The Shack by William P. Young

Rating: 2

Considering I took a week-long break in the middle of this book and read two other books in that time period, things don't bode well for Young and The Shack.

My big beef with this book is the writing style. The story is okay and the theological concepts that Young is attempting to explain are put forth in a unique way, but the way he gets through the story and through explaining all those concepts is ridiculous. After I had read the first chapter, it was clear to me that A.) writing is not Young's day job, and B.) he had an agenda in writing this story. B would have been less transparent if A did a better job of covering it up. Instead, Young probably took Creative Writing 101 and used every concept that he learned on every single page because, after all, that's good writing, right? (write? haha). Absolutely no. Every action is a metaphor or a simile, every description is a hyperbolye, every utterance is "chuckled" or "snorted" or "spat" or "whispered" or "sang." It gets to be too much.

I think this is a good story. What I don't like is how the story takes a backburner to Young's ideas. It serves as the means to his end, not an end in itself. In the story, the main character's daughter is kidnapped and brutally murdered. Mack, the father, slides into a depression lasting for a few years, until he receives a note from God to meet with him at the shack--the place where Mack's daughter was murdered. He goes to the shack and meets with the Trinity and discusses with them every theological question that has plagued mankind since The Fall. Therefore, the story becomes the platform for Young to answer questions like "why is there suffering in the world?" "why do bad things happen to good people?" "if God truly loves people, why does he send them to Hell?" "how does the Trinity work?" etc. Of course, Young gives good answers to these questions, I'm not arguing with that. What I dislike is that every chapter seems to be a response to one of those questions. Young answers them by Mack posing them in the beginning of the chapter, and then the rest of the chapter is one long dialogue of God the Father, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit (personified in a large black woman, a Jewish carpenter, and a flighty Asian woman ... lets not get into the cultural stereotypes that are grossly exaggerated in order to appeal to a diverse audience) answering the questions. If Young wanted to write a theological textbook, he should have done so.

The Wikipedia page on Young says that he wrote the book because his wife wanted him "to put down in one place his perspectives on God." If you read The Shack, that's what you get ... and not much else.