Of Fiction and Faith: Twelve American Writers Talk About Their Vision and Work

Rating:
Summary: Whets my appetite for more good reading
Review: The twelve authors interviewed for this book seem to have, with few exceptions, certain things in common:

1. None of them, with the exception of Garrison Keillor and, possibly, Water Wangerin are huge sellers. In fact, I had never heard of eight of the twelve writers in the book.

2. Although having some connection to the Christian faith, none of them are what you would call "conservative", "evangelical" or "fundamentalist".

3. None of the authors want to be pigeonholed as a "Christian author," or be exiled to the "Christian Bookstore" ghetto. Yet they run into the problem of being too religious for the secularists, and too secular for the religious.

Probably the best thing about this book is that it has turned my on to some authors that were previously unfamiliar to me. The downside of that is that the books mentioned that sound most appealing to me are out of print. This book never fails to be interesting, and althought there are recurring themes (the influence of Flannery O'Connor, etc.), there are some suprises along the way, such as seemingly mild-mannered Garrison Keillor's vitriolic attack on the GOP. One drawback is that some of these interviews are more than a decade old. Nevertheless, this book is a worthwhile purchase.

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful and vital book
Review: This excellent collection of interviews is a wonderful contribution to both the literary and Christian communities. Each of the twelve subjects deserves a greater audience within these two groups, and most of them discuss the difficulties of crossing the divide between them. For readers familiar with the subjects' work, this collection offers a much needed focus on the spiritual themes and influences of their fiction. For new readers, this collection is a perfect introduction to writers worth reading. If you enjoy this book and would like to continue along similar lines, try The Christ-Haunted Landscape:Faith and Doubt in Southern Fiction. This is a collection of interviews with contemporary Southern writers. Susan Ketchin (who is, coincidentally, the wife of Faith and Fiction subject Clyde Edgerton) is the interviewer/author.