Samir Selmanovic

Interesting and often surprising, Selmanovic's book left me feeling hopeful and weary/skeptical all at once. Hopeful that someone speaks respectfully of the journey each person is on and the work that the spirit does; weary that it's taken so long for the dialogue to begin and skeptical that (enough) others are listening to really tip the direction and tone of current faith-based conversations.

I read the book slowly over a protracted period of time. It seemed good to give the ideas time to romp in my head before plowing on. Accessible style with enough structure to keep the prose flowing.… (mehr)

I just could not finish this book, after something like 10 attempts, over the course of 6 years. It is unbelievably boring. Every time the author starts to write about something real - their life, their parishioners - there appears a glimmer of hope, but then he inevitably reverts back to one the emotional fixations he has, that he, for better or for worse, cannot put in words and pass to the reader through the text. At least not to me. It's like hitting a wall on every other page. Insufferable.

He tries to clean his faith from all "non-Gods", from all idols, from everything that is not God, and while poetry and beauty are not the first things on the list, at least officially, they get definitely damaged in the process. Which makes this book really hard to read.… (mehr)