Simply beautiful
I just finished reading Strangers and Sojourners today. I am so glad I read it and I find myself wishing everyone would read this beautiful work in large part because I'd love to discuss it with the world - there is so much rich and precious insight into life in this book and it's so moving that it's difficult to just keep it all in.
This book is poetry in the form of prose. The writing is something to savor - I don't want to sound corny, but it's just delicious how the writer plays the English language like delicate watercolors to convey thoughts, images, feelings.
The story, the settings, the characters and the humble, bening brilliance behind it all - if you are a seeker, a stranger or a sojourner in life you will find this work to be precious indeed.
A Good Book, Really Is Literature
While some of the other reviewers found this book slow and disappointing, I strongly disagree.
Anne Delaney is a woman who, while prophetic and speaking for truth, struggles for most of her life with issues of belief and unbelief, trust and fear. She does find a resolution to her "shadows" in the end. Pay careful attention to the visit by Fr. Andrei while she's ill in bed, and the fact that he said a few words, Latin words, that should have been said a long time ago. The journey the family and the community take collectively is the focus of the tale. Anne Delaney and her family are the connecting threads of the story. There is little within this book that does not have some meaning if you spend a moment contemplating it. It is beautifully written and a sympathetic depiction of various forms atheism, doubt, and despair takes, while at the same time providing very real answers.
A wonderful book. It is apocalyptic literature, as compared to the apocalyptic grocery store novels that were the Left Behind series.
Strangers and Sojourners
This book is incredibly fascinating, well written, and insightful. The author's knowledge of history, geography, literature and art is amazing. His recognition of the way evil penetrates society, especially through the media is food for thought.
Not what I thought
I found this book to be disappointing. There are part of it that are insightful and make you think, but overall the story seems rather disjointed. I am not sure what the theme is supposed to be - if it's the family, the book doesn't give a complete picture of all the family and what happens to them. If it's the spiritual development, it is lacking because you never know exactly what the husband Stephen's faith consists of and the wife Anne's faith is nonexistent until at the end of her life she finds something but what it is seems vague. I really didn't much like this book - at the end I got the feeling that life is awful and then you die. It is not uplifting or inspirational in the least.
Inspiring but too slow
The author employs fascinating dialogue with great insight to characters and their spiritual journey. Unfortunately that did not start until after about 190 pages into the novel. This is a slow developing novel with too many sub-plots and problems with character development.
I can only recommend this book because of the great insights this author provided within the novel. There are small gems scattered throughout the last half of the book.
O'Brien's book Fr. Elijah is still one of my all time favorite books, so maybe I am setting the bar too high.
(21 reviews)
