Leif Enger. I Cheerfully Refuse. Grove P, 2024.

We consider Leif Enger’s Peace Like a River one of the best American novels (so far) of the twenty-first century. We were excited, then, to see he had come out with a new one. I Cheerfully Refuse is a well-written story that reminded us of something by Cormac McCarthy crossed with News of the World. In other words, it has picaresque qualities but is set in a future dystopian North America.

It is not exactly post-apocalyptic, but something bad has happened. Government and infrastructure barely hold together. A simple example: Our narrator recalls when sailors used GPS on the Great Lakes to navigate, but that no longer works. He has to rely on an outdated printed cruising guide to get around. He is lucky even to have that since no one is printing books any more.

Our narrator, Rainier (named “after the western mountain,” not the prince) or Rainey, lives in a village not far from Duluth, Minnesota. He tells us it is near Highway 61, made famous by Hibbing native Bob Dylan, and on Lake Superior. He reminds us that Superior is really an inland sea, called a lake only because it has fresh water.

His wife/partner Lark runs a bookstore. It turns out that in the future America Enger envisions books are rare commodities. Many people do not read, and often those who do are looked upon with some suspicion. There is little government. As Milton would say, the Anarch Chaos rules. Indeed, thanks in part to Lark’s bookstore, there are many allusions to works of literature from pop tales like Travis McGee mysteries to Dickens and Shakespeare. One could probably do a college research paper, if not a dissertation, divining the significance of many of the literary refernces in the book.

Still, there is an overall work I Cheerfully Refuse refers to: Don Quixote. Indeed, Rainey’s adventures are somewhat quixotic—not in the sense that he is detached from reality or is trying to recreate the past (well, maybe a little) but that like the casino gambler, the house always wins.

This does have some echoes of Enger’s So Brave, Young, and Handsome. That is a picaresque cross country road trip set about a hundred years ago. I Cheerfully Refuse tells of an argosy around Lake Superior some time in the coming century. I use the term picaresque somewhat advisedly. While there are humorous moments and certainly outrageous characters, the overall tone is serious.

The United States and Canada both still exist, but they are controlled by coastal elites or oligarchs known colloquially as astronauts. (Is Enger hinting at Bezos and Musk?) The “flyover country” is mostly anarchic. People are underemployed or unemployed, so many young people go to the coasts where they get jobs which are akin to slavery. They sign up for six years with a promise generous pay at the end of the term, but many do not make it. They either die from the cruel treatment or run away. As a result, a new system of ante-bellum type patrollers develops, tracking down and capturing people who have escaped. That actually gives the novel an echo of Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad.

One such patroller, whose name is kind of an eminence grise among both escapees and the marginal law enforcement, is Werryck. Maybe because I just finished reading a book about Tolkien, this name sounded like Old English where it would mean something like “man of power.” Both an escapee named Kellan and a policeman shudder when they hear his name.

It turns out that Kellan was involved in the production of a drug known as Willow (Enger capitalizes it as though it is a commercial name). People have been using this drug to commit suicide. While it is a regulated pharmaceutical, there is an active underground economy selling the drug. The other drug that seems to be popular for getting high—not suicide—is nitrous oxide, laughing gas.

By the way, most people consider the word suicide a crude slur. The culture seems to no longer have a taboo about it. The politically correct term is “stepping through the door.” This implies, of course, that there was a better life beyond the grave. Compare that to Hamlet’s meditation of “the dread of something after death.”

Without going into too much detail, Lark and one of Rainey’s best friends die in the same week. Rainey decides, then, to embark on his own escape—not suicide but a voyage on the lake. Rainey and Lark honeymooed on the Slate Islands, a group of small islands in Canadian waters. In that sense, like Don Quixote, Rainey sails into a romantic past looking for something. No, he is not going to be tilting at windmills, but he is trying to recover hope.

When he gets to the Slates, his adventure is just beginning. Werryck had shown up in town the night Lark died. When he arrives at the Slates, he sees Werryck’s large cruiser moored there. That looks like trouble, so he keeps on sailing. He ends up taking aboard a nine-year-old orphaned girl named Sol who herself is escaping that legalized slavery. Let us just say that they have a number of adventures involving corrupt officials of various kinds and, yes and alas, they do encounter Werryck again.

Lest it appear that everyone he meets is out to get him, Rainey also encounters strangers that show some kindness to him. Still there is a sense that if anyone is to get along in this world with a conscience intact, he or she has to cheerfully refuse to go along with the way things are done. As even Jesus noted, “In the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33 NKJV).

Besides Don Quixote, there is another book lurking in the background of the story. That is the fictional book that gives the novel its title. The original I Cheerfully Refuse was written by one Molly Thorn, a fairly popular literary author.

Alas, this last work of Molly’s was written around the time that the publishing houses had gone out of business. It has only existed in a few hand-copied editions. Lark managed to obtain a copy for her bookstore, and Rainey takes it with him on his voyage because Lark swears that an old woman they had encountered on their trip to the Slate Islands is none other than Molly Thorn, even though she is reported to have died. I Cheerfully Refuse is Molly’s memoir just as the novel we are reading is Rainey’s memoir.

There is definitely less hope than in Enger’s Virgil Wander or Peace Like a River. Is Enger getting darker as he ages? As was once said about The Glass Menagerie, I Cheerfully Refuse is not really a tragedy (the undeserving deaths happen near the beginning). There is a glimmer of hope. “The milk of human kindness” remains among some people. As Melville would say, “Ah Rainey, ah humanity…”

The Science of Middle Earth. Edited by Ronald LeHoucq et al, translated by Tina Kover, Pegasus, 2021.

The Science of Middle Earth is a collection of forty articles looking at various linguistic, sociological, and scientific aspects of the work of J.R.R. Tolkien and his descriptions of his Middle Earth. While there is a certain amount of repetition, each article is written by a professional in his or her field. The book was originally written in French, and all but one of the contributors are from France. The single exception is a professor from Bristol, England.

The articles are arranged by subject matter: first sociology and mythology, then world-building and linguistics, then environment, then geography, then anatomy and physiology of hominids in the tales, and finally the animals (focusing on the fictional creatures).

Each contributor takes his or her specialty and applies it to the Middle Earth tales. While there is more of a focus on The Lord of the Rings (LOTR), The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion, some articles take examples and illustrations from other works about Middle Earth. Some make interesting comparisons and contrasts between the films (especially the Jackson films) and the books. For example, while wargs (“war dogs,” or perhaps from the Old Norse vargr which means “wolf”) are described as being large wolf-dogs, Peter Jackson admitted he made the wargs in his films look more like hyenas. Nobody would confuse them with Lassie or Rin-Tin-Tin.

Most articles give Tolkien a lot of credit for the worlds and creatures he created. Only one noted a true impossibility—a marsh upriver from a waterfall. Of course, there are some speculations and stretched calculations about how certain large birds or dragons could actually fly or whether Tolkien’s Oliphaunts were too large. Again, one writer notes differences between Tolkien’s description of the elephants with the way Jackson shows them on film. We have to comopare them to extinct creatures like Mastodons, too.

The strong points are the linguistic and social observations. A lot of the pure science is educated guessing—after all, Middle Earth is fantasy. How could elves, for example, have such great eyesight? One article explains how the anatomy of their eyes would differ from humans’. What advantage would hobbits have with large, hairy feet? What kind of physiological changes took place for Smeagol the Hobbit to become Gollum the fallen one? What are orcs anyhow? Various articles examine all such questions.

There are many such interesting queries that writers in this collection try to answer. A few of the paleontologists and biologists try to explain some relations by macroevolution in spite of The Silmarillion’s creation origin story. Clearly, microevolution can happen among related species or clines, but that is different. Still, The Science of Middle Earth is an interesting attempt to apply science to fantasy. Because of Tolkien’s knowledge and experience well beyond literature and language, we see how his world works.

E. L. Haven. Combatant. Second ed., Estate P, 2017.

Readers knew this was going to be a little different right from the title page because Combatant listed the publisher’s location as Evallia and its web site as estate-press.evallia. There is no internet suffix dot-evallia. Indeed, Evallia is where the initial action in Combatant takes place. It is a land of young adult fantasy.

In that land there are people—or anthropoids—with lilac hair, various unusual eye colors and distinctive abilities. Combatant is fantasy set some time in the future where sentient beings can travel between universes through portals or wormholes called rips and where certain people are singled out because of special powers.

Over half the novel takes our main protagonist Tess and some friends to a kind of interplanetary military academy for people with unusual powers or abilities. Depending on one’s background, a reader might think of Hogwart’s or Divergent, but I could not help think of Starship Troopers. Readers learn about the worlds of Evallia and its neighbors (there are some fleeting allusions to earth) as Tess and others learn about the big picture from their training at Evergrove Academy.

Like Starship Troopers, there is a battle towards the end, but most of the story focuses on the exotic military training. Tess, for example, can read minds to an extent and can communicate with other telepaths. She also is unusually quick and strong. Her friend Flynn is also telepathic and can see briefly into the future. Other friends include a shape-shifter, a werewolf, and a boy who can become invisible. Some students at the school can fly. You get the idea. Perhaps the best analogy for the school would be the X-Men’s Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.

Evallia itself is described as “a realm, located somewhere left of the North Star’s cousin.” (4). Uh, anything like Neverland? “Second star to the right and straight on to morning…”

The author does an effective job of creating a fantasy realm with secret symbols, unusual powers, intense military training, and worlds like Evallia that can best be described as dystopian. It is fun and clever. A bit derivative, but with plenty of original notes. The book is first in what is promised to be a series (book 2 has come out), but the novel does tell a complete story. In other words, think The Eye of the World, not The Fellowship of the Ring.

I also note that at the time the book was written the author was a teenager. Perhaps, then, we should think of Eragon and its sequels. While the overall plot is quite serious, there are many humorous touches (notably the chapter titles) that should keep readers engaged.

Douglas Van Dorn. Rings of Revelation. Waters of Creation, 2024.

Just when you think you have read all the interpretations of the Book of Revelation, out comes another one. In this case, Rings of Revelation does not so much try to predict future events like, say, The Late Great Planet Earth as it does a literary analysis of the book. No one can look at Revelation without realizing there are predictions, but Rings of Revelation looks more at how the last book in the Bible is organized. And in doing so, tries to get the reader to look at in a new way.

In order to explain this, I have to give a literature lesson. Van Dorn complains that even seminary students have never studied figures of speech. Well, I taught them for many years. The main feature, for example, of Biblical poetry is parallelism, where the second line of a poem (sometimes a third line) has a parallel structure and conveys a similar or contrasting idea. Here are a couple of examples:

He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters. (Psalm 23:2)

My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…(Luke 1:47-48)

Sometimes the second line presents a contrasting idea that still parallels the first line:

…he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty. (Luke 1:53)

Sometimes, however, the parallel structure results in what is known as a chiasmus, where the second idea is presented in the reverse order. The term comes from the Greek letter chi (χ), which looks like an X, to indicate the change or reverse ordering of ideas. Here is a very basic example:

…for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1:6)

Notice the contrasting parallel ideas, but instead of a direct parallelism, the word order is reversed in the second line, with the “way” of the group coming at the beginning of the clause while the “way” of the first group came at the end of the clause. That is a simple chiasmus or chiasm.

Often it might be written out like this to emphasize the structure:

…for the Lord knows
     the way of the righteous,
     but the way of the wicked
will perish. (Psalm 1:6)

Now, unlike a simple parallelism, a chiasm can go on for several levels, presenting a number of thoughts and then reversing the order in a parallel manner. Bullinger’s Figures of Speech Used in the Bible notes that this “is always used in the most solemn and important portions of the Scriptures” (374).

Here are some more detailed examples. In English we usually note the levels with capital letters and then the corresponding levels with italicized letters or primed with a single abbreviated quotation mark or a exponent of one. The first example describes the ritual purifying of a house with mildew.

…and shall take the cedarwood and the hyssop and the scarlet yarn, along with the live bird, and dip them in the blood of the bird that was killed and in the fresh water and sprinkle the house seven times. Thus he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird and with the fresh water and with the live bird and with the cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet yarn. (Leviticus 14:51-52)

Now lay it out to note the chiasmus:

A…and shall take the cedarwood and the hyssop and the scarlet yarn,
     B along with the live bird,
          C and dip them in the blood of the bird that was killed and in the fresh water
               D and sprinkle the house seven times.
               D¹ Thus he shall cleanse the house
          C¹ with the blood of the bird and with the fresh water
     B¹ and with the live bird
A¹ and with the cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet yarn.

Here is an example from the Gospel of John:

A Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”
     B And at once the man was healed,
          C and he took up his bed and walked.
               D Now that day was the Sabbath.
               D¹ So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath,
          C¹ and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.”
     B¹ But he answered them, “The man who healed me,
A¹ that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” (John 5:8-11)

I point out to my students that parallelism and chiasmus are translatable. Many poetic devices are difficult, if not impossible, to translate. Rhyme is one obvious example. Since parallelism and chiasmus can be translated, readers can understand the poetic quality even in a language that is very different from Hebrew or Greek.

Now some of the greatest writers are known for their effective use of different figures of speech and types of parallel structures. I think of Joyce’s Ulysses or Milton’s Paradise Lost. Both have a depth that writings by, shall we say, non-geniuses lack. Well, Van Dorn makes a convincing case that the entire book of Revelation is one large chiasmus that, as Dr. Seuss would say, goes on beyond zebra. Here is the link to his chart to show what I mean: https://www.douglasvandorn.com/ringsofrevelation. (You will probably need to enlarge it to read it well.)

One begins to realize that this is beyond a mere human capacity, even for a Milton or a Joyce. If nothing else, it certainly points to divine inspiration!

Interestingly, Van Dorn cites Heiser in a few places. It is clear that both have a similar thesis about a (if not the) message of the Bible: That the created world we live in is a spiritual battleground. The verses that the chiasmus in Revelation pivot on are Revelation 12:9-10:

And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.

Van Dorn makes a case that this summarizes the main message of the whole Bible. God created a “very good” universe, the devil tempted mankind and he fell, the world was cursed, Jesus came to reverse the curse and rescue His followers, and God will restore a new heaven and earth. (If you think about it, that in itself is a chiasmus.) While Van Dorn does not mention it, Christian literature and liturgy often interpret a chiasmus as symbolic of Christ because the word Christ (Christos in Greek) begins with a chi (Χριστος).

What does this mean for understanding Revelation? Van Dorn sees repetition in the book, so he argues (and he is far from the only one) that the book is not written in a straight chronological order. For example, he notes the similarity between Revelation 12 and the casting down of the devil as we saw above with the binding of Satan in Revelation 20. Could they be describing the same event?

Or what about the declaration in Revelation 11:15:

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”

Doesn’t that sound a lot like the description of Christ returning to earth in Revelation 19:11ff.?

In other words, maybe instead of a single linear development in Revelation, the development is more circular, in other words, there are rings, hence the title of the book.

Van Dorn also notes, as others have, that Revelation quotes and alludes to the Hebrew Scriptures copiously. He says there are over 300 such quotations and allusions. Whereas in all his letters, Hebrew scholar the he was, Paul has fewer than 200. Much of the Rings of Revelation, then, is an attempt to look at the Book of Revelation in the light of the Old Testament.

That has been done by many other writers, but usually making connections with Old Testament prophetic books about the last days like Daniel, Ezekiel, and parts of Isaiah. Van Dorn does a little of that, but he is more interested in connections that others have not made. For example, Revelation mentions or alludes to the Tabernacle in a few places (Revelation 13:6, 15:5, and 21:3, though some translation use different terms), so he includes a fascinating analysis of the structure of the Mosaic Tabernacle and how we see its patterns in Revelation that tell us more about God’s prophetic purposes.

I mentioned in a previous review of Heiser’s book that argues that Armageddon is not Megiddo (a common interpretation). Van Dorn provides more detail to support that position.

Although it is mostly beyond the scope of this book, Van Dorn also suggests that the entire Gospel of John can also be organized according to one large chiasm. There may be a few verses that do not quite fit, but also it helps us see God’s purpose in having John write his distinctive gospel.

Rings of Revelation probably has to be read slowly, but it certainly has some things to contribute to the study of this final Book of the Bible.

For what is worth, Van Dorn does define and illustrate for us the four main interpretive views of Bible prophecy, especially Revelation: premillennial, postmillennial, amillennial, and dispensational. Which is he?

I think he might actually check off the fifth choice: none of the above. Not because he rejects them all, but because he takes something from each. That in itself may reveal his view of the church as well as the last days. He quotes one of the earliest church fathers, Justin Martyr (AD 110-165), who was a premillennialist: “Many belong to the pure and pious faith, and are true Christians, [who] think otherwise” (64). Brother Justin, things have not changed. Van Dorn would agree.

Vince Wetzel. Lose Yourself. OT Press, 2024.

I have to tip my hat to The Twin Bill, the online magazine combining literature and baseball. This publication called my attention to Lose Yourself, which won its annual award for baseball related fiction. Thank you, Twin Bill.

For fans of rap music, the title of the book comes from a song by Eminem with the same title. The song’s basic theme is whether “you” are going to take advantage of your big opportunity or choke. It includes a subplot that includes a young daughter you hardly know because she lives with her mother in another state.

So with Brett Austen of the Oakland Athletics. Set in 2022, the fans all know that the team will be leaving town for Las Vegas soon (2024 was their last year in California). Still, there is great excitement among the fans because of Austen who is flirting with a season’s batting average of .400—an achievement that has not been attained since Ted Williams did it in 1941.

Anyone familiar with baseball history knows that Williams had .400-even secured going into his last game of the season. He was encouraged by many to sit out the games (it was a doubleheader, a twin bill) on the last day, but he refused. He ended up getting six hits in eight at bats, so he finished with a .406 average.

Austen is faced with a similar situation. He has a .400 average also going into the last game. The A’s are playing the Seattle Mariners. The Athletics are out of any playoff race, but a win for the Mariners could mean home field advantage for the Wild Card playoffs. No one would blame Austen for sitting out the game, though he then would always be unfavorably compared to Williams.

Readers who are baseball fans recognize the author’s likely deliberate choice of names for the star. One of the last two players who almost reached .400 one season and actually was over .400 as late as early September was George Brett. The naming convention reminds us of The Art of Fielding’s shortstop Aparicio Rodriguez, from shortstops Luis Aparacio and Alex Rodriguez.

Now, if this were all there were to the story, it could be an entertaining one, like many sports stories written for kids. But Brett Austen’s story is just one of six different story lines in Lose Yourself.

So, yes, Derek Nguyen has a daughter he does not get to see much because his wife divorced him. She divorced him because of a gambling problem—which currently has him behind on his child support. But he’s made some sure bets today, mostly on football, so he will be able to catch up…Derek also is a lemonade vendor at the Oakland Coliseum. He gets to see the game and relate to the fans.

Derek has also placed a big bet that Austen will finish the season under .400. He thinks it is a sure bet because the Mariners are starting veteran journeyman lefthander Clint Shakely, the one pitcher who has gotten into Austen’s head.

It so happened that in Austen’s very first minor league game Shakely was on a rehab stint and pitched against him and struck him out. For reasons that become somewhat clear, Austen never got over it, and in spite of a career batting average well over .300, his average against Shakely is a mere .215.

Also figuring into the drama is the family of Lizzie Hernandez. Her father is a lifelong baseball and Athletics fan. He is at home in hospice care. The whole family comes to her father’s house to watch the game with him, though he seems somewhat comatose. This is complicated by a few factors. Her brother, mother, and adult daughter are all there, but her ex-husband (whom her father really liked) is parked outside the house, too, “in case they need any help.”

Her twenty-year-old nephew Robbie, however, is not there. He is at the ball game. A group of friends are going—though he knows they will probably do more drinking than watching the game. Still, he figures he could honor his grandfather best by going to the game and perhaps see Austen accomplish the near-impossible.

He also has another reason for going to the game. It has to do with Brett Austen. Back when he was ten or eleven, he and his grandfather saw that first minor league game in which Austen played. His grandfather showed him something about Austen that day, and Robbie somehow would like Austen to know how meaningful the insight was.

The family hails from Sacramento, and Austen’s first team was the nearby Stockton A’s. That is how Robbie and his grandfather happened to see that game. Baseball literati might make a connection here. Stockton is the original Mudville in the classic poem “Casey at the Bat.” Hmm…

We also hear the story of Fred Stephenson, an usher at the Coliseum. Now in his seventies, he is retiring, so this is his last game. He hopes the crowd behaves well so everyone can enjoy the game. His territory in the stadium includes the seating area where Robbie and his friends are. Not only that but Paul Buckley, a former sportscaster and commentator is seated in his section.

People in Northern California know Buckley pretty well, so people say hello to him and even ask for selfies with him. This is awkward for his guest, Will Jensen. Will is the fifteen year old son of Paul’s fiancée. Will is a baseball fan, but he is uncertain about his widowed mother’s upcoming nuptials. At the same time Will has a crush on his classmate Amanda, a long-time family friend whom he recognizes as being “out of my league” in the high school social order. She is at the game with her family, but seated in a different section.

Will, then, is somewhat put out by all the attention Paul gets, and at the same time has agreed to meet up with Amanda. Paul gives some good advice to Will about how to at least get on the good side of Amanda and her family without making a fool of himself. Still, Will gets annoyed at the nearly continuous interruptions by fans who recognize Mr. Buckley.

Finally, we follow the trajectory of Dana Peck, the sideline television reporter. We get an idea of what such a job would be like, especially for a woman. She gets to interview Austen before the game and make commentary during the game with broadcaster Dan Muir and former ballplayer Tyson Porter. She may have a chance to become a broadcaster for a major league team next year if she plays her cards right.

Alas, almost as soon as an opportunity comes for an interview, Dana gets a phone call from her mother. Dana has no siblings, and her mother in Chicago is a widow. Her mother has just been fleeced of much of her life savings by an online pig butchering scheme. In addition, she has been hospitalized for some heart surgery. Dana realizes she should take a red-eye to Illinois that night, but it could mean the thwarting of her professional dreams.

Still, there is an interesting and perhaps historically significant ball game going on. We begin to see how everyone acts and reacts. Wetzel takes us into the minds of each of the six main characters as we see the personal drama and the game drama from each perspective.

Wetzel gets it. Certainly many of us can identify with Will and his crush and the awkward feeling of getting a stepparent. Even those of us from intact families know people in such situations whether it is from death or divorce.

Wetzel was a sportswriter, so he understands work in the sports media like Dana or Paul. He also has a good sense of what a gambling addiction can be like with Derek.

I recall once reading about a study done with a group of men in the UK. Their heart rates were monitored during times that people generally consider exciting. That “high” can become addictive. One, if I recall correctly, was during and after an exciting amusement park ride, probably a roller coaster. The second was, to put it politely, watching exotic dancers. The third was playing bingo for money. The consistently highest heart rate was recorded when the bingo players were within one square of winning the game. Gaming does excite us, and that “rush” can addict us.

We understand Fred the usher if we have ever been to sporting events. Also we understand a few big changes taking place in his life: the death of his wife, retirement, moving to a new city. And Lizzie’s life certainly has gotten complicated with her father on his deathbed and her broken family somehow trying to stay together. Even her nephew Robbie seems to be on some kind of mission.

These lives all intersect at the game. The story builds very effectively. There is a prologue from that early minor league game, and a number of events titled “Pregame”: Will texting, Derek placing bets and getting his lemonade ready, Fred getting situated in his section, Dana and Brett’s interview, Robbie at the game, and Lizzie watching it on TV with the rest of the family. Once the game starts, each chapter is half an inning. And the suspense builds as we follow the game’s action and different goings on in each scenario.

One technique that works well here are the “voices” different characters hear. Readers understand that these are simply the characters’ thoughts, but they may have their origins in past events. For example, Fred often hears his late wife speak to him. But they were married for nearly fifty years, so most decisions they made involved the two of them. He still sees himself thinking what her opinion might be before taking a big step like retiring.

We also begin to realize the source of the critical voices that Brett hears. Yes, there is always a lot of trash talk on the field, and Brett and Tomlin, the Mariners’ catcher, both seem to enjoy it, but this is something else.

To say much more would spoil things, but Lose Yourself is well written, creative, and yet at the same time very realistic. I suspect that even people who are not baseball fans would get a lot out of it. There are times we should all “lose ourselves.” Sometimes it happens when reading a book.

N.B. Some the characters are trash-talking athletes, organized criminals, high-powered business people, or drunkards. There is some foul language that might offend some readers.

Robin McMillan. Harbinger of Hope. Emanate, 2018.

Robin McMillan recently spoke at a church I happened to watch online when I was sick. The pastor put in a good word about Harbinger of Hope. It was definitely worth reading.

As readers can guess from the title, its subject is hope. To organize his thoughts, McMillan tells us of five things that bring hope. He uses the image of five wagons, taking the idea from the story of Joseph in the Bible. Jacob had lost hope when he thought Joseph had died. His hope was restored when his sons returned from Egypt with wagons of food and goods from Joseph, now a leader in Egypt.

It is easy enough to sum up McMillan’s five main points, but it is worth reading the book. He uses many different Scriptures to illustrate and prove his points. It all has to do with one’s relationship with God and what one can expect. In other words, what hope God has for us.

First, he calls our salvation in Jesus the first—and probably most important—thing. This includes, as he puts it, deliverance from consequences we deserve. “All have sinned” (Romans 3:23) the Bible tells us. “There are none righteous.”(Psalm 14:1-3, 53:1-3) We all deserve to reap what we sow from our sin. But Jesus paid the price on the cross for that. That, folks, is the Gospel in a nutshell. “Whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (See John 3:16)

The second may be the most challenging in our everyday life: “Deliverance from criticism and a critical spirit.” Criticism works both ways: we are hurt when criticized and can be hindered when we criticize. “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” says Proverbs 18:21. Harbinger of Hope encourages us in how to deal with criticism while at the same time warning us about how we lose blessings when we criticize others.

The third “wagon” is hope itself. Here the author tells us specifically what the Bible says about hope, true hope. And it is not just “pie in the sky by and by.” We note that even in hard times the Lord can give us hope. Joseph was in prison in a foreign country, but he hung onto hope. Jesus faced the cross, but he knew the suffering and torture he would endure would be worth it.

The fourth “wagon” is the closest to the wagons Jacob received: abundance. While the book does address briefly material possessions, it emphasizes the work of the Holy Spirit. Psalm 16:11 says to God, “In your presence is fullness of joy.” The chapter is mostly about joy and its relationship to the presence of the Lord. Looking back on my own life, the most joyfully memorable times for the most part have been when the Lord manifested His presence. Let us all seek the Lord and remain in Him and where He is. This section is really profound, and I suspect many Christians miss out on this. I confess that that often may include me. Read the two chapters on this subject. The joy of the Lord is our strength (see Nehemiah 8:10).

The writer of the book of Hebrews encouraged us to be “looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2). If we focus on our sinfulness instead of gazing upon the One to whom we turned, our old nature will try to hold us in bondage. (141)

McMillan describes the fifth hope specifically for Americans, though there is no reason why it cannot apply to other nations. With hope from God comes a promise for revival. Revivals such as the two Great Awakenings and even the Jesus Movement had a profound effect on many lives and helped the country to prosper. Let us seek God for this and pray for this. Hope tells us that the best is yet to come. (See, for example, Amos 9:11-15).

Let it be, Lord. And let this book encourage, you, blessed reader.

P.S. As I write this christianbook.com has a bargain price for this book (over 90% off). Now would be a good time to get a copy…


Garrison Keillor. A Christmas Blizzard. Penguin, 2011.

We were big fans of Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion show and even once saw him live. His writing is sensitive, intelligent, and funny. His piece entitled “Aprille” found in his collection Going Home is one of the best pieces of literary criticism ever written on The Canterbury Tales. His writing is usually entertaining. Yes, it may be satirical, but always in a kind way.

A Christmas Blizzard is fun. The plot is fairly light, but we do not usually read or listen to Keillor strictly for the plot. Basically, James Sparrow of Minneapolis flies to his hometown Looseleaf, North Dakota, because he gets word that his favorite uncle, eighty-six year old Uncle Earl, is dying. Much of the family will be there for the Christmas holiday anyhow, so he decides to go there instead of flying to Hawaii. He would rather be in warm Hawaii at the Kuhikuhikapapa’u’maumau resort. (Note the last syllables: Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow.) But he loves his uncle, though he is less enthusiastic about many of his other relatives.

While he is not exactly a Scrooge—he is a loving husband and generous giver—he really does not like Christmas. Yes, some of the endlessly repeated songs drive him crazy, but it is more than that. He is Christougenniatikophobic. He is afraid of Christmas. A Christmas Blizzard, then, describes a series of supernatural (or perhaps magically realistic) events to deliver him of this fear.

Flashbacks to his early childhood tell us that his family life was not that great, and, finally, when he was seven, his father left home for good. But one thing that was ingrained into him even from five years old was that he should never put his tongue on a frozen pump handle! Such a fear became magnified in his young mind, and he never overcame it but associated such a temptation with Christmastime. Somewhere warm like Hawaii sounded nice to him.

No sooner does he arrive in Looseleaf but a blizzard arrives and everyone gets snowed in. He decides it would be nice and less complicated if he camped out at the fish house of a late cousin on Lake Winniesissibigosh (We’re no sissies, by gosh?). For the uninitiated, a fish house is a small cabin placed on a frozen lake or pond for ice fishing. This one has cots, a wood stove, and extra clothing and bedding, so he can comfortably spend the night there.

There are some vague parallels to A Christmas Carol. When he first steps outside the fish hut he meets a talking wolf. The wolf is a reincarnated high school buddy named Ralph, who drowned in the lake. From there it seems each time he enters or exits the fish house he is somewhere else—maybe in the past, maybe in the present, with relatives and other inhabitants of Looseleaf. In the daylight (IRL?) he visits with Uncle Earl and other relatives.

Keillor is known for his characters and caricatures like detective Guy Noir or the many and varied inhabitants of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota. A Christmas Blizzard is filled with such people, and that is what makes it fun to read. We hear stories about James’s wife Joyce and especially his wise Uncle Earl. We can see why Earl would be a favorite.

At the same time each character has one or two stories to tell. Cousin Liz belongs to a radical Republican militia who is convinced Communists are infiltrating the country from Canada. Her husband Leo whispers to James that he is an undercover FBI agent investigating militias. Cousin Faye is a new age type who welcomes him by saying:

We are family. We are interconnected whether we know it or not. We nurture each other with our common myths and rituals, and in each other we find wholeness and wisdom. (115)

When she tells some relatives she is Ojibway, they remind her that their ancestors came from England.

There are many digressions and entertaining side stories, which is what Keillor is known for. Yes, eventually it does appear that James begins to enjoy Christmas a he reunites with his family and faces his fears. Like the ending to many of Keillor’s stories from Lake Wobegon, there is a kind of union or communion as some of the various people in the story come together for a Christmas party.

For any readers who saw the A Prairie Home Companion film, the climax is similar. In the film, most of the people are on stage singing “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” There is a little epilogue afterwards. Ditto with A Christmas Blizzard. Of course, they are singing Christmas carols instead, but you get the idea. It is delightful and tender.

Donna Schlachter. A King for Kinsella. PLS Bookworks, 2023.

A King for Kinsella is a formulaic historical romance of the type that is popular with many readers. The title is a spoiler—the reader knows what will ultimately happen because we can assume that Kinsella gets her king. The path to get to that conclusion entertains us.

Kinsella Jackson was recently widowed. She lives with her four children aged five to fourteen in the Colorado plains in 1878. She loved her late husband, but now has to care for her homestead including crops and cattle with the help of her four children.

Her two older children saw an advertisement in a magazine to place a free classified ad. They acted on that, advertising for a hand to help with the farm. Of course, the ad was placed in their mother’s name.

Unbeknownst to any of the Jacksons, the classified ad was published in an Australian magazine and spotted by Kingston Marchmont. Englishman Marchmont was convicted of crime he says he did not commit and sent to Australia. He sees the advertisement as an opportunity to start over and be free. He writes a letter to Mrs. Jackson to tell her he will be coming. She reads his signature as “King Stan Marchmont” and thinks that he is some kind of king coming to visit. She admits that she never heard of the King of Marchmont, but she has not heard of many places in the world.

That is the basic plot, but Schlachter tells a surprisingly gripping tale. Nearly every chapter has a new conflict or challenge that keeps the reader in suspense and turning the page. There is the shopkeeper who wants to marry Kinsella, but she suspects he is just intereted in the farm. There are floods. There are cattle rustlers. There is an illness. There are unanswered questions.

Kingston’s long journey to Colorado also has its challenges. From Australia to New York, from New York to Kansas City, and even on the local stage to Colorado, there are some men that seem suspicious. They do not appear to be tailing him, but it is seems awfully conincidental that they would all be taking the same route two-thirds of the way around the world.

In other words, in spite of the literal foregone conclusion, Schlachter is a good storyteller. The suspense keeps coming and challenges have to be overcome. (And I have not even mentioned the big ones…) Readers who like and appreciate such stories will not be disappointed.

Peter Hopkirk. The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia. Kodansha, 1994.

From the shores of the Pacific, and to the heights of the Himalayas, Russia will not only dominate the affairs of Asia, but those of Europe also.
   —Count Sergei Witte, Finance Minister under Tsar Nicholas II, (502)

The title of The Great Game comes from a term used by both Russia and England to describe the diplomatic and political machinations of the nineteenth century over political power in central Asia. The origins of the term may be obscure, but it was used certainly by 1860 and made famous in Kipling’s Kim, which was published around the time the Great Game would end in the form it had back then. One could argue that it is still going on today.

Hopkirk does a good job of explaining why Russia has imperial ambitions even today. Russia is somewhat unique in that it has been attacked numerous times by enemies from the East (the Alans, the Huns, the Mongols, the Timurids) and the West (Vikings, Napoleon, and Hitler). By subduing people groups in Central Asia and Eastern Europe Russia would create buffer zones that would provide safety for Russians. Because of the intensity of even small slaving raids from Central Asian khanates, it also may help explain why Russia has always had a much more authoritarian government than most European nations.

It is impossible to summarize the ins and outs of the story told in The Great Game. Basically, after the defeat of Napoleon, Russia realized it needed greater security on its Eastern borders. Except for sparsely-populated Siberia in the north, Russia had little or no influence east of the Caspian Sea. It saw opportunities for trade with the people of Central Asia, but dealings were difficult. The Turkmen and others were more tribal and at least nominally Muslim. From time to time horsemen from the deserts would attack Russian villages for loot and slaves. Indeed, a major justification for Russian annexation of the various Central Asian peoples would be freedom for Russian slaves.

Meanwhile, England wanted to insure the security of its domains in India. They were concerned that Russian expansion might be at the expense of English influence. Hopkirk details the various intrigues and attempts of both sides to try to pre-empt the other and whether by force or treaty pacify the various indigenous groups. Looking at a map, one can see that in the middle is the nation of Afghanistan. Both Russia and England tried various means to either conquer or befriend the Afghans. Neither were ultimately successful, but it does make for some gripping stories of political intrigue and heroism in battle. Hopkirk suggests Russia did not learn from what it observed in the nineteenth century when it tried to annex Afghanistan in the twentieth century.

Hopkirk tries to be evenhanded with his analysis. While there are more records and writings extant from the British and Indian side, he includes the Russian perspective as well. Often the interpretations of certain events differ significantly, but that makes the study of history interesting. Because the book came out in 1994, it sees Russia’s future as a European democracy rather than the oligarchy it has become.

Perhaps most striking in this book are the number of intrepid explorers on both sides. Some returned heroes, other died after being taken captive or succumbing to the elements. The geographic area covered in this book contains some of the most inhospitable terrain in the world between the highest mountains and some of the bleakest deserts. To use the words of Conrad, much of the region back then was “white on the chart.” No one in Russia or India knew what the geography was like. Much of the exploration was done simply to map out the region—of course, with military possibilities in the back of the cartographers’ minds.

The British were concerned about unknown passes or routes through the Pamirs, Himalayas, and Hindu Kush that raiders from the North could use. After all, history tells us that armies attacked India from the north eighteen times, and fifteen of those times the attacks succeeded.

Russia wanted to find ways through rivers and deserts that could be used by its army but also by its traders to establish Russian influence and even build Russian railroads. In some cases the surveys succeeded, at least in making more accurate maps with less “white” or blank areas. In other cases they demonstrated impossibilities. For example, one explorer died in the mountains in the north of India. A monument was actually erected at the location, but Hopkirk tells us that no one from any of the region’s people has even visited or traveled by the location since the 1940s. How remote can you get?

There are numerous fascinating details that even put current issues in perspective. Did you know that the Uighurs actually had an independent country called Kashgaria, named for one its main cities, from 1864 to 1877? Because of its remoteness, Russia was about the only country that treated it as a separate nation. Eventually, the Chinese would re-take the territory.

The British thought that the people of Tibet might enjoy more freedom affiliating with India. While some intrepid explorers from India would reach even Lhasa, they never made much of an impression, and at the time the Dalai Lama was willing to continue accepting Chinese suzerainity.

The three powers of Russia, England, and China would meet at the Afghan frontier. The Pamir Gap, that narrow stretch of Afghanistan that reaches the Chinese border between what today is Pakistan and Tajikistan was an agreed-upon zone that buffered Russia from Britain.

We learn for example the city of Abbottabad in Pakistan where Osama bin Laden was eventually tracked down, was named for a British officer, James Abbott, who originally scouted the area. He would eventually go to Khiva and arrange for the freeing a the Russian slaves held there and bring them to Russia. He was unsuccessful, but that led to a second attempt by a Lt. Richmond Shakespear who brought 416 freed Russian slaves to Fort Alexandrovsk on the Caspian sea in 1840.

At times, then, Russia and England appeared to be seeking the same thing: freedom for slaves and commerce in Central Asia. But more often than not there was mistrust. Clearly that was exemplified by the Crimean War, though that conflict was about Turkey and the Caucasus rather than territory to the east.

Eventually, another war would put an end to the Great Game. Japan’s surprise attack on the Russian navy base in Port Arthur (Lüshunkou), China, crippled the Russian Navy, and one other big sea battle rendered it nearly useless. (Could it be that Japan thought it would get similar results when in bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941?)

The Russo-Japanese War effected a blow to Russian expansion in the Far East. For all intents and purposes, the Great Game would end in 1905. However, as we know, there have been more contemporary manifestations with the ambitions of Al Qaeda and the Taliban, the Soviet Union and NATO allies. As Mark Twain supposedly said, History never repeats itself, but it rhymes.