Book Review: The Shack

The Shack is one of those self-published phenomenons that slowly builds sales through word of mouth--and the virtual word--in the manner of Same Kind of Different As Me. The Shack has its own website that promotes the book, including forums for readers. It is also available on amazon and other online retailers.

I wouldn't have read or known about this book but for the recommendation from my brother. Here's how that went: he is facing serious back surgery later this week and so we had an email exchange about books he could read during his lengthy recovery. I recommended Same Kind of Different As Me, but warned him about the very painful descriptions of the death from cancer of the author's wife in the book. You see, my brother and his wife lost their precious daughter to cancer nine years ago. She was five when she was diagnosed and went through a lengthy, and ultimately futile, series of painful treatments, dying at age nine. I wanted him to know that was in the book in case he preferred to avoid reading about it.

However, he responded by saying: " All the really good books usually make me cry. That's okay with me. It usually just means that it has a profound message and I like those books. Sometimes tears are the only way to express how much something means to us--words are inadequate--and that is okay." Then he urged me to read The Shack, which revolves around a father's grief over the murder of his five year old daughter by a serial killer. My brother said it was the best book he had ever read. He sat up all night reading it in one sitting and then couldn't go to sleep because he kept thinking about it.

Of course I had to read it. I noticed that Eugene Peterson praised it as "the Pilgrim's Progress of our time." And Bunyan's allegory is a good comparison for The Shack, which is also an theological allegory. The grieving father, Mack, meets God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the very shack where his daughter was murdered. He is full of anger, guilt and grief and his relationship with God has been fractured. The appearance of each person of the Trinity is not what Mack expects, but then God tells him "this weekend in not about reinforcing religious stereotypes."

Each person of the Trinity engages in theological discussions with Mack about the nature of God, free will, love, redemption, God's plan for mankind, the role of relationships, etc. Although sometimes I found the writing stilted, or too precious, still the vision presented is powerful, imaginative, appealing and almost understandable. As I've admitted before, I'm not an expert theologian so I will leave examination of the theology of the book to others.

I wouldn't say it is the best book I ever read, but it is intriguing and spiritually uplifting. But then, I don't have the personal experience my brother did which caused him to resonate so powerfully with the story. I will say that I have a renewed feeling of hope and purpose after finishing it. It is a fascinating book and like my brother, I'll be thinking about Mack's discussions with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit for quite some time.