Book Review of Words Made Fresh by Larry Woiwode

WORDS MADE FRESH
By Larry Woiwode
ISBN 978-1-4335-2740=1
Published by Crossway
Reviewed by Clint Walker

Once in a while, when you spend a lot of time out of the suburbs, you happen to drop into a restaurant that you only eat at because you are eager to discover something novel, or because it is your only visible option and you are hungry. And whether it is a small Polish diner in the inner city, or a greasy hamburger joint on the edge of logger country, you discover that in your desire for mere sustenance you have stumbled on some sort of culinary perfection.

Stumbling onto WORDS MADE FRESH was just such a surprise. Given to me by Crossway Books via LibraryThing in exchange for a free review, I was not expecting what I received. Crossway Books generally publishes books designed to elucidate basic Christian teachings. And Larry Woiwode was an author I had never heard of before. However, as I started reading, I discovered a highly intellectual, thoughtful read about how certain authors and issues in academic and literary culture speak to a thinking Christian faith.

The first few chapters ground the author of this collection of essays in the Western rural landscape of North Dakota. Well travelled and full of insight, Woiwode shares personal reflections from his experience as well as deft analysis of a diverse collection of authors such as John Updike, John Gardner, Shakespeare, Bob Dylan, and Wendell Berry.

I especially enjoyed WORDS MADE FRESH’s discussion of rural culture, Western culture and the relationship and the challenges in that culture to living out one’s faith authentically in that setting. My favorite chapter in the book, though, was the stirring argument that Woiwode makes in his essay “Deconstructing God”. Essentially, in this text, Woiwode argues for the inclusion of non-sectarian religious education in public schools, and in a return of schools in many ways to the local community and culture from whence it has sprung.

I would recommend this book for anyone who loves literature and the Lord, or for anyone who loves to take time to consider the world of ideas that literature of all kinds leads us to be curious about.