Brendan: A Novel Book

I read this book at a critical time in my life. I had just become Greek Orthodox after having been an Evangelical and then Lutheran Christian.

This book came at a time when I was having trouble with hagiography (biographical writings about the saints focused on their ministries) and its preference to see only the holiest aspects of a person's life. Perhaps I am too much a product of my culture, but I'm a person who needs to see how a saint has overcome his or her failures to become the saint we now venerate.

Brenden is not hagiography, but it allows me to imagine a man, full of spiritual promise, who cannot see in himself what everybody else assumes of him. Moreover, this is one of the first books I've read that treats on Christ-as-the-poor.

It's a book I hate to recommend, as I am afraid people will not find it as moving as I have. Yet it's also a book I want my closest friends to read.