The Shack

Every once in a while a parable comes along that causes the scales to fall from one's eyes and enables him to see ancient truths in a fresh new light. THE SHACK is just such a story. While I learned "about" the Trinity during my years in the seminary, William Paul Young makes the Three Persons in One God come alive by attributing clothing, mannerisms, and words to Him. The loving inter-relationship of the Three Persons of the Trinity to Each Other--and by extension--to Mack (and all humanity) is beatifully crafted and well-executed. Young breathes life and vitality into theological truths. That he does this against the backprop of the terrible tragedy--Mack's daughter being molested and killed by a sexual predator--makes God's goodness and love stand out all the more by contrast. Compared to theological tomes, THE SHACK reads like a fresh breeze blowing through a musty old cabin.

I expected 'The Shack' to be something similar to Mitch Albom's 'The Five People You Meet in Heaven', only with God actually being in the story.
Instead, I got a few chapters of a fairly interesting crime drama(considering the author is not, as far as I know, a 'professonal'), before it all deteriorated into a mix of evangelical proseltyzing and 'New Age' philosophy.
I think Young simply tried too hard to turn a simple 'spiritual fiction' novella into some sort of 'epic', meant to enlighten readers of all faiths...or no faiths.
Young's nontraditional views of God, instead of seeming revolutionary, or thought-provoking, just seemed to be too 'cute'. He lacks Albom's gift with words, the ability to make a profound point in a simple way. Much of Young's prose was paradoxically simplistic, easy to read, yet bogged down by complicated explanations of spiritual issues, delivered in a cloying, 'down home' tone. (Maybe pandering to the Oprah Book Club demographic?)
One of the more confusing sides of the story is Young's attempt to paint 'free will and independence' as the down side of mankind's failure to 'accept Jesus'. Even Young doesn't seem clear about what point he's trying to make here.
This book just boils down to another evangelical text, trying to 'save' or 'convert' people, but not offering anything really fresh or memorable.
Without giving away the ending...anyone familiar with the old joke that says that bad writers write themselves out of a corner by having the main character 'get hit by a bus', will see that idea in a whole new light!

This is heresy. Another feel good book that is leading people away from the Truth.

I started The Shack and was pulled into the story before the end of the second chapter.

Unexpectedly, the book touched me on many levels.

As a father, it touched me and brought me to tears when Mac loses his baby daughter. One can only try to imagine the amount of hurt, and guilt, a parent feels in that situation.

On another level, it touched me spiritually. The way that Mac was encouraged to have a closer, more personal relationship with God (something I and many others wish to attain) was helpful to me in my journey.

In the most important part to me, God says " Mack, for you to forgive this man is for you to release him to me and allow me to redeem him."

How many times have I refused to forgive someone?

I understand now that The Shack is now a Besteller on Amazon and some may begin to call it a "fad".

I call it a good, solid spiritual read.

I read this book for my book club (who unfortunately selected it to see what all the fuss was about). What a complete waste of my time and money. I have never written a review of a book on Amazon, but thought I would give it a shot in hopes of saving someone else from the mistake of purchasing this. First of all, the writing style is adolescent in tone. After reading the word sarcastic for at least the tenth time, I wanted to purchase a thesaurus to send to the author. Then there is the portrayal of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit as some sort of chuckling, thigh slapping, weird, three is company sitcom. There is also a striking resemblance of God to the Oracle in the Matrix movies. (Potential Spoiler alert!) The time-warp-was-it-just-a-dream-ending was exactly the juvenile twist I expected and predicted from early on. To sum it up, my eyes hurt from rolling them so often through reading this book. To add insult to injury, the self promoting buy-more-of-our-books Missy Project is exactly what I have come to expect from organized religion. It scares me that people find some type of meaning in this drivel.
The only part of this book that rang true to me was the quote "That is, we are so persuaded of the rightness of our judgement as to invalidate evidence that does not confirm us in it. Nothing that deserves to be called truth could ever be arrived at by such means." I think the sentence could read, "We are so persuaded of the rightness of Christianity as to invalidate evidence (child's murder) that does not confirm us in it". This book is not a novel; it is propaganda (and not very convincing at that). And Truth will not be arrived at by such means.