This week I’m going to tell you about a book I’ve recently read. It has been published since 2006 but I only just now caught up with it courtesy of the library.
The author wasn’t one I was familiar with but having read this book I am likely to read more of her work.
The Novelist by Angela Hunt is about Jordan Casey who has written a number of Rex Tower novels. While teaching a writing course at a local community college she is challenged by one of her students that she is not investing enough of herself into her work.
At the same time she and her husband are trying to figure out how to deal with their wayward son who is an alcoholic and causes heartache for the family with his behavior.
Jordan sets out to answer her students challenge and hopefully at the same time get through to her son, who has always reads her novels, in away he might understand. And so she begins an allegorical story about William Case who is set down in Paradise by his creator. The allegory is meant to mirror how God deals with His children.
The Novelist works on more than one level as it involves the reader in the allegorical story but also the problems Jordan is facing in her own life with her son.
Throughout the story it raises many theological issues in a readable way and also deals with the problems facing many women today of trying to juggle career and family.
Having read The Fiction Class by Susan Breen which I thoroughly enjoyed, I wondered whether this might be too similar, but being a writer and having conducted writing classes myself I couldnlt resist. Although they both concern writers taking creative writing class they are very different books and I enjoyed both.
So, if you’re looking for something to read written from a Christian viewpoint, have a read of The Novelist. I’d love to hear from anyone who’s read it and your thoughts about the story or any of the issues it raises.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this book challenges you about your Christian life and your prayer and bible reading either. It did me.
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