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Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Tracy Kidder is a genius. MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS is a journalistic portrait of Paul Farmer, the founder of Partners in Health and an extraordinary advocate for the Haitian poor. I admire how Kidder includes just enough of his own sense of intrigue--what makes this guy tick?--and discomfort--how come Farmer makes him feel inadequate?--to hook the reader in what feels like a personal story but in fact is largely biography. This book is a good example of literary journalism.

Farmer is strongly influenced by liberation theology, but he's brought these principles to bear on the field of medicine, especially the treatment of TB. I found many aspects of his work personally challenging. He remains a doctor dedicated to seeing individual patients, even if this entails 10-hour treks through the central plateau of Haiti, as he grows in prominence and eventually comes to influence national health care systems around the globe. Kidder implies that this groundedness in doctoring individuals is the key to his success. The more he advocates for quality care for individuals, the more Farmer gets into political trouble. Once again, radical love even on a small scale rattles those in power. His story has challenged me to keep my feet firmly planted in the dirty particulars of working with ordinary people while at the same time bringing the insights of this work out to influence a larger sphere. We have a mandate to correct economic and social injustices, Farmer says. How can I take up this mantel as a writer? I've a lot to think about.



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I have utmost regard for Mary Johnson. The theology she stakes her life on--a divine presence who invites humans into fullness--isn't so remarkable in isolation, but when set against the theology of Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity, it becomes radically rebellious. Mother Teresa's a modern-day saint; we hold her in such high esteem, we find it difficult to imagine how very human she was. I admire the courage Mary had to muster in order to claim a God of unfolding love over the God of rules within Mother Teresa's order.

AN UNQUENCHABLE THIRST traces Mary's twenty years in the order in terrific (sometimes excruciating) detail. I disliked myself at times while reading this book; I was turning pages to get the dirt on Mother Teresa more than to follow Mary's journey. Perhaps this wasn't my fault. I frequently wished Mary would abandon the close narration of events for a more reflective stance. I wanted to know what she thinks and feels about these events NOW. For example, there's one scene where she confronts her superior for hitting children in their care that occurs not far from scenes of the nuns using the "discipline," meaning flagellating themselves and cinching chains around their arms. I wanted a narrator to draw connections between the two forms of physical punishment and the theology implicit in both. Without this meaning-making, the book reads like a thriller.

Nonetheless, I'm glad to have read it. Few contemporary authors portray the spiritual life with such honesty and accuracy.

A Reader's Manifesto: An Attack on the Growing Pretentiousness in American Literary Prose by B.R. Myers

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Of course I enjoy reading a well-written screed against contemporary fiction; I like anyone who agrees with me that the emperor has no clothes. Myers focuses all of his criticism on style, however; "these folks can't write!" he exclaims over and over. The examples he gives (from Proulx, Guterson, DeLillo, and Cormac McCarthy) are in fact terrible. It's refreshing to have this named in print. All the same, I wish he would have spent equal time offering examples (from past or contemporary writers) of model sentences. I'd appreciate some effort to uplift the state of literature rather than just bad-mouth it.



What I'm waiting for is a screed that names contemporary fiction's inability to address the human condition in ways that illuminate it or uplift it. And offers corrective suggestions.



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A Confession by Leo Tolstoy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I'm so excited to discover this little window into Tolstoy's faith! How have I missed it? I love his commonsensical approach to faith: Start from bare experience; pay attention to what works--that is, what gives meaning to life--and from there draw conclusions about the nature of God and the place of the church. Faith is a response to the questions of life (64), not a social construct or a proscribed creed. I wish more writers laid bare their inner struggles with such clarity.

"But I do want to understand in order that I might be brought to the inevitably incomprehensible; I want all that is incomprehensible to be such not because the demands of the intellect are not sound (they are sound, and apart from them I understand nothing) but because I perceive the limits of the intellect. I want to understand, so that any instance of the incomprehensible occurs as a necessity of reason and not as an obligation to believe."
--Tolstoy, Confession, 91




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Joy! ANNA has been the ideal summer reading. I've had months of complete immersion in Tolstoy's Moscow and St. Petersburg--an experience I almost never get with contemporary fiction. Which leads me to puzzle: What makes this book work?



Tolstoy follows very few of the "rules" of modern fiction. He takes us on prolonged digressions into rural politics and farming theory and social etiquette. He makes no effort to get every detail to bear weight, that is, keep the plot moving forward. And yet I'm willing to linger with him, perhaps because he's evoking an entire world and I'm both interested in that world and interested in his take on it.



I'm also flabbergasted--and delighted--by how very Christian this book is. Levin has become my favorite character of all time. I love his bumbling, practical-minded, logical perspective, his unwillingness to accept easy or acceptable answers, and his drive to find meaning behind his life. Tolstoy's Christianity is by no means in keeping with church doctrine, but it is very much in keeping with natural order and a deep need for human morals. I find it interesting that Levin's conversion becomes the book's climax, and stands in sharp contrast to Anna's pitiful end.



What heartens me most about ANNA KARENINA is seeing quite clearly that Tolstoy was working out a philosophy through the life of his characters--which is exactly what I like to do when I write. This may not be very hip or publishable these days. But it's certainly worthwhile.



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In the Beginning...Creativity by Gordon D. Kaufman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Kaufman posits God as the unfolding creative force behind creation and human creativity--a seemingly great idea. But I found his theology hugely disappointing, and only toward the end of the book, when he shares the evolution of his theological thinking, did I realize why. Despite devoting his life to theology, Kaufman has never had a personal experience of divinity (he writes off Christian mystical tradition with a single sentence), and instead sees "God" as a worthy symbol for steering human behavior. As such, we can shape that symbol to encourage a more just and loving relationship to one another and to the planet. So he replaces the "God" symbol with the fact of unfolding creativity.



What I find baffling about theologians like Kaufman is that they seem completely ignorant of the creative process--the human experience of engaging in a creative act, and how very relational this process can be. At the end of this book, I felt like Flannery O'Connor--if it's just a metaphor, to hell with it. Human beings can actively engage with a creative, loving, just source that is not simply a symbol but a lived reality. Once again, here's an example of a smart person dismissing the power of imagination. Just because humans have created "God" as an imaginative symbol does not mean that God does not exist. We co-create in relationship with this mystery.



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A remarkable book for its structure and social commentary. Made up entirely of short anecdotes, THE BOOK OF EMBRACES is unified by voice (curmudgeonly, observant, funny) and by a sweeping critique of colonial culture, pop culture, dictatorships, and market-based economies. A thoughtful but quick read.

Meredith Sue Willis has a playful but realistic understanding of revision. I appreciate her holistic approach; revision happens throughout the entire writing process and throughout our lives. She believes (as do I) that a first grader revising makes decisions very similar to an adult, and so the lessons of revision apply regardless of age. This book is chock-full of exercises for the practical-minded.

LEFT TO TELL is an important witness to the horrors of the Rwandan holocaust--a story not present enough in American awareness. While I found the theology and prose simplistic, I appreciated Ilibagiza's resilient and lively voice. Her story is definitely a testimony to the power of faith to sustain us through horrific times.

A gorgeous memoir. Rarely do you see friendship taken seriously as a subject worthy of literary exploration. This book is also a great example of how you don't need a dramatic experience to make a good story. Caldwell begins by spilling the beans: "It's an old, old story: I had a friend and we shared everything, and then she died and so we shared that, too." We don't turn the pages to find out what happened; we turn the pages to experience fully what happened, and to learn what Caldwell makes of it. This memoir is also a beautiful example of the power of the reflective voice to carry a narrative. "Maybe this is the point: to embrace the core sadness of life without toppling headlong into it, or assuming it will define your days. The real trick is to let life, with all its ordinary missteps and regrets, be consistently more mysterious and alluring than its end."