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A review by lory_enterenchanted
Search by Michelle Huneven
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.0
I can't understand reviews that characterize this book as funny and lighthearted. It's the story of a pastor search gone tragically wrong -- from the assembly of the ill-chosen, ill-assorted committee members onward, a grim and depressing tale.
I don't know much about UU, but from this book, the denomination seems to have about as much spirituality as a Miss America contest. It comes across as superficial, worldly, and obsessed with appearances rather than inner transformation. Members and pastors prate about love without ever acting in any way loving or unselfish, their high-minded ethics of inclusion seemingly an empty tokenism. Along with the outer forms of Christianity, which may indeed be in need of renewal they seem to have rejected the inner essence of the Christian path, and to have no idea of the true meaning of love and sacrifice.
The emphasis on food was weird. If the group had been more interested in selecting a viable candidate and less in what they were eating -- or all the alcohol they were drinking! -- the search might have had a better outcome. Food can serve a purpose, to bring people together, to be the focus of communal work and offering ... but here it just felt self-indulgent on the part of the author, or her alter ego, who writes all her books "with recipes" no matter what they are ostensibly about. I don't care what the characters ate at all their restaurant meals and potlucks, and that space could have been better spent on fleshing out their cardboard personalities.
I don't know much about UU, but from this book, the denomination seems to have about as much spirituality as a Miss America contest. It comes across as superficial, worldly, and obsessed with appearances rather than inner transformation. Members and pastors prate about love without ever acting in any way loving or unselfish, their high-minded ethics of inclusion seemingly an empty tokenism. Along with the outer forms of Christianity, which may indeed be in need of renewal they seem to have rejected the inner essence of the Christian path, and to have no idea of the true meaning of love and sacrifice.
The emphasis on food was weird. If the group had been more interested in selecting a viable candidate and less in what they were eating -- or all the alcohol they were drinking! -- the search might have had a better outcome. Food can serve a purpose, to bring people together, to be the focus of communal work and offering ... but here it just felt self-indulgent on the part of the author, or her alter ego, who writes all her books "with recipes" no matter what they are ostensibly about. I don't care what the characters ate at all their restaurant meals and potlucks, and that space could have been better spent on fleshing out their cardboard personalities.