The Chasm

This contemporary allegory is written as the first-person narrative of a strong male personality. Unlike many authors who attempt to read their own work, Randy Alcorn does the book a service by infusing every line of his parable with vivid feeling, thereby bringing it to life. Although his emphatic sentences become slightly repetitive in cadence, he varies the rapid delivery of the action scenes with slower, softer tones in reflective moments. While there are places where his reading borders on the melodramatic, this suits the genre of the story. Some may think of this work as a millennial revision of the classic PILGRIM'S PROGRESS. M.R. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

December 20, 2010
Alcorn offers a companion to his novel, Edge of Eternity, in this Pilgrim's Progress–style allegory about a man who comes to see his own wasted life through a series of misadventures, battles, and sins. These lead him to a chasm he cannot cross without the help of trusted—should he trust them?—guides, most importantly a Christ figure, the Woodsman, and a tempter, Joshua. The end is not utopia, but a life with unexpected joys and faithful companions. For those who appreciate allegory, Alcorn's fills the bill even as it also includes the realities of contemporary life: "I gazed into the emptiness of my daughter's eyes. I started pushing and shoving. I wanted to kill the men who lusted after her—vile men whose daughters I lusted after." Nothing here tops classic Christian allegories, but noteworthy is a "new creation" view of afterlife: "You will live on a new earth—the old earth made new.... I came not to destroy but to redeem my fallen creation."