yong : book 1/25 : The Keys of the Kingdom by A. J. Cronin
Around the middle of yesterday afternoon, I was ready to curse my aunt in Korea--albeit lovingly and gratefully--for giving me a lead on a book so poorly suited for powering my way through as part of a quantity-based reading challenge, and something completely inappropriate for light reading over the din of airplane engines and a hundred fellow passengers on the flights I'd be taking this coming weekend. I mean, here I was after two hours of solid reading, and I was only on page 41?! WTF?
Unbeknownst to me, she had taken up a reading challenge of her own, one that makes our 26 in 52 seem like a 5k walk. Before I even mentioned what I was doing, she told me via email that she had taken up her priest's recommendation to read 100 religious books. She mentioned two authors that she'd particularly enjoyed. One was non-fiction, and the other was this one. Sweet, I thought, as hard a time as I have finding good authors to read these days--when I was a kid, I could pick just about anything with an interesting title off the kids' shelves and enjoy it--it's nice having some leads on books to fulfill my 26 (25). The local library had them, so off I went.
Now I ain't a particularly religious fellow. Certainly not in any formal sense. So how much could I possibly expect to relate to an unheard of novel written by an unheard of Scot in 1941 about the life of a Catholic priest? You wouldn't think that'd sound very promising. You wouldn't think so, that is, if you didn't know that I have the coolest aunt in the whole wide world.
The first ninety pages of this book were not dreadfully slow. They were deliciously slow. So rich with emotion and drama, I couldn't help but slow down and savor each morsel of story when what I'd initially been hoping to do was just tip back and chug. Forced to pause between chapters and relish the taste lingering on the tongue rather than immediately move on to the next. Like after a really good movie when you just want to sit in the darkness for a while longer, not because you need to read the credits but because you're not ready to let the spell be broken just yet, need to let it soak in and digest a little while longer.
It's the story of a boy who grows up to be a priest. It's about religion and finding your way and living. It's about being true to yourself and not bowing down to the man. You can relate to it if you're turning 30 and you're starting to wonder if you're living your life alright. Or if you like Christianity. Or if you have issues with Christianity. It's about hope. It's certainly given this non-Christian more hope for Christianity.
It's really quite good.
(Fear not, fellow challengers, the rest of the book does go by a little quicker. I started the book around 10:30a yesterday morning. My reading was interspersed with a long phone call and having to go to school for several hours in the late afternoon. Got back home, made some dinner, and got back to it. I finished the last page at 4:14a. 344 pages.)
--y
Unbeknownst to me, she had taken up a reading challenge of her own, one that makes our 26 in 52 seem like a 5k walk. Before I even mentioned what I was doing, she told me via email that she had taken up her priest's recommendation to read 100 religious books. She mentioned two authors that she'd particularly enjoyed. One was non-fiction, and the other was this one. Sweet, I thought, as hard a time as I have finding good authors to read these days--when I was a kid, I could pick just about anything with an interesting title off the kids' shelves and enjoy it--it's nice having some leads on books to fulfill my 26 (25). The local library had them, so off I went.
Now I ain't a particularly religious fellow. Certainly not in any formal sense. So how much could I possibly expect to relate to an unheard of novel written by an unheard of Scot in 1941 about the life of a Catholic priest? You wouldn't think that'd sound very promising. You wouldn't think so, that is, if you didn't know that I have the coolest aunt in the whole wide world.
The first ninety pages of this book were not dreadfully slow. They were deliciously slow. So rich with emotion and drama, I couldn't help but slow down and savor each morsel of story when what I'd initially been hoping to do was just tip back and chug. Forced to pause between chapters and relish the taste lingering on the tongue rather than immediately move on to the next. Like after a really good movie when you just want to sit in the darkness for a while longer, not because you need to read the credits but because you're not ready to let the spell be broken just yet, need to let it soak in and digest a little while longer.
It's the story of a boy who grows up to be a priest. It's about religion and finding your way and living. It's about being true to yourself and not bowing down to the man. You can relate to it if you're turning 30 and you're starting to wonder if you're living your life alright. Or if you like Christianity. Or if you have issues with Christianity. It's about hope. It's certainly given this non-Christian more hope for Christianity.
It's really quite good.
(Fear not, fellow challengers, the rest of the book does go by a little quicker. I started the book around 10:30a yesterday morning. My reading was interspersed with a long phone call and having to go to school for several hours in the late afternoon. Got back home, made some dinner, and got back to it. I finished the last page at 4:14a. 344 pages.)
--y
posted by yong at 3:57 PM
2 Comments:
* lovingly * Darn you, friends who can afford to wake up at 2pm!
bravo on finishing number one and a nice review. If you're still in the religious frame of mind, you may like "Siddharta" by Hermann Hesse. I read it immediately (ok, ok, by my standards, not yours) after "The Gospel According to the Son" by Norman Mailer.
It's thin, too.
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