Shelf life

Is there such a thing as a ‘Christian’ novel? Well, you’ll find a few examples in the back pages of Christian publishers’ catalogues, either romances or lurid portrayals of Armageddon.

You’ll find the Narnia books in Waterstones, but they are outnumbered a billion to one by stories which either deny the spiritual world completely or escape into fantastic realms of pseudo-spirituality.

I found two novels which have won secular awards, are available in Waterstones and are distinctively Christian: Leif Enger’s Peace Like a River and Rhidian Brook’s The Testimony of Taliesin Jones. These two stories have a lot in common; published in the last decade, both are narrated by 11-year-old boys. And so they fall into the ‘coming of age’ genre of literature along with Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mocking Bird and Cider with Rosie. What makes this age so good for stories is that it is a time of transition, of discovery of, and often disillusionment with, the adult world. The main characters of Peace like a River and The Testimony of Taleisin Jones are just starting to make up their own minds about belief and morality, they face disintegration in the worlds around them, and in different ways both look to God for answers.

Unhinged?

What a shock! In contemporary fiction it is only the unhinged and dangerous who talk about God (see Jed in Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love), but in these books the miraculous is treated as part of everyday life; extraordinary but real. Some Christians might feel that both books’ emphasis on ‘signs and wonders’ is an unfair portrayal of Christianity, and certainly some of the characters portrayed in both novels come close to being mediator figures who convey the power of God to our young protagonists. But this reminds us that these books are works of fiction, neither tracts nor documentaries, and I feel that the inclusion of the supernatural is a brilliant device to unsettle the reader and introduce the theme of God’s power. In neither book is the gospel spelled out; you will not find ‘a prayer to pray’ inside the back cover, but the themes of grace, atonement and the necessity of salvation are there plainly. These books are more ‘realistic’ than any fiction written by an unbeliever, however brilliant, because they contain an awareness of God, not as an abstract ideal, but as a real character.

Having said the books are similar in significant ways, their setting and plots are very different. Peace like a River is a very American book; it cleverly touches on the Western tradition, the road story, and the American dream. A big book with big ideas, I found its plot compelling and the style fresh. Do read it if you can, then lend it to a reading non-Christian friend; I’m sure it will provoke conversations you’ve not had before. The Testimony of Taliesin Jones is, in contrast, much less ambitious in scope, but still very powerful. It enters the mind of a lost Welsh boy as he lives through the separation of his parents and the grimness of school life. I would particularly recommend it to teenagers, but it would be thought-provoking for anyone.

These books are a reclamation of fiction; God has given us creative gifts, literary gifts, which are squandered or idolised in an unbelieving world, but when men or women of faith start to write stories, they become a beautiful way of not just expressing the human condition, as humanists would say, but of exploring man’s relationship with God, broken and restored.

Looking at secular books

Unhinged?

Sarah Allen

Main Articles

Other articles