Book Review: The Shack

Today is Friday. On Wednesday afternoon, I purchased a book called The Shack by William P. Young. I can't remember where I originally heard about the book, but I vaguely remember hearing that it was really good. Anyway, I noticed it was on sale and the quote on the front said "This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress did for his. It's that good!" I am a fan of Pilgrim's Progress, so I bought it.

I finished it last night. 248 pages in two days. That might be a record for me. (And yes, I still managed to get all my other "stuff" done during those two days. In fact, yesterday I did one of those power cooking days and made six meals to freeze. I might be tempted to think I was a super-woman of some sort if I didn't know myself better -ha!)

Before you jump to the conclusion that I read the book that fast because I loved it and couldn't put it down, let me clear something up: I did not love the book. I mostly only kept reading that first day because I hated it. The story begins with my absolute worst imaginable fear - a parent distracted helping to save a couple of his children only to find out that his youngest child is kidnapped. The story unfolds in the worst way when the evidence of her murder is found, but no body and no leads on who the wicked kidnapper/murderer is. So I pretty much felt numb even before the real story ever began. Ugh.

I basically decided to keep reading for the sole purpose of giving the book the chance to redeem itself. The main story takes place four years after the tragedy when the father revisits the location of his daughter's death and "encounters" God. Actually, he encounters all three of the Trinity - God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Getting over the initial shock of God revealing himself to this man as a heavy-set black woman was a fun challenge. Jesus was pretty much the Jesus that most of us would imagine he would be. And the way the author describes the Holy Spirit as a small Asian woman who he could never really fully make out since she seemed to constantly be moving and mostly transparent was pretty cool. All three exuded love and wisdom toward him.

The book is almost entirely made up of conversations between this grieving father and the Trinity. Plenty of theology is present. Some of it poignant and good. Some of it not so good. All of it presented in an interesting way. I am a picture person, so the visual pictures created in the words of this book resonated well with me. However, there were plenty of what my dad likes to call "rat droppings" in the book. You know, little pellets of stinky untruths sprinkled in and around beautiful landscapes.

For example, while the author does quote from scripture frequently, his incorrect view of the authority and sufficiency of the Bible reveals itself a number of times. His view of the Trinity and submission/hierarchy is not exactly what I believe either. However, I feel secure enough in my own understanding of these parts of theology that I was able to ignore some of the author's theological inaccuracies for the sake of the story itself.

Overall, my opinion of the book is this: It was a super easy read with an interesting, all-be-it predictable story. I didn't let myself get bogged down in the few theological inaccuracies I found with it. I found myself enjoying it (not the inaccuracies, the story). I don't believe I would recommend it to anyone who is not versed in the fundamentals of Christianity because it could encourage some of the false teachings of the emergent church. Overall, the book had more good than bad theology, I think. However, it was so NOT a Pilgrim's Progress. I don't know where that came from. Not even close to Pilgrim's Progress. Not even remotely on the same level. No way. But fun to read, none the less.

If anyone is interested in reading The Shack, I would gladly do some sort of trade for another book you might recommend to me. Anyone interested in a trade?