The Shack by William Paul Young

I picked this book up without really knowing what it was about, other than that it was really popular for a while and is relatively religious.  Little did I know it was The Lovely Bones Christ-ified.

The official descrip:

Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant "The Shack" wrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book!

Part of me really really loved this book and part of me really despised it. I'm not religious at all, and so I found all the God stuff a bit annoying at first. Then as I got further in I realized Young wasn't necessarily preaching that we should all go to church or pick up a Bible...in fact, the book even cites those as derogatory practices that can, at times, take away from the relationship that is really at the heart of this story.

Here's the basic message, as I understood it: God is love.  God does not control us, God does not punish us, God does not require anything of us, really.  He's forgiven us for all our faults and will embrace us eagerly, if we choose to let Him.  "Evil", "right", "wrong", "punishment"...these are all things that humans have created in response to pain and not understanding that "evil" comes from man and not God, and that when acts of "evil" occur,  it hurts Him too.  He's like light; light is real and can be seen, but darkness (evil) is only created in the absence of light, when we step out of His light.  In the end, though, God has a purpose and everything works out for His Great Love and glory.

Am I saying this is all true and I believe it myself?  No.  This is what Young believes.  But am I saying I totally, 100%, vehemently disagree?  No!  This is a book review; my own beliefs and practices are irrelevant.

Based on pure storytelling ability of the author and a fair number of hearbreakingly beautiful prosaic descriptions and scenes, I would reccommend this book to just about anyone.  The Christian philosophical musings and Trinity messages detract from my overall liking of this -fiction- novel, especially since those are what seem to stand out in my mind more and more the longer I stew, but I have to admit that it did make me think.  Think about those uncomfortable things that you don't really like to think about because they're too big for you to ever truly grasp so you usually just ignore them completely.  Those things. 

And here's a couple passages that particularly struck me.  I'm not going to offer commentary because I think, like the majority of the rest of this book, that they have to be understood individually and personally.  They might mean something different to you than they did to me and whatever you glean from these snippets or the whole book, if you read it, will be your own unique interpretation and understanding.  Whatever you get out of this book will be especially tailored to fit you.

"People are tenacious when it comes to the treasure of their imaginary independence.  They hoard and hold their sickness with a firm grip.  They find their identity and worth in their brokenness and guard it with every ounce of strength they have.  No wonder grace has such little attraction."


"Enforcing rules, especially in more subtle expressions like responsibility and expectation, is a vain attempt to create certainty out of uncertainty.  And contrary to what you might think, I have a great fondness for uncertainty.  Rules cannot bring freedom; they have only the power to accuse."

Happy reading!