Tammy M. (Tamsbooks) reviewed on 5/24/2009 + 39 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 4

This book is a bit difficult to categorize. Though a story of a man coping with unfathomable tragedy in real life, it mostly allegorizes his confrontation with the Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) in The Shack. In many ways, I found this book uncomfortable to read. Each member of this threesome is portrayed in ways that often stray very far from whatever picture I might have of the deity. Between both themselves and with Mack, the main character, they act differently and respond differently than I might ever imagine. Picture the character of God in his/her incarnation as a portly pie-baking woman or wiry man with a silver ponytail kissing the character of Jesus goodbye on the lips
Yet, in many ways that may be the very power of the bookto help break the rigid mold of how I might see the deitys relationship to the world, to me, to tragedy. The story raises many what-ifs What if our paradigms about God are wrong? What if were asking the wrong questions? What if our relationship to God is something completely different both more and less than what we think? What is the place of forgiveness and justice and mercy and love in the midst of unspeakable tragedy? In the midst of evil? What if we were granted the opportunity to glimpse the world and ourselves through the eyes of the Trinity? Would we see and understand much, much differently? These are some of the questions this book approaches.
In the end, though I was often uncomfortable in reading this book, I found it strangely moving and thought-provoking. Im glad I reluctantly experienced this story.

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