Seek: Reports from the Edges of America and Beyond by Denis Johnson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

All of these journalistic essays are good but a few of them are great. In "Hippies," Johnson and a few of his old buddies (who were real hippies back in the day), come out of retirement to attend The Rainbow Festival in Oregon.  Looking at his aged companions Johnson says "How did we all get so old? Sitting around laughing at old people probably caused it" (20).  The guys relive some of their former excesses (shrooms and all), but Johnson is cynical, haunted: he knows where all of this goes. "In a four-square mile swatch of the Ochoco Forest the misadventures of a whole generation continue.  Here in this bunch of 10,000 or 50,000 people somehow unable to count themselves I see my generation epitomized: a Peter Pan generation nannied by matronly Wendys like Bill and Hillary Clinton, our politics a confusion of Red and Green beneath the black flag of Anarchy; cross-eyed and well-meaning, self-righteous, self-satisfied; close-minded, hypocritical, intolerant - Loving You! - Sieg Heil!" (28). Johnson closes with a memory of his first acid trip, of the euphoria punctured by his mother's desperate "where have you been?!" -  a question, the author realizes, that remains appropriate of him and all his fellow travelers on the hippie trail.


"Bikers for Jesus" tells about Johnson's trip to a Christian motorcycle rally/revival meeting. Though alienated by some of the charismatic culture, Johnson identifies with these people who have found a road out of violence and addiction.  He recounts his own conversion to Christianity in this essay.


Finally, the pieces on Africa are brilliant: "The Civil War in Hell," "An Anarchist's Guide to Somolia," and "The Small Boy's Unit."




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Quotes & the Exercise from my sermon on Isaiah 52-53: Facing Anxiety

The first quote comes in the second point on God saving us from our guilt; it's from the book What It Is Like To Go To War by Karl Marlantes.  Marlantes appeared out of nowhere on the literary scene a couple of years ago with his brilliant first novel, Matterhorn, a semi-autobiographical account (it seems to me) of the author's experience as a Marine fighting in Vietnam.  That book appeared on many 'best books of the year' lists, and rightfully so; it's one of my favorite war novels. But then this year Marlantes published What It Is Like To Go To War, which are his personal reflections on the different aspects of being a soldier in the modern world. The quote I used comes in his chapter called "Guilt" and describes how the author was haunted for years by visions of the face and eyes of one of the NVA soldiers he killed up close in a firefight:

That kid’s dark eyes would stare at me in my mind’s eye at the oddest times.  I’d be driving at night and his face would appear on the windscreen.  I’d be talking at work and that face would suddenly overwhelm me and I’d fight to stay with the person I was talking with. 

The other quotes come from Tolkien's The Two Towers where Theoden expresses his doubt and despair in the face of the merciless siege at Helm's Deep:

It is said that the Horburg has never fallen to assault, but now my heart is doubtful. The world changes, and all that once was strong now proves unsure.  How shall any tower withstand such numbers and such reckless hate?

Then, with Aragorn's encouragement (magnified in the movie version), Theoden and the remaining warriors ride out and charge into the sea of orcs before them:

With a cry and a great noise they charged.  Down from the gates they roared, over the causeway they swept, and they drove through the hosts of Isengard as a wind among grass.

Finally, as part of my application I asked people to work through the following exercise that I gave as a handout:

Martin Luther said true Christianity is a matter of ‘personal pronouns.’ Replace the generic pronouns in the (second, blank) text of Isaiah 53.5 below with a personal pronoun (“my”) or, even better, your own name. Then spend some time identifying the specific sins for which you still feel a sense of guilt: what past actions, thoughts, or failures rob you of a sense of God's comfort when you face anxiety?  What have you done that you feel "disqualifies" you from God's care?  

Write those things down in the appropriate blanks.

Read the result, meditate on Is. 53.5, and believe that Christ has put away your sins.

Isaiah 53.5

[5] But he was pierced for

our transgressions;

                  he was crushed for

our iniquities;

                  upon him was the chastisement

 that brought us peace,

                  and with his wounds

 we are healed.

[5] But Christ was pierced for
        

__________ ____________________;

                  he was crushed for

__________ ________________________;

                  upon him was the chastisement

that brought ____________ peace,

                  and with his wounds

 ___________ is healed.

Angels by Denis Johnson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The 4th book I've read by Johnson and his first novel. I love his writing and characters. The story feels as off-kilter as the people and the situations they face, but I think that's Johnson's point. Compassionate and surreal, Johnson shows us the other America we hope doesn't really exist.  


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What It is Like to Go to War by Karl Marlantes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Read this on a rec from my Dad (a veteran of Vietnam) saying that it captured and analyzed the experience of going to war in a profound way.  I couldn't put it down. Marlantes was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford when he decided to enlist. In my dad's words, he had a particularly "awful tour," which (it seems) is recounted in the semi-autobiographical novel Mattherhorn. Marlantes is concerned here to educate all those  who have not been to war so that they might understand those who have; he offers some great ideas that if taken seriously could help our military respond to the inevitable trauma and moral/spiritual confusion that battle brings. The weakest parts of the book are the analyses inspired by Jung and Joseph Cambpell; still, this is a moving and important book for anyone to read who's been to war or loves someone who has (or will).


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