Reviews for Banishing God in Albania: The Prison Memoirs of Giacomo Gardin, S.J.

The average rating for Banishing God in Albania: The Prison Memoirs of Giacomo Gardin, S.J. based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-07-20 00:00:00 Lloyd Braswell This sequel to what has become my favorite book ever written, A Severe Mercy, is not at all the same. If you're looking for another tearjerking love story, look elsewhere. What you will find instead is an honest and sincere autobiographical account of a man who continued to live even after the climax of his story was told. Far from a quiet, happy ending, Vanauken relays how he was swept up into the angry anti-war and feminist movements of the 60's, turned back to Christ and penned his love story in the 70's, and finally his slow move into the Catholic Church in the 80's. Throughout these stories are sprinkled many of his uncut essays and articles published during these time periods that give a glimpse into his thoughts as they were at the time providing the raw picture of a man in-process. The effect of reading was, for me, to remember that life is never the fairy tale we want it to be, and that God is not constrained to fairy tales.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-12-22 00:00:00 Rory Macpherson I would give this book 4.5 stars if I had the option. The first half of the book is moderately interesting but tends to self promotion of Vanauken’s lesser known works that haven’t the depth of A Severe Mercy and this book. I did find many parallels between his experience of the racial tensions and anti war movements in the 60’s and what is going on today in the United States which was quite interesting. The second half of the book was absolutely superb. His chapter on feminism is a must read. The last two chapters in the book I found incredible. Crossing the English Channel is such a powerful case for Catholicism. If you read this book, and I think everyone should, you should first read A Severe Mercy (also one of my favourite books) and then slug through the first half of this book. The second half is worth it.