William Paul
Young writes a modest tale about a man and his struggle with tragedy and life
in general in The Shack. It was
published in 2008 by Windblown Media.
Mackenzie
Phillips considers himself a normal man.
Married with children, he has a good life but definitely still struggles
with past hurts that have haunted him for years. His struggles continue when his youngest
daughter, Missy, is abducted during a family vacation. Frantically searching for his daughter, the
evidence the authorities find leads them to believe she may have been brutally
murdered in an abandoned shack in the Oregon wilderness. After Missy’s death, Mack turns inward,
hiding his emotions and fears from everyone.
He becomes angry at God for letting this happen to his family. Four years later Mack receives an odd note,
apparently from God, inviting him back to that horrible shack for a
weekend. Mack struggles with the desire
to confront God and the fear that letting out all those emotions will open
wounds he’d rather keep hidden. His
curious nature leads him back to the shack and what he finds there will change
his life forever.
Whew. This book is…powerful. I can see why there is so much controversy
surrounding this book. From all the
other reviews I’ve read, people either love this book or they hate it. There’s hardly any in-between when it comes
to The Shack. I think I am one
of the few that fell somewhere in the middle regarding this book. I didn’t absolutely love it, but I didn’t
hate it either. And while I didn’t
absolutely love it, I can admit that this book is powerful and it raises a lot
of questions into subjects that most people would rather just ignore.
This is a
Christian fiction book, and everyone should know that before proceeding. William Paul Young uses this book to try and
break down some of the stereotypes that people have of God and The Trinity with
his own ideas about what he thinks they are like. This isn’t a book to try and sway the reader
into Young’s thinking, at least it shouldn’t be. These are his ideas just like any other
fiction novel out there and I think if the deeply devotional readers out there
that did not enjoy this book can get past that, they might actually enjoy the
story. There’s talk of this book being
heretical and inaccurate. I’m not sure
why, Mr. Young is writing a fictional story about a man and his battle with
tragedy that is threatening to engulf his life.
His meeting with God changes his perspective, as I think it would do for
anyone that met God. I guess I just
didn’t have a problem with some of Young’s ideas about the Trinity, even if
they weren’t my own because I was able to read this book knowing it’s fiction
and in no way should replace Scripture.
I really
enjoyed that the majority of this book deals with the enormity of God’s love,
and the inadequacy of humans to really understand how to fully love without the
presence of God. That part I really
liked. I really enjoyed how Young
portrayed just how amazing God’s love is.
Mack has the stereotype that God is mean and an “eye for an eye” God,
and Young definitely tries to alleviate that stereotype. It was definitely enlightening to read a
different perspective about God’s capacity to love and his grace to forgive.
There are
definite flaws in this book. I didn’t
think it was very well written, for one.
Mr. Young is not a writer and it’s very evident in this book. I didn’t realize until after reading this
that he never intended to publish this book, but it was more a story for his
children. So he does get a little pass
after learning that. The dialogue seems
forced and unrealistic at times, especially the interactions between God, Jesus
and The Holy Spirit. And while I thought
Mack was very well developed, the dialogue wasn’t. There are poignant scenes that are
definitely emotional and tug at the heart strings, but even those powerful and
heartfelt illustrations can’t hide that fact that a lot of the scenes were
somewhat cheesy and forced.
Overall
though, I liked this book. It was
interesting to read a different viewpoint on the Trinity, even if a lot of the
thoughts I didn’t agree with. Still, I
would recommend this book solely because of the way Young describes God’s love
and ability to forgive. And for that
alone I have to give this book a B grade, I’ve never read any other Christian
fiction that was so enlightening about God’s capacity to love. I don’t think The Shack is for
everyone, but for those with the ability to discern between theology and
fiction, I think this could be a very interesting book to experience.
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