Reviews for Life goes on

The average rating for Life goes on based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-06-28 00:00:00 Jon Alve This book was funny! Not as funny as The Christmas Scrapbook, perhaps, but vastly amusing nonetheless. This book is a series of amusing anecdotes set throughout the year, detailing the experiences of Sam, minister of a Quaker church in Harmony, Indiana. I enjoy books that make me laugh out loud, and this one did. I think its biggest flaw, maybe its only flaw, was taking itself too seriously. Most novels have some central conflict that builds up until the climax, but this book, a series of funny vignettes, didn't necessarily need one. I didn't mind the central conflict that was introduced, but I felt that it was done in a very careless, hurried manner, as though it were only added in a later draft. About 80% of the way through, a schism threatens to divide the church, and many people want Sam fired. By this point in the story, however, it is too late for the book to be anything but a comedy, and the hasty resolution to the conflict seems far-fetched. The people pushing for him to lost his job suddenly, inexplicably, stop. The temporary lull is long enough for one character to draw everyone's attention elsewhere, and suddenly people are making up and inviting each other over for luncheon. Still, improbabilities aside, this book is quite funny, a feel-good comedy about churchgoers. What makes them wonderful? What makes them terrible? What makes them so dreadfully annoying? And on top of it all, Gulley raises some profound questions about the role of theology in religious practice and the validity (and danger) of fundamentalism. Overall, a compelling book.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-08-29 00:00:00 Ben Mitchell Read approx. 1/2 of this book over the last couple of days, and I will Probably finish it because it's there. I read the first in the series 18 months ago, and searching for a quick read, picked this one at random from the stack without bothering to determine it was #5. It doesn't matter: they're all a series of loosely connected anecdotes, and I am sure that you could pick up any one and probably open in the middle to boot without feeling like you'd missed much. That said, like the first book, "Life" evokes many feelings of nostalgia, or more properly anti-nostalgia, for the church I grew up in and miss less every year. Unlike the first book, this time it's mostly making me mad. Mad that the so-called Christians have turned their church into a combination social club and political debate society. Mad that they are so filled with discord, back-biting, and pointless arguments and discussion. Mad that their pastor, while bemoaning the situation, seems to do little to actually Affect it. Mad that every single one of them seems to be Completely Missing The Point of the Gospel, of the Good News of Christ, and the purpose of the church as a bringer of life and light into a world of darkness and death. I am also a little frustrated that several of the characters - most notably Dale - have become 2-dimensional parodies. One, or at most two note instruments who, lacking anything new to say, just keep saying the old things more loudly and stupidly. Yes, we get it, there are men of a certain age out there who watch TBN obsessively, give too much credence (and money) to quasi-religious political organizations, and are still fighting the cold war. Also, they are terrible husbands. OK. Fine. Kick them out of the church - or at least anything resembling leadership therein - and get on with your job. The fault is Yours, dear pastor, for giving into their bullying and letting them get entrenched in the first place. Perhaps the real problem is that I just finished reading The Fisherman's Lady - or rather, the unabridged original called merely "Malcolm" - for the second time in three months, and cannot help contrasting the petty, shallow characters and arguments in "Life goes on" with the deep wisdom and goodness shining through many of characters in MacDonald's classic. That book makes me want to be a better Christian. "Life" makes me want to stop calling myself a Quaker once and for all. I think I'll put the Harmony novels in the give-away box and pick up something from Jan Karon's "Mitford" series the next time I want a nice, comforting, cozy book to read. At least in Mitford their Pastor seems to get it!