Has anyone read The Shack by William Young? (page 2)

Outaservice

In the Christian circles I've been around the book is not highly respected and certainly not based on any reality. Just a 'novel'.

Outaservice

awildflower

Thanks for all the comments. I'm ready for a good novel after taking three computer classes in the last two months!

Terry

I work in a bookstore in the Religion and Philosophy sections.

In the Christian Fiction section we have, right now, about six copies of THE SHACK.

It was written by an office manager/night clerk who lives in Canada.

William Young wrote it for his kids and not for general publication. However, friends urged him to send it in to Christian publishers.

He did and the book was rejected for being New Agey, creepy and non-Christian.

So he self-published and started a three hundred dollar website to promote the book.

It became a word-of-mouth runaway best-seller.

I tried reading it and got in about two chapters.

Not for me. But, clearly others loved it enough.

This is one of those books that gets a word-of-mouth. People give their friends and family a copy and tell them "You simply must read this."

It is the sort of book, in my opinion, that is read by people who want black and white descriptions of things and it is touchy feely in that respect.

But, it struck me as weird.

Here is a Wiki synopsis:

Plot

The novel is set in the American Northwest. The main character is Mackenzie Philips, a father of five, called "Mack" by his family and friends.

Four years prior to the main events of the story, Mack takes his three youngest children on a camping trip to Multnomah Falls and Wallowa Lake near Joseph, Oregon. Two of his children are playing in a canoe when it flips and almost drowns Mack's son. Mack is able to save his son by leaving his youngest daughter Missy alone at their campsite. After Mack returns, he sees that Missy is missing. The police are called, and the family discovers that Missy has been abducted and murdered by a serial killer known as the "Little Ladykiller." The police find an abandoned shack in the woods where Missy was taken, but her body is never found. Mack's life sinks into what he calls "The Great Sadness."

At the beginning of the book, Mack receives a note in his mailbox from "Papa," saying that he would like to meet with Mack on that coming weekend at the shack. Mack is puzzled by the note - he has no relationship with his abusive father after Mack leaves home at age 13. He suspects that the note may be from God, whom his wife Nan refers to as "Papa."

Mack's family leaves to visit relatives and he goes alone to the shack, unsure of what he will see there. He arrives and finds nothing, but as he is leaving, the shack and its surroundings are supernaturally transformed into a lush and inviting scene. He enters the shack and encounters manifestations of the three persons of the Trinity. God the Father takes the form of an African American woman who calls herself Papa, Jesus Christ is a Middle-Eastern carpenter, and the Holy Spirit physically manifests itself as an Asian woman named Sarayu.

The bulk of the book narrates Mack's conversations with Papa, Jesus, and Sarayu as he comes to terms with Missy's death and his relationships with the three of them. Mack also has various experiences with each of them. Mack walks across a lake with Jesus, sees an image of his father in heaven with Sarayu, and has a conversation with Sophia, the personification of God's wisdom. At the end of his visit, Mack goes on a hike with Papa, who shows him where Missy's body was left in a cave.

After spending the weekend at the shack, Mack leaves and is so preoccupied with his thoughts that he is nearly killed in an automobile accident. After his recovery, he realizes that he did not in fact spend the weekend at the shack, but that his accident occurred on the same day that he arrived at the shack. He also leads the police to the cave which Papa revealed, and they find Missy's body still lying there. With the help of forensic evidence discovered at the scene, the Little Ladykiller is arrested and put on trial.

awildflower

Thanks Terry, interesting. Very cool to work in a bookstore!

goldensky

Dear Awildflower, I'm so happy you've brought this subject up, I was about to start a thread on this myself. You see, I received the book last week (I'm keeping the guys at Amazon VERY busy, you can tell) and I was so eager to read it! The cover looked magical to me, the critiques were exceptionally good, I was SO intrigued after reading them to find out what staggering answer to the question of God's allowance of suffering the author might have come up with. So about three days ago I started reading full of excitement. The first 80 pages are so interesting I couldn't put the book down. My anticipation grew more and more... until this Mack meets God in the shack and everything becomes GROTESQUE. The way they describe God's appearance (I won't disclose it in case you read it), the fact that there are three people in the shack (God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit -with all my respect, the Trinity doesn't make any sense to me, at least at this point-), and, above all, the explanations I've read so far, are making me really angry. How disappointing! Mind you, I may have totally missed the point or things may take a 180º turn from now on (although I'm already on page 142). I should be through the book in a couple of days, and I was waiting till then to ask you guys if anybody had had the same reaction or it was just me. Please let me know your opinion if you decide to read it. I still hold the hope something may shake me in the hundred pages left. That would be neat.

By the way, I began "Change your thoughts, change your life" yesterday, at a slow pace as you said, and it's quite pleasant and relaxing... We'll see.

goldensky

Thank you, Terry, for spoiling the end for me by disclosing it! Ha, ha, ha! Never mind, I'm kidding really, I could have stopped reading the plot if I'd had the willpower, so it was my fault. Since I know the end of the story now, I can definitely say I find it a real disappointment. Wasn't I naïve expecting an answer to an impossible question?

awildflower

Thank you Goldensky for your review. I'll definitely be reading it this weekend, just to at least see what all the hypes about! I do like what Terry said about how the author even came about writing this and getting the book out there. That's really cool!

awildflower

Update: I'm almost done with the book. Very, very interesting. It's about one man's conversation with God about why bad things happen, what is the deal with mankind, what is the deal with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. God address all of that and talks about religion and organized structures and evil etc.........It's entirely not what you would think. Although he's talking to God, God gives very "enlightened" answers to all these things. I think it's a must read myself and encourage everyone to read it.

I'll be done today and post more. Just beware you'll be angry and sad and at peace all at different parts of this book. It's really, really good. And you don't have to believe in "God" to get it or enjoy it!

Quandry

I read it quite some time ago, as a lady at work lent it to me.

I didn't realize at first that it was fiction. Then, after reading that while the dad was saving his drowning son, his daughter was abducted, I became suspicious. One poor man could have all this happen? As I read on, I could clearly see that it was one person's "take" on God, Jesus, etc.

I also didn't care for the way God was depicted. However, it was evidently so popular that church groups were having "book studies" using it.

awildflower

If church groups were having studies in it, then they were seriously missing the point in this book IMHO.

Has anyone read The Shack by William Young?

Plot

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