The Good Book

Starred review from October 26, 2015
This collection of essays from 24 eminent authors and journalists offers the reader a rich tapestry of reflections on the impact the Bible has had on the writers' lives. Familiar names such as Cokie Roberts, Lydia Davis, Lois Lowry, Colm Tóibín, and Al Sharpton are represented; others will be new to most readers. New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik provides a fine introduction to what he considers the four major modes of engaging a biblical text: aesthetic, moral-metaphorical, anthropological, and antagonist. Little room is given to literalist thinking. Some entries are short and perfunctory, but many delve deep into theological considerations, usually surrounding personal hardship. Andre Aciman writes beautifully about loss and blessings in "Deuterogeniture, or How I Killed My Grandmother." Lowry, in "The Book of Ruth," relates the gut-wrenching yet affirming story of coping with her son's death just a few years after he was married. There is humor in the collection as well, with writers such as Tobias Wolff, A.J. Jacobs, and James Parker providing a discerning eye and a cutting wit to their biblical experiences. Poet and oblate Kathleen Norris provides an outstanding piece in "Desert Stories," which sums the collection up nicely: " is meant to keep reaching out to us and, despite our inattention and indifference and infernal self-absorption, every now and then hit us in the gut."

August 1, 2015

There are some for whom the written word is their life--novelists, essayists, journalists, ministers, and so on--people who have reached into the human condition and held it up for humanity to consider. Blauner (Central Park: An Anthology) has brought together over 30 authors such as Colm Toibin, Cokie Roberts, and Adam Gopnik who write here about the Bible, which is said to be not only scripture for the faithful but great literature in its own right. Essays are arranged according to the canonical order of the passages inspiring them, though this feels more like a suggestion than a rule. Some pieces center on specific stories, others encompass entire books or themes, and in several instances biblical passages simply serve as a touchstone for the essayist's musings. Reading these writings filled with humor, sadness, grief, anger, deep reflection, and fanciful wit, one is struck by the myriad ways of encountering the Bible, its place in our culture, or at least the culture it helped create. VERDICT This collection has something for everyone who appreciates good writing, regardless of what one may think of the Bible as scripture, or for that matter as literature.--James Wetherbee, Wingate Univ. Libs., NC

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