If you're involved on some Christmas frenzy (of your own making or someone else's) but don't have time to get into some new books right away, may I suggest Paul Elie's brief meditation on faith and fiction in today's New York Times Book Review Section?
Elie isn't happy with the way faith is depicted in fiction--and we're talking real littacher here, not those Amish romances by Beverly Lewis. I'm intrigued by what seems to be a stab at a critical perspective that demands more from books that purport to be about faith and its effects on the human condition. Why not let serious, intelligent critics approach literature from the lens of faith and religion? The Marxists and feminists have had their chance, not to mention the deconstructionists, and I don't think theological criticism could be any more obtuse than what Jacques Derrida dreamed up.
What I like about Elie is that he's not calling for some kind of intellectual machinations that will support the books on the Roman Catholic Church's "condemned list" or carry the cross to the burning ground of "sinful" books.
Rather, he's challenging writers to delve more freely and truthfully into what faith means and how it works in our lives. Plus anybody who mentions both Dave Eggers and Flannery O'Conner in the same essay must be on to something interesting.
OK, I gotta go check on my own Christmas frenzy, and then I'll be back, catching up on a whole bunch of new reviews.
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