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rebecca_oneil 's review for:
Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
by Donald Miller
Book Riot Read Harder Challenge 2016: Read a book about religion (fiction or non-fiction). So...TL;DR: this was not the book for me.
I think a lot of my difficulty with it had to do with disliking the audiobook narrator, whose delivery came off as snide, disaffected, and self-important. I think much of this tone came from the text itself, which also bothered me. But I'd be willing to give the print version a chance to see if it puts me off as strongly. I have had strong vocal aversions before. And I've thought almost as long as the 7 hours of audio about how to review this book, which got high marks from some of my most respected colleagues.
I appreciated that Donald Miller struggled with many of the same things as me regarding Christianity (conditional love, sin nature, war metaphors, political alignment, believing with one's words but not with one's actions, living a shallow life). His discussion of his issues was comforting, because I, like him, acknowledge a frequent bias against Christianity as being intolerant and oppressive in some of its forms, and look to see its better nature, its core of kindness. That is why I chose this book.
But it was a long haul for me. I'm thinking of the jazz metaphor and a blurb on the back that said Don's writing was like "a good improv solo." This is apropos to me because I don't like jazz. As with jazz, I found the book meandering, unresolved, and full of unnecessary bits. (Like the parts where he includes other pieces of his own writing, such as the Buddhist girlfriend whom he leaves weeping and "rubbing her Buddha's belly"? Is that...supposed to represent what Buddhists do? Or what he fantasizes a breakup with him would be like? The whole book had me saying "what you don't know about women is a LOT." And he admits his fear of intimacy, but then includes a chunk of a play he's writing about a man talking to his sleeping wife, which was almost intolerably long and seemed to have no place in the narrative.)
And though the subtitle says it is "non-religious," this is a Christian book about Christianity. The message is consistent. There are many stories of people coming to Jesus...of Don speaking to people of his conviction and them "getting tears in their eyes." His close friend who is an atheist converts, to his delight. Don expresses amazement for pages that the "hippies" and "fruit-nuts" he meets can be kind and good without following God. Most of the struggles that I felt I shared with Don were resolved for him (but not for me) with another issue I have with Christianity: reverse-engineering every struggle to have been God's will -- especially once it all turns out OK. The book concludes with an invitation and hope that the reader, too, is a follower of Jesus.
These are a few of my thoughts, many of which are tied closely into my own personal, evolving feelings about religion. I feel like this book would be incredibly comforting to someone who already follows the faith. For me, these aspects only made it harder for me to identify with the book.
I think a lot of my difficulty with it had to do with disliking the audiobook narrator, whose delivery came off as snide, disaffected, and self-important. I think much of this tone came from the text itself, which also bothered me. But I'd be willing to give the print version a chance to see if it puts me off as strongly. I have had strong vocal aversions before. And I've thought almost as long as the 7 hours of audio about how to review this book, which got high marks from some of my most respected colleagues.
I appreciated that Donald Miller struggled with many of the same things as me regarding Christianity (conditional love, sin nature, war metaphors, political alignment, believing with one's words but not with one's actions, living a shallow life). His discussion of his issues was comforting, because I, like him, acknowledge a frequent bias against Christianity as being intolerant and oppressive in some of its forms, and look to see its better nature, its core of kindness. That is why I chose this book.
But it was a long haul for me. I'm thinking of the jazz metaphor and a blurb on the back that said Don's writing was like "a good improv solo." This is apropos to me because I don't like jazz. As with jazz, I found the book meandering, unresolved, and full of unnecessary bits. (Like the parts where he includes other pieces of his own writing, such as the Buddhist girlfriend whom he leaves weeping and "rubbing her Buddha's belly"? Is that...supposed to represent what Buddhists do? Or what he fantasizes a breakup with him would be like? The whole book had me saying "what you don't know about women is a LOT." And he admits his fear of intimacy, but then includes a chunk of a play he's writing about a man talking to his sleeping wife, which was almost intolerably long and seemed to have no place in the narrative.)
And though the subtitle says it is "non-religious," this is a Christian book about Christianity. The message is consistent. There are many stories of people coming to Jesus...of Don speaking to people of his conviction and them "getting tears in their eyes." His close friend who is an atheist converts, to his delight. Don expresses amazement for pages that the "hippies" and "fruit-nuts" he meets can be kind and good without following God. Most of the struggles that I felt I shared with Don were resolved for him (but not for me) with another issue I have with Christianity: reverse-engineering every struggle to have been God's will -- especially once it all turns out OK. The book concludes with an invitation and hope that the reader, too, is a follower of Jesus.
These are a few of my thoughts, many of which are tied closely into my own personal, evolving feelings about religion. I feel like this book would be incredibly comforting to someone who already follows the faith. For me, these aspects only made it harder for me to identify with the book.