The brief author bio on the book cover says Wm. Paul Young suffered great loss as a child and young adult. I would like to know his story.

The mom wasn't really developed enough in my opinion, but some of the things that she did, I just couldn't relate with. Had my daughter gone missing, there is no way I would leave my husband and take the other child home to wait for news.

But now for the deeper stuff: I can certainly relate to that need of hanging on to the hate and anger and sadness in order to (honor?) the actual wronged person. He had The Great Sadness that he held onto in order to honor Missy; and he felt guilty if he ever thought about giving some of that up.

Do you think it is easier to hang onto The Great Sadness, than go through the process of Forgiveness?

And what are your thoughts on the revelation (well, it was a revelation for me) that Forgiveness has nothing to do with Trust?

If you know that you don't have to trust that person then is it easier to forgive them?

Well, I finished my copy last night.

I must say that this isn't my preferred genre of reading, as I prefer non-fiction. So bear with me.

I found that I had to remind myself that this is like somebody having a dream. I could see the wisdom in some of the parts but others irritated me, for example the treatment of the 10 Commandments. I realise that this is a theological difference and I kept reminding myself, "Treat it like someone's dream."

The near-omission of the wife seemed strange to me, too, but then, this is Mack's journey and it is his truth. If he needed to keep his wife out of it, so be it, I guess.

But the book did deal with deep themes, such as forgiveness and how it works, as well as our tendency towards "independence" (we would call that "self" in Adventist circles) and the judgment of others. I did like the comments on what makes something "good" or "evil", that we usually think of those things according to what is good for us, or evil to us. It focused on our short-sightedness in that area.

So.... do you mean you wouldn't recommend this book for a book club comprised of mature Adventist couples?

Couples? As opposed to regular Adventist joes like you and me? LOL

It is not a book I would recommend for everyone. I would not recommend it for sale in the ABC, mainly because there is much (even fiction) that I would prefer over it. That plus the fact that our cost was $15.00/copy, when I can buy it on Amazon for $6.00 (which is what I did)

I would recommend it for my husband, though. He likes stories and connects with stories more readily than with history or theological books.

Book club, yes. At a book club one can expect discussions like this. I think that discussions are great.

Evangelistic tool- no.

How mature would one have to be?

Yes, these couples are all "old" -- mostly all age 55 or over. And discussions are what we enjoy. Nobody in this group gets their faith shaken by offbeat stories.

Guess I'll suggest it then. The reviews on Amazon, plus everybody's comments here, make it look like a good one for us to discuss. [We all have to come up with new books this next week, to add to the reading list for 2009.]

Hm-m-m-m. Guess you're trying to find out somebody's age??

There's a good interview with the author, and videos of his speeches about the book, at Theshackbook.com [I think that's the correct site. Anyway there's a website for the book.]

He says he did have a terrible childhood, but he didn't go into specifics -- at least not on the video I watched.

I have begun to realizer that much Truth transcends accuracy, even theological (Theology = man's theory of God) accuracy or correctness.

This book has Truth in the same way Jesus' story of the Rich Man and Lazarus.