I did a rough calculation the other day and worked out that in my reading lifetime I must have worked my way through in excess of 2,000 books. Of those, a handful have changed my life, many have enthralled me, some have rendered me nearly catatonic, while others have entertained, informed and appalled me in equal measure. Only one has reduced me to despair.
The Shack.
I despair, not because this tasteless twaddle has sold millions of copies and made shedloads of money, nor because one Eugene H Peterson has said of it:
“When the imagination of a writer and the passion of a theologian cross-fertilize the result is a novel on the order of The Shack. This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress did for his. It’s that good!”
Everyone is entitled to an opinion, however ludicrous.
I don’t even despair because of the number of (otherwise) perfectly sane and sensible people who suggested it to me as a suitable book for review on Vulpes. I mean – here I am, right?
No, I despair because of the astronomical number of people who say The Shack is the most awesome, faith-enhancing and life-altering book they have ever read.
Don’t take my word for it. Search Amazon. Search Facebook. Search Twitter (only make sure you add the word ‘Young’, because otherwise you’ll have to trawl through hundreds of tweets about Burger Shack – and worse). There are legions of them, all saying what a brilliant book it is.
Admittedly they’re counter-balanced by the uber-conservative religious right, foaming at the mouth and declaring it heresy … but really that’s just plain daft, because the truth is that The Shack simply isn’t worth all the fuss. It’s just risible.
Let me give you the tee-shirt version. (Anyone lacking an iron constitution should leave the room now.)
Our Hero is Mackenzie Allen Phillips. Let’s call him Mack, because that’s what everyone else calls him. Mack’s life has been blighted by The Great Sadness, which is referred to frequently, in italics and with Initial Capitals – just to make quite sure you understand how Great his Sadness is. The Great Sadness (sorry – The Great Sadness) in Mack’s life is that during a trip to Wallowa Lake State Park his daughter Missy was abducted and murdered by a serial weirdo cutely dubbed The Little Ladykiller. The hunt for her comes to a dead end in The Shack, where her bloodstained dress is found.
Three years later, in the dead of winter, Mack receives a note from God inviting him to drop in at The Shack. Only, of course, it’s not signed “Yrs trly, God” it’s signed “Papa” – which is Mack’s wife’s pet name for the Big Man (sweet, or what?).
Anyway, off Mack goes – as one would – and arrives at The Shack only to be plunged straight into what appears to be a particularly naff straight-to-DVD Disney rip-off. The Shack is bathed in perpetual springtime, with little tweeting birdies, blue skies, pretty flowers and one of the most offensive racial stereotypes since the unfortunate James Blaskett cheerily slaved on the plantation in ‘The Song of the South’.
‘Papa’, you see, turns out to be an extremely well-upholstered black woman who likes to be called Elouisia. Or not. Happily, she doesn’t break into a chorus of ‘Zip-a-dee-doo-dah’, but by way of compensation she spends most of her time chuckling a lot, cooking unidentifiable food (just like the Travellers’ Fare on Crewe Station really …), addressing Mack as ‘Honey’ and spouting either blindingly obvious words of wisdom such as ‘Love that is forced is no love at all’ or cod philosophy of the order of “If anything matters, then everything matters”.
Just run that past me again, would you … ?
Her companions are a man of Middle-Eastern appearance, dressed as a labourer and given to bouts of carpentry (can you tell who it is yet?) and a vaguely oriental-looking woman called Sarayu, who’s blurred around the edges on account of being the Holy Ghost, and therefore a generally fuzzy concept.
Mack, not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, says to himself:
“Since there were three of them, maybe this was a Trinity sort of thing.”
Don’t expect him to get any smarter …
I’ll spare you the rest of the grisly details except to say that Mack gets to hang out with Jesus, walk on water, do a bit of landscape gardening with Sarayu, witness a celestial group hug and find his daughter’s rotting corpse in a cave. Then he has a car crash, wakes up, finds his daughter’s body for real and finally works out why God lets bad things happen to good people.
The Shack is written with all the literary ability of a minimally talented 12 year old trying to sound like a grown up and contrives to be both patronizing and half-baked at the same time. Ironically enough, reading its laboured prose feels exactly like floundering through your own personal Slough of Despond.
Still, I can’t say I wasn’t warned. All of the chapters start with inspirational little quotations from such luminaries as Buckminster Fuller (‘God is a verb’) and Kahlil Gibran (‘Sadness is a wall between two gardens’). Chapter One starts with an absolute gem from the late Larry Norman, and is offered with apologies to Robert Frost:
Two roads diverged in the middle of my life,
I heard a wise man say
I took the road less travelled by
And that’s made the difference every night and every day.
Anyone who carries on reading after that frankly deserves everything they get.
As someone who was convent educated and still managed to fail her Religious Knowledge ‘O’ level twice, I’m not remotely qualified to comment on the theology of The Shack, except to say that the word which springs immediately to mind is ‘iffy’.
But is it heresy?
Only if inane drivel can be heretical.
The edition I had the misfortune to read was: Hodder & Stoughton. 2008. ISBN: 978-0-340-97949-5. 255pp.
Oh, dear — I hope there is some consolation in knowing that this review was so funny, you made me spit water onto the screen.
Oh lordy, still laughing!! I am so glad I’ve managed to avoid this one and will continue to do so, no matter how many well-meaning but misguided people insist on telling me I’d love it. How little they know!! God forbid, indeed …
!!
Axxx
Sanchiad – am impressed with the water on the screen moment – do you think it’s biblical?!?
Axxx
Well, I’ve never had a review christened before …
I’ve heard horrendous things about this book, so you are definitely not alone, Moira. So what is the actual point it is making? Is there one after all that? And what is it you think that makes so many people go for this book in such a big way?
It’s hard to say, Rosy. The point it seems to be making – in a very confused, simplistic and new-agey sort of way – is that man’s fate is in his own hands, but that God travels with him … or something.
As to why so many people have taken to it, well – that’s a bit of a mystery. The whole Mack/Trinity relationship is so Disneyfied … which is probably not entirely surprising considering that Young purportedly wrote the book for his offspring.
The Trinity spends an inordinate amount of time chuckling together. It’s seriously toe-curling. Probably people just find it unthreatening?
Perhaps one of the book’s admirers might turn up to explain?
Oh this made me laugh! Although I was gobsmacked that something so awful could be referred to as The Great Sadness. Anyone who has ever been in that situation would probably find that really patronising, insensitive and offensive. I sort of want to read this, just to see it all for myself. But then I’d probably despair at the hours I’d wasted on it.
What a great review! I am almost tempted to read the book, just to see if it could steal the title Worst Book I Ever Finished from The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield. I know that would be a hard act to follow, but this one seems like a serious contender.
This book is venerated in the U.S. and has been recommended to me by good-hearted people, but hearing more details of it reassures me that I’ve been right to avoid it. I wonder if its popularity stems from the concept of God as an ordinary person? Though that has been done before…
One is almost tempted to buy it and read it to see if it really as bad bad you make out…….are you sure you haven’t been paid by the publishers for this very reason??
David
I’ll de-lurk for a minute and share why I think people are so gaga over this incredibly hokey book.
A lot of people in the US have bought the “health and wealth” gospel and don’t know what to do with their theology when crappy things happen to them. They think of them as divine punishments for some mistake they’ve made. And when they can’t figure out what they’ve done wrong their whole belief system falls apart. In this book, underneath all the awful writing there is an explanation of how God views suffering in the lives of his followers. And I think that helps people.
As an aside: a friend pointed out to me the parallels between the Oracle in the Matrix and “Papa” in the Shack: both big black women who cook.
OMG! Er…excuse the bad pun there. That is SO funny. If it’s any consolation to you having had to plough through the book, your review was one of just a few highlights of my day, but definitely up there with the best of them. I think I’ll give this a pass, though if I notice in a book store I might stand there flicking through a few pages so that everyone can stare at the mad woman chuckling away to herself.
I’d never heard of the book before, but the trouble is, I really REALLY want to read it now. Thanks
bibliophilist – thank you for mentioning the Oracle in the Matrix! As I was reading the review I knew I’d seen something similar somewhere but couldn’t remember where. You have saved me wasting endless time wondering about it. Time that I won’t be using to read this book.
Mmm, had this on my reading list but I think I’ll cross it off now.
Late to the party as usual but had to let you know I loved the review and I’m sure I would HATE the book. I’m pleased to say that despite living in the US, no one has suggested I read this book. That might say more about me than the book however . . .
A very good friend gave this book high marks and a recommendation. I’ve been dragging my feet about reading it. Thanks to you, Moira, I can stop prevaricating and just go on about my business, book unread!
Thank you Moira – fabulous demolition derby here. There were four words in this review that would have convinced me, even without your persuasive eloquence, that this book is in some new category of extreme naffness: ‘Missy’, and ‘The Little Ladykiller’. Eeurrrgh. Tonstant Weader frowed up is an inadequate statement!
I picked this up in a bookshop yesterday (yup, your review was so scathing I felt I had to have a flick through it!) and discovered that fans of the book have created The Missy Project. As far as I can tell, it’s to promote the book. So I suppose for all its awfulness, it’s good to think that so many people have been galvanised by it.
Zipedee do dah…..Saw that movie at a drive-in back in the 50′s and it was anachronistic and offensive then, although as a 5 year old, I loved it. But that’s the point – I was 5! Americans just love that schtick, that phoney nostalgia that never existed in the first place! Loved the review Moira and it does kind of make you just want to pick up a copy and read it for yourself but then again, no ……. I’ll stick with your review which I’m sure is infinitely more entertaining… Keep up the insightful discerning eye you have for smelling out the BS we’ve universally been indoctrinated into.
Just started reading your blog, it’s great. I too gave in to temptation because people kept raving about this object. (I won’t dignify it with the word “book”) It is, without doubt, the *worst* thing I have *ever* read *ever*; even worse than the “Celestial Prophecy” (unbelievable but true) which I was also inveigled to read by a sadly misguided friend.
Urrgh!!! Now I’ve started remembering bits of the awful thing again
Finally, someone who thinks this book is as worthless as I do! I bought it because I mistakenly thought it was a crime thriller (I should’ve read the back cover), but I had to abandon it 1 chapter in to Mack’s meeting the “trinity.” Yuck!
Hello, my name is Madison (in case you didn’t already see) I’m 16 years old and this book was a turning point in my life. I know you think the book is a lot of mumbo jumbo with kooky stuff flying through at random intervals, but to me it was so right. My parents got devorced when I was six, and don’t get me wrong it was for the best, my mother became a loving mother in an instant. Anyway, so I’ve had problems with having a true relationship with my dad my whole life, this is my Great Sadness. It doesn’t nessassarily control my life, but it’s always there. I know that my dad will never change, but I can’t let it go, I’m sorry, couldn’t let it go. This book has truely helped me to though. I know what your thinking, what does a stupid teenager know about life, but truely if I didn’t know about it how would I survive? But in order to truly understand the book, you should understand the author.
This is an interview with the guy that wrote the book. Now don’t go into it thinking this all gonna be a bunch of bull. Go into it with an open mind, hear what he has to say, and it’s a long video, but it’s worth it, trust me.
HERE’S THE LINK http://vimeo.com/10847190
I have finally managed, courtesy of my sister Moira, yes the very same, via my mother, gotten round to reading this book.
Whilst I agree that it is not particularly well written and is at times a glutinous read I cannot agree that it is ‘likely to reduce me to despair’, ‘tasteless twaddle’, ‘ludicrous’ or ‘inane drivel’.
It is hard work and there are a lot of passages that seemly do not make any sense no matter how many times you read them. Yes it is that sort of book that makes you reread what you have just read just to make sure that you didn’t misread it in the first place.
It does however have to be put in the context of how and why it was written, the author did not write it to make massive profits nor to have it mass published, he wrote it for his children after having gone through some sort of personal hell.
Do not forget this is not some great theological work it is a story, fiction, fantasy made up.
It is certainly not the sort of book that I would have expected Moira to read out of choice, neither, I imagine, were the six modern romantic novels that she had to read when judging the Romantic Novelist of the Year competition.
Getting it published has created a new publishing company which has now printed some 7,000,000 copies. It does in my opinion have a strange appeal even if I cannot quite understand what.
It should never be forgotten that it has helped many people through rough patches in their lives.
This book is no literary masterpiece, but I do feel than rather than take my sister’s or my word for it, you should read it for yourselves and make up your own minds.
Two final points, which may say much about me, firstly I never ever read the quotations that head up chapters. They are an unnecessary distraction from the main context of the story. Secondly I have read and enjoyed all of Dan Brown’s books including ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and enjoyed them for what they were, stories.
I think I’ll read the book . I’ve enjoyed movies that according to critics were not worth seeing. I like to make my own mind as to: good or bad.
I’am an artist and photographer and was attracted to the book by the cover design. How do I get in touch with Marsia Ghiglieri, Dave Aldrich and Bobby Dawnes dsigners of the cover. Would I have to go through the publisher?
You could try Googling the designers, Lester. If none of them has a website or Facebook page or similar, then the publisher should be able to help you.
I have to jump in here and disagree with David. I actually found this website by googling “the shack” and “awful”. Personally I think the theology is iffy at best but OH. MY. GOSH. the writing is mind numbingly AWFUL. and not in a good way where you can chuckle and then say to a friend, “hey listen to this” and then you both have a good laugh. It is eye rollingly, “good grief am I only halfway through?, I don’t know if I can make it” torture. He tries SO HARD to be clever. The dialogue is painful. I’d go on but I can’t think of any more adjectives for AWFUL.
I read this today, having picked it up in the library last week. I’m shocked that it was ever published, on a purely editorial level. I’m sure there are a great many stories that have started out as just stories for the family or the children that have gone on to be published. And I would say the same about any story born out of that situation – it’s going out into the big world now, edit it. It seemed to me that this book was just taken from Young’s family, printed up and given to the world. And it really could have done with far more editing than it received.
The concept behind the book – a man meeting God face-to-face after the brutal murder of his young daughter is an excellent one – but this book does not do it justice. The writing is poor, in places the so-called “wisdom” made no sense, and I couldn’t bear the overuse of the word “sarcastic.” And I was just really uncomfortable with the whole thing. In my first comment I said I was gobsmacked that anyone, least of all a father, could refer to something as awful as the murder of a young girl as The Great Sadness. Even when reading this book, seeing it in context, it felt horribly glib and flippant. It felt wrong.
I’m always glad that a book can cause such stirring up amongst people, but I’m afraid that this gave a too scrubbed and shiny view of the world for my taste. The situation Mack and his family find themselves in is an horrific one, yet not even in the heat of the moment does his wife ask “Why did you not go straight back to Missy?” Nothing that nasty – that human – ever happens. When it comes to the murder of a child, I think The Lovely Bones did a much better job.
In a way I’m sorry that this book didn’t touch me in the way it has touched millions of other people. I would suggest that people read it for themselves though.
Guess you didn’t like the book. Is THE SHACK great literature? No. Is it great theology? No. Paul Young never claimed to write a theological book. It’s fiction after all. One thing that can be said about it is that a fairly large number of those who have bought the book aren’t believers, and it has made them take a look at the love and mercy of God in the midst of mind-numbing loss. (I know that many unbelievers have read THE SHACK as my wife is a circulation supervisor in a local library, and many people who have checked out the book have commented to her that they don’t attend church, but this book has renewed their interest in God.) Not many Christian books have had the effect.
On page 126, second paragraph, I thought for moment I was standing in the presents of “Morpheus.”
“It is the human paradigm,” added Papa,…”It is like water to fish, so prevalent that it goes unseen and unquestioned. It is the matrix’ a diabolical scheme in which you are hopelessly trapped even while completely unaware of its existence.”
I read this to my wife who read the book 6 months ago and she doubted my sincerity until I showed it to here in print!
Papa and the Oracle are really similar as well!
I liked the book a lot–I find it interesting among those of us that seek a greater spiritual understanding of God how fulfilling and meaningful a story like the Shack can be away from the dogma or matrix of religion. . .