Unlikely Disciple

I read, Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose, which was assigned to me by Book. As we have all said about our book challenge, the best part is horizon-expansion - and this book certainly probed new territory for me.

I struggled with this book, but not in a bad way. I struggled because this book will hold up a mirror to anyone on either side of the God divide.

Roose spent a semester at Liberty University, Jerry Falwell's evangelical university. He came away with a better understanding of what makes evangelicals tick. So, why was this a struggle? Two reasons. 1) It touches a blind-spot issue for me; 2) the author's undercover status.

I've always viewed Falwell and his ilk as being on the "wrong end of the fire hose" politically. In Jerry's case, this is a literal description because he fought the Civil Rights Act and was openly in favor of segregation. Although he repented later, its hard to know (and harder to convince myself) that the repentance was true rather than politically helpful.

Thus, I have always viewed his gay-bashing as particularly anger-inducing. It "smacks of the fire hose" from a person who held that political position before. Although I have debated the gay issue with close friends without animosity, I admit that it's a topic that requires regulation. And therein lies my struggle with this book.

I admit that I have a bit of a blind spot on this issue. And, many of the characters in this book have no problem saying what I would consider to be slurs on a daily basis. The author excuses it to a point by explaining the culture in which they live and were raised. I struggled with that justification. By the midpoint of this book I was very agitated and at times outright angry.

But, by the end, the whole picture came into better focus. I enjoyed the book overall and feel it had an impact. Any anger induced was a part of the greater experience. That experience led to a humanizing of a segment of our nation I don't get to see often. And, although humanizing does not equal agreement, it accomplished reflection on my part.

I also struggled with Roose's ruse. He had to mislead his classmates if this book was going to succeed. I get that. I understand that. But, every journalistic bone in my body is worn out waving red flags about it.

By the end, I understood why he had to go undercover, but that didn't mean it didn't feel awkward. Roose struggled with that ethical issue as well. Surprisingly, none of the students seemed bothered when he finally told them.

An impactful book leads to contemplation, and I don't think I'm done contemplating this one. I wont' be done for awhile.

Louis L'Amour

Louis L'Amour is one of the great western novelists. Not all people know this apparently. L'Amour wrote some 89 novels, as well as quite a few short stories. Now granted, a number of his novels are not terribly long. He specifically wrote to the paperback format, so few of his stories run more than 200 pages. His personal history is said to have informed many of the basics of the reoccurring themes. For instance, he spent a short time as an amateur boxer, and most of the stories involve the protagonist knowing something about the real science of boxing and ultimately triumphing against the array of evil characters in the story.

Now, I'm not shy in admitting that I love westerns. Lord knows I've dragged Dave and other friends to westerns over the year. L'Amour has a number of his books & stories turned into movies. I have read the various L'Amour books off and on for years. I have my own collection of them now, which was jump started when my grandfather passed on some of his books to me. I love that I can walk into pretty much any used book store and grab a whole handful of L'Amour books for less than $1 a piece. I re-discovered my enjoyment of them while in grad school. Sometimes I needed something to relax after weeks of heavy reading and writing.

I sort of find that these books are a good, random feel-good almost mindless joy for me. Some people like comic books, or as Dave apparently has found out, harlequin romances. I like westerns.

Hellhound on His Trail

Joe speaks very highly of this book. It was my assignment from him for the year. As I have said, non-fiction is not my preferred type of book per se, but as Dave said the other day, part of the point of this exercise is to expand our horizons a bit.

Hellhound is actually pretty well written. It took me a bit of time to get into the rhythm of the book, more out of a style difference than any fault of the writer. In fact, Hampdon Sides specifically divulges that he wrote the book in a style that "employs the novelist's methods without his license". This is a style he discovered from the Memphis historian Shelby Foote, and it serves the material well.

When I checked the book out of the library, I noticed it was larger than I expected, so I did a quick flip through it, and I was pretty startled to find a veritable volume of footnotes/references at the back. At first, this made me wonder how much like a doctoral thesis this might end up being. As I mentioned above though, I came to appreciate the style of the work once I got in the rhythm of it.

Sides goes to great detail to make a historically accurate synopsis of the weeks leading up to MLK's assassination; the mood of King and his closest advisers. He also does a good job laying out how James Earl Ray operated and behaved. Its sort of spooky to think that even someone with such little formal education and little training was able to work his way into a position to make an attempt, much less successfully kill King.

I was also struck by the basic attitude towards imprisonment that Ray had, and how clever he obviously was at making the repeated escapes (albeit with the likely assistance of his brothers).

Overall, a good overview of the whole experience, and I thought it was a good window into those pivotal months the America into which I was born, and has shaped my life.

Chick-Lit?

We call what we're doing here a "book challenge", and the second word is as much a part of it as the first.  James, Joe and yours truly could all stay in our safe, warm comfort zones and basically read the same 25 books every year, but if you did that, you'd never make it to 25, you'd quit of boredom before you got close. It's why we give each other assignments, take suggestions from people, join book clubs.  If variety is the spice of life, sometimes you have to take the bite that you know is going to set fire in your throat and bring tears to your eyes.

Ayn Rand hates you, and she's not shy about it. (January books in review)

Scene: It's summer, 2002. A man stands in line at the local library, between a mother and child ahead, and an older couple behind.  He holds a few books, waiting to check out.

Old Man: What've you got there?

Me: Huh?  Oh, uh, some books on Islam...

Old Man: (confused) What?!!??!

Old Lady: What's the matter?

Old Man: He's trying to read about the arabs! (pronounces it eye-rabs)