I reviewed all five of these, three in the Wichita Eagle and two in The Mennonite. I'll excerpt from those reviews to give some flavor of why I liked them. Most of the books I review for the Eagle are fiction, while the ones I review for The Mennonite are usually from Christian publishers. The five are in no particular order, though I've listed the two novels first.
The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht (Random House, 2011, $25)
This is a remarkable debut. Obreht, named in 2010 to The New Yorker’s list of the 20 best writers under 40, was actually the youngest of that group at age 25. Her novel combines a deftness of storytelling and a skill for language with an uncanny wisdom about the ways people deal with suffering and death. In this absorbing novel, Obreht has drawn an array of colorful yet believable characters and explored the ways, as she told an interviewer, “people create and embellish stories to cope with moments of great strife.” She does not name the Balkan country in the novel, but her fiction says more about the effects of war on her homeland than most histories or newspaper accounts.
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011, $18)
Johnson is one of our finest writers. His characters are usually not the high and mighty but the down-and-out, sometimes marginalized individuals who struggle to communicate their deeper longings or their encounters with the transcendent. A poet, he infuses his narratives with images that sparkle and even jolt but never overwhelm the reader. His newest work is a novella that covers a large swath of American history in a succinct narrative of set scenes. The book follows the life of one Robert Grainier, who is born in 1886, as near as he can figure, and dies in 1963, spending all his life in the American Northwest.
Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life (Jossey-Bass, 2011, $19.95)
Rohr calls for the need for “(1) a strong tolerance for ambiguity, (2) an ability to allow, forgive and contain a certain degree of anxiety and (3) a willingness to not know and not even need to know.” These characteristics fit what Rohr labels “the second half of life.” This does not have to do with chronological age but spiritual maturity. In the first half, “we are usually on bended knee before laws or angrily reacting against them—both immature responses.” Our churches, he writes, often keep people in the first half and don’t call for real transformation. What he calls “falling” is a letting go, a surrender to the mercy of God. This is difficult because “the human ego prefers anything … to falling or changing or dying.” But those who fall experience God’s “great outpouring.”
Justice in Love by Nicholas Wolterstorff (Eerdmans, 2011, $35)
This book addresses an important topic for Christians. While many oppose justice and love, Wolterstorff, an eminent Christian philosopher, shows that these two concepts, when understood properly, are perfectly compatible. “Doing justice is an example of love,” he writes. Wolterstorff is thorough in his argument yet uses easy-to-follow examples to illustrate his points. This is not an easy read, but it is worth the effort.
Higher Gossip: Essays and Criticism by John Updike (Knopf, 2011, $40, 501 pages)
John Updike, who died in January 2009, is one of the 20th century’s greatest American writers. He was prolific and multitalented, authoring more than 60 books, including novels, short stories, poems and criticism. He is also, I confess, one of my favorite writers. This posthumous book of essays and criticism was put together and edited by Christopher Carduff at the request of Martha Updike, the author’s wife and literary executor. Yet, writes Carduff in his Foreword, “the notion of such a volume … was on Updike’s mind during the weeks before his death.” Higher Gossip is not for everyone. But for those who enjoy the writing of John Updike or who enjoy good writing period, this is a treasure that can be dipped into at leisure. But be warned, once you enter its pages, it may be difficult to tear yourself away.
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