Phil who blogs at Brandywine Books and at Collected Miscellany sent me an email asking my opinion about Christian fiction in general and Levi’s Will by Dale Cramer in particular. Phil said I should post my reply, and since it’s the only coherent snippet of writing I’ve been able to do in the last couple of days, I will.

Yes, it’s (Levi’s Will) definitely Christian fiction. I don’t think a secular publisher would have published it, but I don’t know that much about the publishing world. I could be mistaken.

I do think Levi’s Will “breaks the mold” to some extent. First of all, it’s a male-centered book without being sci-fi or thriller. The female characters in the book are not well-developed and are not the focus of the book. It’s also Christ-centered without being preachy. It has different kinds of Christians with different understandings of their faith, including a rather legalistic father, a friend who doesn’t attend church but knows and lives the gospel nevertheless, and the main character who lives a life of lies and comes to see how destructive that kind of life can be.

I’ve read three good books so far this year that I would consider “Christian fiction” in the sense that they focus on characters who are struggling to live out some sort of orthodox Christian faith in a fallen world. One was Levi’s WIll; the other two were Peace Like a River by Leif Enger and Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. The publication of the the latter two by secular mainstream publishers (and the Pulitzer Prize for Gilead) indicates to me that those publishers are open to Christian themes and characters in well-written books.

Oh, I forgot Acts of Faith by Philip Caputo. I don’t think a Christian publisher or imprint would have anything to do with that book, but it’s definitely exploring Christian ideals and how those ideals become compromised.

I did read a couple of other fiction books published by Christian publishers this year, and I do know exactly what the complaint is. The plots are thin and kind of boring, and the Christian characters are too good to be true–and too preachy to be very likeable. Or some of the novels are poor imitations of books and genres that were/are popular in the secular world. See this article about “Christian chick-lit.” Although I haven’t read the author featured in the article, I doubt if I would enjoy baptized chick lit since the unbaptized sort doesn’t appeal to me.

Phil is discussing this issue of the state of Christian fiction at Brandywine Books.
Also Dan Edelen at Cerulean Sanctum.
An old post from Jared at Mysterium Tremendum.

I just finished this book, written by the same author who wrote a memoir of the Vietnam War that I read twenty years ago for a college class, A Rumor of War. I remember two things about that book: the descriptions of war were vivid, violent, and sometimes nauseating, and the author quit believing in a resurrection because the bodies he saw blown to bits in the course of battle were incapable of being resurrected. (This loss of faith seemed to me then to be unjustified since any God worth believing in would be capable of manipulating matter and energy and life in any way He chose.) In the novel Acts of Faith, set mostly in Kenya and southern Sudan, Caputo continues to explore the contradiction between faith in a good, powerful, and loving God and the reality of evil. Near the beginning of the book, a skeptical reporter tells a naive young evangelical Christian:

“Belief is a virus, and once it gets into you, its first order of business is to preserve itself, and the way it preserves itself is to keep you from having any doubts, and the way it keeps you from doubting is to blind you to the way things really are. Evidence contrary to the belief can be staring you straight in the face, and you won’t see it. No, not stupid. True believers just don’t see things the way they are, because if they did, they wouldn’t be true believers any more.”

The easy way to answer this objection to Christian faith is to say that not all beliefs are equal and that believing in truth is different from believing in a lie. However, what’s harder to do is to admit that there is some truth in the reporter’s words as they apply to Christian believers. I was in a Bible study last Wednesday night, and we were discussing why bad things happen to Christian people (not good people, there are no good people). I could only conclude that I often do not understand why God allows bad things to happen. However, I still believe He is in control because I settled that question a long time ago. One of my favorite Bible verses is Job’s statement of faith: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” (Job 13:15a) Another is Peter’s statement in response to Jesus: “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:67-68)

I know enough to believe that I have no choice but to believe. Where else can I go? What other belief even begins to make sense? Even when I don’t understand God’s ways, even when evil seems to be triumphant, I have already made the choice to follow Christ, the choice to trust Him. I don’t ignore evidence that contradicts my belief in a powerful and loving God; I simply know that such evidence is not the whole story. Jesus’s life and death and resurrection are evidence that God does care, that He does understand our suffering, and that He is powerful enough to defeat death and evil in the end.

I’ll have more to say about this book in another post. Caputo has written an excellent story with complex characters, some of whom are evangelical Christians. And he gets the portrayals of Christians and Christian theology right most of the time–with some notable exceptions. This novel of relief workers, Sudanese rebels, gun-running pilots, and Arab Muslim raiders is filled with questions that deserve thoughtful answers or at least careful exploration. I would recommend the book to anyone who is interested in thinking about the complex interaction of good and evil within the human heart, with one caveat: the novel is explicit in its descriptions of both violence and sex. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

There’s something about the Amish culture and about Amish life that is fascinating to those of us who live outside, Englishers they call us. Perhaps we long for a simpler life and a more tightly knit community while at the same time we know that the rule-keeping and legalism required to maintain such simplicity would chafe and limit our freedom to an unacceptable degree.

Levi’s WIll by W. Dale Cramer is partly about that legalism and about what is gained and what is lost when a young man leaves his Amish home and family to live a life unrestricted by any rules at all other than the ones he makes or chooses for himself. As an Amish teenager, WIll Mullet, the protagonist of the novel, sees hypocrisy, unreasonable laws, and a father, Levi, who can never be pleased. He runs away from home because of one particular incident, but the author implies that Will is disillusioned with Amish life long before the crisis that causes him to leave. The problem, of course, is that Will Mullet leaves behind not only Amish rules and regulations but also his family, his own identity, and the God of his fathers.

The rest of the book is about Will’s life in the far country (Germany during WWII and then Georgia) as he tries to recover family, identity, and God. He begins by taking a new name, Will McGruder, and he becomes more and more entangled in the lies he must tell to keep his past a secret. McGruder joins the army and commits a crime by lying about his age and his name. He lies to the Georgia girl with whom he falls in love because he cannot think how to be Will McGruder and WIll Mullet at the same time. He tries over and over again to reconcile with his father and with his Amish community while at the same time he is losing and alienating his own two sons in the same way his father made him an alien and an outcast.

As in his previous book, Bad Ground, author Cramer explores the themes that have emerged in Christian pop-psychology books such as those of John Eldridge and Gary Smalley, themes of reconciliation between father and son, the blessing that a son needs from his father, and the possibility of finding what one needs from the Heavenly Father when earthly fathers are unable or unwilling to give the grace, mercy, or strength that is necessary for a man to grow into full manhood. The book leaves some questions unanswered. Why do two boys with the same father follow such different paths as adults? How does Will’s father finally get past his traditions and the obedience to the Amish rules that have kept his community safe to forgive WIll and welcome him into the family again? Why does Will’s wife, a strong woman in her own right, stay in a marriage that is based on lies and lived in isolation to some extent? Even these questions, though, indicate that the characters in this novel are intriguing and likeable enough to pull me in and make me want to know even more than the author tells about them.

The book also made me think about legalism and the value of the Law. I’m in a Bible study this summer studying Psalm 119, the psalmist’s poetic tribute to the virtues of God’s Law. As I read through the psalm I read over and over about how the psalmist loves God’s Word, how it is more precious than gold and silver, how it gives security and truth and delight. Many of the Amish surely delight in their laws, which are said to be God’s Law, and which give them safety and community and a foundation. Many more leave the Amish way of life seeing it as a man made structure that is in many ways contrary to God’s Word instead of being in accordance with it. Certainly God’s Word is a joy and a safe haven, but the temptation for fallen human beings is to build up a set of rules that can be kept however difficult the obedience may be, and to call those rules God’s Law. Then, we can justify ourselves instead of depending on the grace and mercy found in Jesus Christ.

Christian fiction in general has come a long way in the past several years, and this book in particular demonstrates that fact. Instead of a hackneyed formula plot in which the main character meets a crisis, prays or gets saved, and then lives happily ever after, Dale Cramer gives the reader full characters, an unpredictable and suspenseful story, a picture of a different cultural milieu, and themes that will speak to any father, any son, or anyone who knows a father and son. I’m really impressed by the “maleness” of the setting and the story in both this book and Cramer’s previous book, and yet as the mother of two sons I enjoyed the story and found it to be thought provoking and particularly applicable to my husband’s relationship to our sons. If the father in your life enjoys fiction, Levi’s Will might make a welcome Father’s Day gift.

The book Levi’s Will by W. Dale Cramer was sent to me from Mind & Media as a gift from Bethany House publishers who donated the books as review copies. If you are interested in receiving review copies of current titles from Christian publishers, you can check out the guidelines for Mind and Media Exclusive Reviewers here.