From: Robin Smith <robinsmith59>
Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 11:54:12 -0600

 From Dean Schneider, posting from Robin Smith's e-mail:

In response to Katy Horning's question: I think Godless is a fine novel. It's a young adult novel that says a lot in spare, fast-moving prose, and as Katy says it has a fair amount of humor, too. An example of the humor is a phone conversation Jason tries to have with the beautiful Magda, but he gets so tongue-tied that nothing much comes out of his mouth. He ends up saying, "I'm glad I'm not trying to have a conversation with me. It must be boring as hell."

 Jason decides to start a new religion with the local water tower as the god. The novel explores what attracts followers to the religion. What is the appeal? What does each follower get out of it? What exactly is religion all about? Why not worship the water tower, so obviously important to their lives? Jason is a seeker, and by the end he has a religion but still no faith.

Another great recent novel that deals with faith, moral ideas, and the mystery of life is David Almond's The Fire?ters, but perhaps we're too near the end of our religion discussion to bring up more books. Highly recommended, though; one of my favorite books of the year.

Dean Schneider Ensworth School Nashville, TN 37205 schneiderd at ensworth.com
Received on Sat 27 Nov 2004 11:54:12 AM CST