Cybercolumn by Brett Younger: The whole story

Posted: 7/14/06

CYBER COLUMN:
The whole story

By Brett Younger

A month and a half ago, The New York Times Book Review ran a cover story asking, “What is the best work of American fiction in the last 25 years?” The editors surveyed 125 prominent writers, critics and literary sages to identify the best novel published since 1980, and 22 books received multiple votes.

I consider myself a reasonably well-read person. Most of the time, I’m working on a book. I carry books with me to the bank in case I get caught in a line. I keep a book in the car in case I have to wait at a drive-thru. I read a lot. So, I assumed—as anyone who knows me would assume—that I’ve read most of the 22 best American novels of the last two and a half decades.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I had read—and this is hard to admit in public—none of them. That’s zero, zip, zilch, nil, nought, none. Apparently the fine novels I’ve read by Dave Barry, Jimmy Buffett and Garrison Keillor are not as respected by prominent writers, critics and literary sages as you would think.

The top five on The New York Times so-called “list,” and I’m telling you this in the hope that you haven’t read them either and will then understand my shock at learning that I’m not well-read after all, were Underworld, Blood Meridian, Beloved, Rabbit Angstrom and American Pastoral. If you are a smart person and haven’t read any of these either, I’m glad to know you’re out there.

So, I decided to stop in the middle of a Calvin and Hobbes and read one of the books in the top five. I went to Barnes and Noble to buy the shortest one, which turned out to be Philip Roth’s American Pastoral. I thought I would enjoy it because I’m an American and a pastor. But before you go to Amazon.com, you should know that, surprisingly, it doesn’t have anything to do with ministers.

It’s the story of Swede Levov, a tall, handsome athlete who marries a beautiful girl and looks like he will live happily ever after. I was immediately interested, because Swede’s story is so uncannily like my life story—except for the tall part and the handsome part and the athletic part. But then Swede’s life falls apart. He becomes a hapless soul overcome by irresistible forces. He watches in bewilderment as everything he treasures blows away. He loses the work he loves, the family he adores and the good health he enjoys.

In one especially painful scene at a 50th high school reunion, friends compare notes on who’s died, who’s remarried, who’s had prostate surgery and who’s lived the hardest life. The last paragraph of the novel is: “And what is wrong with their life? What on earth is less reprehensible than the life of the Levovs?” The point of the story is that the American dream doesn’t come true.

If you’re writing the great American novel, it’s supposed to end in tragedy. Ernest Hemingway said, “Every true story ends in death,” but he was wrong. If you’re writing the gospel of Jesus Christ, thank God there’s a different ending. Philip Roth’s American Pastoral made the top five because the author tries to be honest, but ultimately it’s not nearly so truthful as the Gospel of Matthew, “The righteous will go away into eternal life”; the Gospel of Mark, “Those who lose their life for my sake and for the sake of the gospel will save it”; the Gospel of Luke, “and in the age to come eternal life”; and the Gospel of John, “I am the way, and the truth and the life.”

Our lives don’t have to be about growing older and falling apart. We can grow wiser and live in God’s grace now and forevermore.

Brett Younger is pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth and the author of Who Moved My Pulpit? A Hilarious Look at Ministerial Life, available from Smyth & Helwys (800) 747-3016. You can e-mail him at byounger@broadwaybc.org.

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