Leslie
read and liked
Patrick Oden's
review of The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible As Literally As Possible:
"G.K. Chesterton once wrote, "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried." In this book, A.J. Jacobs not only tries Christianity, he tries out the whole Bible, both the Jewish and the Christi...more "
"G.K. Chesterton once wrote, "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried." In this book, A.J. Jacobs not only tries Christianity, he tries out the whole Bible, both the Jewish and the Christi...more "
by A.J. Jacobs
I just finished this and agree with a lot of your reflections. I'm also gonna check out his earlier book. ]]>
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Part of me regrets giving this book only two stars because at times I really enjoyed the glimpses into the life and culture of Papua New Guinea. I learned some things about its history, geography, and tribalism, but Salak never stays put in one village or town long enough to really immerse herself in a distinct tribal culture or establish lasting relationships with people she meets. This is on purpose--she doesn't actually WANT to stay put, but rather wants to visit as many towns and regions of the country as possible before she runs out of money or her health forces a return home.
More often than not Salak only skims the surface of everywhere she goes, stopping for a meal and supplies and a night of sleep but leaving again promptly before she really engages. It's only when her travel plans are delayed that she stays anywhere long enough to have real conversations with the people, such as the Indonesian refugees in Pastor Carl's camp. That segment of the book particularly irritated me because it seemed that the challenge for Salak is to see if she can actually get to the camp alive, not whether she can help or bring attention to the refugees. It struck me as thinly veiled narcissism masquerading as altruism. I guess the reader is supposed to be impressed that she continually puts herself in dangerous situations and narrowly escapes for no clear purpose---I'm not impressed.
More generally, I struggled with this book because there is almost NO part of me that can connect with Salak's choices, her attitude about relationships, and her stubborn, reckless treatment of her own life. She says to readers many times that she cannot figure out why she's on this trip, but she also repeatedly states that she went on the trip to be changed. Changed how? She doesn't know. To me it seems obvious that she thrives on doing what others says she can't do, and callously disregards her health and life in the pursuit of those goals. She's shocked at the end of her trip when she hasn't been transformed. I want to yell at her that she isn't transformed because all she did on the trip is do what she has always done--run away from relationships, stubbornly try to prove herself to some undefined person or entity, talk the talk of looking inward and making thoughtful change and then do what she's always done and make no change. The most aggravating part, perhaps, is a cheesy epilogue that jettisons her earlier comments saying the trip hadn't changed her in the way she wanted. She claims to have been changed in the end, but having spent 400 pages watching her refuse to change her ways AT ALL, it reads very disingenuously.
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You win SO many books!! I haven't won in a month! What's your secret? ]]>
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