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A review by yetilibrary
Our Lady of the Lost and Found: A Novel of Mary, Faith, and Friendship by Diane Schoemperlen
1.0
1. This book combines tales of the Virgin Mary with a layman's take on quantum physics.
2. I have a degree in physics and a degree in theology.
3. I was NOT the target audience for this book.
Parts of Our Lady of the Lost and Found are charming, engaging, and entertaining. However, the book suffers from three significant problems:
- Show, don't tell: Some tales are elegantly told. Others, particularly when the narrator is talking about herself, are phenomenally dull. The narrator keeps saying "I am the victim and the villain of [my own] story," but honestly I'm still not sure what her story IS. Something about bad relationships and living alone?
- Bad theology: It's hard to talk about Mary without talking about Jesus, but Schoemperlen manages it. At the same time, she has an axe to grind with historians who have left Mary "out" of "history," as she herself puts Mary on a pedestal as a universal and unifying figure. It's a very Western view of Mary, made especially odd as Mary is presented almost entirely outside of a Christian context: she's standing by herself, working by herself, almost as a goddess. Also, Schoemperlen treats all alleged apparitions of Mary as being created equal, and never stops to consider whether that's a good idea. (Did she research anything about the Bayside movement, for example?) Marian apparitions can indeed be powerful, and that kind of power can be dangerous--a fact that has apparently escaped the author's notice.
- Bad science: Schoemperlen is VERY enamored of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. She uses it in the book so often that it's obnoxious, and she winds up getting some of the science wrong. She also paints this rosy picture of theologians and scientists working together, now that quantum physics has somehow made room for God, and that is ... not how it works, not what's happening, nope. (Also she thinks somehow quantum concepts validate the idea of Marian apparitions? Oh for the love of sporks, no.) Furthermore, she treads into the "God of the gaps" territory by inserting God into a space she perceives as having been created by quantum mechanics, and as any theologian will tell you, that theology is both weak and unsustainable.
IN CONCLUSION, give this a pass.
2. I have a degree in physics and a degree in theology.
3. I was NOT the target audience for this book.
Parts of Our Lady of the Lost and Found are charming, engaging, and entertaining. However, the book suffers from three significant problems:
- Show, don't tell: Some tales are elegantly told. Others, particularly when the narrator is talking about herself, are phenomenally dull. The narrator keeps saying "I am the victim and the villain of [my own] story," but honestly I'm still not sure what her story IS. Something about bad relationships and living alone?
- Bad theology: It's hard to talk about Mary without talking about Jesus, but Schoemperlen manages it. At the same time, she has an axe to grind with historians who have left Mary "out" of "history," as she herself puts Mary on a pedestal as a universal and unifying figure. It's a very Western view of Mary, made especially odd as Mary is presented almost entirely outside of a Christian context: she's standing by herself, working by herself, almost as a goddess. Also, Schoemperlen treats all alleged apparitions of Mary as being created equal, and never stops to consider whether that's a good idea. (Did she research anything about the Bayside movement, for example?) Marian apparitions can indeed be powerful, and that kind of power can be dangerous--a fact that has apparently escaped the author's notice.
- Bad science: Schoemperlen is VERY enamored of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. She uses it in the book so often that it's obnoxious, and she winds up getting some of the science wrong. She also paints this rosy picture of theologians and scientists working together, now that quantum physics has somehow made room for God, and that is ... not how it works, not what's happening, nope. (Also she thinks somehow quantum concepts validate the idea of Marian apparitions? Oh for the love of sporks, no.) Furthermore, she treads into the "God of the gaps" territory by inserting God into a space she perceives as having been created by quantum mechanics, and as any theologian will tell you, that theology is both weak and unsustainable.
IN CONCLUSION, give this a pass.