me. I will be the knee-knocking chick in the audience who is wondering what she’s doing at a writer’s conference. Wanna join me? 🙂
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