General Question

oasis's avatar

Anyone out there read a book called The Shack?

Asked by oasis (980points) January 31st, 2009

What was your take?

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

9 Answers

oasis's avatar

OK,has anyone not read a book called The Shack and what wasn’t your take?

laureth's avatar

I read it. An interesting story. I found it unsatisfactory that They never gave the main character what he wanted, just dazzled him with Their presence until he went away. Apparently, “Because I said so” is a good enough reason for the thing that happened. It wasn’t enough to convince me to become a Theist, though.

oasis's avatar

Thankyou for taking the time to answer,i too read the book and feel it lost it’s way at half way though it had a feel good factor running through and i can understand the selling power.

laureth's avatar

Oh, totally. If you already believe in Them, it would have been a lot more compelling, I think.

oasis's avatar

I read it to give me some insight into why people are religious,maybe to show me a door in or something.
I was pulled in by the use of the little girl and the disaster surrounding her family,after that i feel it lost it’s way a little.

aidje's avatar

I thought that the first 80 pages were entirely too long. I thought that the latter portion didn’t really accomplish what it claimed to accomplish. I think that the entire thing was poorly written, and there were a couple of oddities that were used entirely too much (e.g., They start laughing and Mack laughs along but doesn’t know why, or Mack suddenly realizing how much he loves Jesus [how many times can that happen within 15 pages?]). I think that it relied a lot on raw emotional manipulation, while managing to avoid actually being compelling.

I like this review and this review.

I don’t think that the book is nearly as ground-breaking or revolutionary as it seems to think that it is. I think that it is both overpraised and overcriticized (for theological reasons, that is). I don’t think it deserves nearly as much attention as it gets from its lovers or from its haters. I don’t think that it’s hard to see why no one wanted to publish the book.

(I’m a Christian, by the way, if that has any bearing on anything.)

miasmom's avatar

I read it also and as a Christian felt like it got some major parts of theology wrong. The story was ok and did get me hooked on finishing the book, but it isn’t a book I would tell my friends to read, especially not my non-believer friends.

cdwccrn's avatar

Some of my friends raved about the book. I tried to read it but could not get into it.

lollipop's avatar

I read the book and thought it was a very good book myself. And would recommend others to read it. I have other friends in fact that have read it and liked the book. I am a Christian also.

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