From: ajw@cbnews.cb.att.com (andrew.j.whitman)
Subject: Re: Madeleine L'Engle question
Organization: AT&T
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 14:55:29 GMT

This has nothing to do with Christian music, but since it evolved or
degenerated here, depending on your perspective, this seems like a likely 
place to keep it going.  If you don't want to read about literature, press 
"n" now.

In article <1992Jul29.185751.25709@pony.Ingres.COM> paiz@Ingres.COM (OUR HOPE IS DEEPER THAN THE PAIN WE OFTEN FEEL) writes:

>I LOVE this thread!!!!!!! I love reading great novels, but since I became a 
>Christian 2 years ago, I haven't been able to find anything other Tolstoy, CS 
>Lewis, Dostoevsky, and John Updike. Unfortunately, now I don't have the time
>to read as often as I would like to, so if anyone would include a short review
>of the books, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!!!

Okay, here are a few brief comments about some of my favorite Christian  
authors.  I wish I had the time the time and the talent to write detailed 
book reviews, but I don't.

Walker Percy - Percy strikes me as a southern John Updike.  All of
his novels are set in and around New Orleans, but he's concerned
with a lot of the same themes as Updike - man alienated from himself
and God, the search for meaning, the emptiness of "the man who
has everything."  I'd recommend "The Moviegoer" for starters, but
really, you can't go wrong with anything he's written - seven novels
and two books of essays.  One of the books of essays, "Lost in the
Cosmos," has an absolutely fabulous rumination on what it might have
been like if John Calvin had appeared on the Phil Donahue show.

Frederick Buechner - I love this guy's writing.  Buechner is a 
Presbyterian minister who splits his time between novels and more
straightforward theological works.  "Godric" is a fictional 
account of a twelfth century saint.  Wonderful writing - sort
of a cross between Middle English and Joycean stream of consciousness.
"The Book of Bebb" - four novels actually - is a funny, bittersweet
tale about a slimy evangelist named Leo Bebb.  His theological
lexicons - "Whistling in the Dark" especially - are wonderfully
written too.

Annie Dillard - Annie Dillard sees the hand of God everywhere, and I
love her for that.  Her most famous book is probably "Pilgrim
at Tinker Creek," wherein she is part naturalist and part mystic.
I wanted to do cartwheels when I first read this book.  Some of
her prose brought tears to my eyes, it's so good.  "Holy the Firm"
struck me the same way.  Slightly less stupendous (which means 
that they're merely wonderful) are "An American Childhood," her
autobiography, "A Writer's Life" (actually quite a fine book about
the writing process) and "Tickets on a Prayer Wheel," a book of
poetry.

Flannery O'Connor - As I said before, I almost named a kid after her,
so that should give you some idea of the esteem I hold for her. She's
probably best known for her short stories ("A Good Man is Hard to Find"
and "The Violent Bear it Away" are the collections you want) - 
funny, violent, full of mystery and grace and rednecks and revelation.
No, I can't really describe them.  But I know that when I read these
stories I felt for the first time that a Christian writer had got
it exactly right.  "Wise Blood," her only novel, is a longer version
of the same ideas.

T.S. Eliot - You're living a deprived life if you've never read "Four
Quartets."  You want a model for the Christian life?  How about this:

The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one discharge from sin and error.
Our only hope - or else despair -
Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre:
To be redeemed from fire by fire.  

Eliot considered this seventy-page poem to be the culmination of his
life's work.  Most people also consider him to be the finest poet to
live this century.  It boggles my mind that that talent culminated in
an incredibly beautifuly meditation on the Christian life.

I could ramble on for hours here, but I'd better stop.  I hope this
is helpful.

>Erwin
>paiz@ingres.com

Andy Whitman
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus, Ohio
att!cblpn!ajw  or
ajw@cblpn.att.com
Organization: Masters student, Information Networking Institute, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA