I got this book on 16th January 2009. It was a paperback of about 300 pages. I was pretty jobless at that time, and in my usual pace I could have finished that book by 3 days. But I took 10 days to finish this book.
So what does that make you think about it..??
The story is narrated by Willie who is the closest friend of Mackenzie Allen Philips (Mack) the protagonist of the story.
So here's the basic plot as the author gives it and there are no spoilers ahead!!
Mack's youngest daughter Missy has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found on an abandoned shack deep inside a wilderness. Four years later, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God inviting him back to that shack for a weekend.
Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack in a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there is the rest of the story.
Let me confess, the story took sometime to pace up. Maybe that was because I was so used to the style of secular fiction, where the drama and action begins quite naturally in the first few pages itself.
I was so used to a reading about blood,anonymous mails,high tech gadgets, state of the art apartments,kidnaps and genocide in the intro, that when this author speaks about rainfall and winter and wind and snow, for the first few paragraphs. I had to be a little patient.
The plot is divided into different topics, the titles of which seems like a fantasy movie, check that out, "In the Belly of the Beasts", "A Long Time Ago, In a Garden Far,Far Away"...
This book is heavy, very heavy in content. He communicates his thoughts with clarity. Each line is a sermon by itself, and you can hardly read more than 7 pages a day, because your mind would have absorbed so much.
There is action in the place where you least expect it. The dialogs between the characters are really long, but it just sticks so close with the plot that you can hardly get bored reading them.
The author has a great way of driving a very valid point through a simple conversation between the characters. I wish I could quote, but then I could never decide which one to put.
Maybe.. I'll try to list a few;
"Relationships are never about power, and one way to avoid the will to power is to choose to limit oneself - to serve"
"Its not the work, but the purpose that makes it special"
"Jesus didn't hold on to any rights; he willingly became a servant and lives out of his relationship with Papa. He gave up everything, so that by his dependent life he opened a door that would allow you free enough to give up your rights"
"So many believe that it is love that grows, but it is knowing that grows and love simply expands to contain it. Love is just the skin of knowing"
There's still lot more. But I think it would be better if you read it yourself.
Though it is deals with tough stuff, the book has a prominent lighter vein. Certain parts of the story sets you laughing loud.
This book falls in the genre of theological fiction, as some would like to put it. But I think that it is just a feel good book, entertaining and thought provoking, but not something with a very strong biblical base. It does have a few errors.
My verdict.
Don't miss reading it! There's lot of hard work ,creative energy and wisdom in it. !!
But don't build your convictions or theological studies based on this book. Don't give in to non-Christians and new believers. If you are a discerning reader, read it and enjoy it thoroughly.
All human work is filled with errors and misinterpretations, and so is The Shack. However, it is closest to revealing the heart of God. God must be proud!!
Hurry!! get your copy!
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