Embrace Me

In our church book club, we just finished the book "Embrace Me". Embrace Me is a wonderful book written by Lisa Samson.

Most of the other reviews I have read about the book do not do it justice. I am not sure I can either. It is hard to review this book because what is most compelling are the plot twists that bring everything together that at one point seems to be disjointed.

I like the book for a number of reasons. First of all, there is a sense of transition of theological temprament in the novel. The novel starts with a pastor of a megachurch that is in personal theological crisis. This pastor is contrasted with the a leader of a Christian communal effort with the poor of the same community. Through contrasting these two churches, it also speaks a lot to contrasting models of church in our own culture. I tend to be more comfortable with a church model with that is not modeled after big business and corperate america. The author subtly shares these sympathies with me.

The novel is a tour de force on the need for and difficulties of forgiveness. The novel illustrates the challenge of asking for forgiveness by an offender and giving forgiveness by an offendee. It is honest and realistic. There were a number of people with significant physical and emotional challenges in the book. Those who were struggling with unforgiveness, interestingly, were also self-abusive. I think this is intentional, illustrating the harm that grudge-holding and not forgiving others plays in our lives.

The characters in the story are well-developed. Valentine is a hard-edged woman who slowly exposes her soft-side to their readers. Augustine is a mysterious man who slowly reveals his deeper self to us. Drew is a jerk, who slowly earns our sympathy and support. And Leela is a beautiful character who we want to embrace, even though she lacks hands and arms.

I don't think this book is as powerful as The Shack, which I believe will have historic and long lasting appeal. I do believe that Embrace Me is a strong work of fiction, and would easily sell outside of the typical Christian market. I recommend it for a fun and thought-provoking read.

(purchase it through the Amazon search thing on the sidebar, and I get a kick back.)