Dear Church Family and Friends,
Recently, I compiled a list of ten books that I thought I needed to read for one reason or another. I have created similar reading lists in the past and have usually found myself failing to master the list at hand after petering out about halfway through the first book. This time I quickly realized that I faced a similar danger, except for one advantage: some of the books are on cd, and I do seem to actually finish books while driving.
I am now on the second book from my list, and this book is undoubtedly the true test of whether I will indeed conquer any more books or find my ambitions cut short once again. The book is none other than the monstrous mother of all novels: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. In print, it is 1386 pages in length. I confess to nearly succumbing to the infamous petering out disease multiple times already.
I heartily warn any church member against listening to this book on cd if one wishes to crawl to the top of this rugged literary peak. The book has a bewildering array of characters with Russian names that all sound alike to the untrained ear. Moreover, half of them seem to be Russian princes or princesses of one sort or another making it nearly impossible to keep them all separated in one’s mind while driving down I-5. Admittedly, my experience of the novel would be different if I were reading it off the printed page as I tracked the different characters, so to give Tolstoy a fair assessment I have made a trip to the library to obtain the actual book (and its Cliff Notes).
As I recommit myself to the book, I recall that Tolstoy once wrote, “Great works of art are only great because they are accessible and comprehensible to everyone.” I am still waiting to determine whether War and Peace is a great work by Tolstoy’s own standard. In the meantime, it strikes me that there may be a potential parallel between the quest to read the mother of all novels and the life of faith. At various moments in our lives, we may find ourselves bewildered and confused in our search for meaning, but every now and then, we are able to reach a peak—or at least at plateau—from which we can look out and see with our very own eyes a tremendous epiphany. All at once the divine becomes accessible like a great work of art.
Your brother in Christ,
Pastor Brooks