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| "The Reader" by Henry A. "Harry" Payne. 1933. Source: Wiki Gallery |
Full text of
Liron Rubin's review of "Save Send Delete" from Amazon, below. Liron
Rubin's original review can be viewed here.
***
"Save Send Delete" is beautifully written, funny, courageous, and heartbreaking
Warning: Do not read this book if you have to go to work in the morning. I started "Save Send Delete" on Tuesday evening, thinking I'd read for a couple of hours and then sack out. I didn't put the book down until 3 a.m., four hours before the dreaded beeping noise of the alarm clock. The book is that good. Or, as Goska would no doubt write, *that* good.
"Save Send Delete" is not what I expected it to be--to wit, a "Dangerous Liaisons" for Christians. It is, instead, a moving argument for faith in this vale of tears. Rarely have I read so convincing an argument for the religious worldview, and rarely have I been so powerfully moved by a book that is not a novel. No, "Save Send Delete" is not a Christian book; it is a book for anyone who wishes to understand something about love, compassion, forgiveness, suffering, for anyone who grapples with the following questions: Why I am here? WTF is it all about? What is God?
"Save Send Delete" is beautifully written. The style, which achieves the admirable feat of being both ice-cold and white-hot, is electrifying. Goska is never preachy, condescending, or, worse, sentimental. She states her arguments elegantly and clearly, and she has the wit and grace to remember that there are, after all, other opinions, other worldviews. One passage (I won't tell you which) helped me to resolve an issue that has been vexing me for some time. For that, I am grateful to the author.
"Save Send Delete" is funny. Goska's good-natured ribbing of her interlocutor is so funny (and, at times, raunchy) that even a potty-mouthed sailor like yours truly was impressed. I particularly liked this: "That's why you stopped believing in God? Because your debate opponent's stack of three-by-five cards was taller than yours? You p**sy."
"Save Send Delete" is courageous. For one who, as she tells us, was never taught to say "no" as a child, Goska seems to be doing a fine job of it as an adult: "No" to political correctness; "No" to apologists for jihad and Islamic misogyny; "No" to identity politics and self-pity; "No" to educators who encourage laziness in children. Instead, Goska urges us to say "Yes": "Yes" to calling atrocities by their name; "Yes" to forgiveness and compassion; "Yes" to God.
Finally, "Save Send Delete" is heartbreaking. Some of the emails are so raw in their melancholy and hurt that I found myself putting the book down at frequent intervals. I'm thinking, here, of the emails about the author's hellish period as a grad student, the emails about keeping faith in God in the face of mind-numbing suffering, and the emails about suicide. Virgil was right: there are tears in things.
Five stars for heart, five stars for mind. "Save Send Delete" is one hell of a book.
***
"Save Send Delete" is beautifully written, funny, courageous, and heartbreaking
Warning: Do not read this book if you have to go to work in the morning. I started "Save Send Delete" on Tuesday evening, thinking I'd read for a couple of hours and then sack out. I didn't put the book down until 3 a.m., four hours before the dreaded beeping noise of the alarm clock. The book is that good. Or, as Goska would no doubt write, *that* good.
"Save Send Delete" is not what I expected it to be--to wit, a "Dangerous Liaisons" for Christians. It is, instead, a moving argument for faith in this vale of tears. Rarely have I read so convincing an argument for the religious worldview, and rarely have I been so powerfully moved by a book that is not a novel. No, "Save Send Delete" is not a Christian book; it is a book for anyone who wishes to understand something about love, compassion, forgiveness, suffering, for anyone who grapples with the following questions: Why I am here? WTF is it all about? What is God?
"Save Send Delete" is beautifully written. The style, which achieves the admirable feat of being both ice-cold and white-hot, is electrifying. Goska is never preachy, condescending, or, worse, sentimental. She states her arguments elegantly and clearly, and she has the wit and grace to remember that there are, after all, other opinions, other worldviews. One passage (I won't tell you which) helped me to resolve an issue that has been vexing me for some time. For that, I am grateful to the author.
"Save Send Delete" is funny. Goska's good-natured ribbing of her interlocutor is so funny (and, at times, raunchy) that even a potty-mouthed sailor like yours truly was impressed. I particularly liked this: "That's why you stopped believing in God? Because your debate opponent's stack of three-by-five cards was taller than yours? You p**sy."
"Save Send Delete" is courageous. For one who, as she tells us, was never taught to say "no" as a child, Goska seems to be doing a fine job of it as an adult: "No" to political correctness; "No" to apologists for jihad and Islamic misogyny; "No" to identity politics and self-pity; "No" to educators who encourage laziness in children. Instead, Goska urges us to say "Yes": "Yes" to calling atrocities by their name; "Yes" to forgiveness and compassion; "Yes" to God.
Finally, "Save Send Delete" is heartbreaking. Some of the emails are so raw in their melancholy and hurt that I found myself putting the book down at frequent intervals. I'm thinking, here, of the emails about the author's hellish period as a grad student, the emails about keeping faith in God in the face of mind-numbing suffering, and the emails about suicide. Virgil was right: there are tears in things.
Five stars for heart, five stars for mind. "Save Send Delete" is one hell of a book.
Liron Rubin from Amazon is touched.
ReplyDelete--Liron Rubin
LR, I am grateful for every review I get, and I don't want to single anybody out ... but your review was amazing. Intelligent, articulate, beautifully written ... WOW. Thank you.
DeleteThank me? Me?
ReplyDeleteThank YOU. You wrote a fine book, an important book--a book!
I merely posted a review on the free space provide by Amazon. I do not write for The Effing New York Review of Books, Dr. Goska. I am not an influential person.
You, however, wrote a book. A book!
Liron Rubin
What's the emoticon for "smiling a ridiculous smile"?
ReplyDelete:-)