Ghosts: The Story of a Reunion

Although this is a fiction novel, I almost relate it to C. S. Lewis' `A Grief Observed` because it relates, in fiction form, the same grief and honesty that Lewis offered. This is the first work of Adrian Plass that I have read but I plan to read many more. This review is from the audio book format with Plass as the narrator which certainly added to the enjoyment of the book as the author provides the tempo and inflection meant when the book was written. The story is told from David Herrick's perspective, a grief stricken Christian speaker by trade, and explores all the nuances of Christian bereavement. Conversations (prayers) with God, to God, at God are woven throughout the book making it identifiable to all Christians who have lost someone dear to them. An unbeliever reading this novel would be surprised at the admittance. A believer reading this book will smile and connect with the honesty. In this story, David Herrick has lost his beloved wife and struggles with all the words, phrases and counsel he has offered to others in his many years as a famous Christian speaker. He accepts a mysterious offer from a long ago friend from his high school youth group at church. More mysterious is the fact that Angela, the hostess, schedules the reunion because of a request his late wife had made shortly before her death. They meet for a weekend in a haunted manor and set the agenda for all to spend their time there being `open and vulnerable.' Many years have passed since their weekly youth group where they had shared their thoughts and dreams as teenagers. Now, they revisit some memories and make many more. It is a very enjoyable book. I found the conversations that David Herrick has with the other members of the group insightful, witty and winsome. The English conversational style is art all its own and discussions in this book stir the readers mind to wonder if the dialogue would be same given the situation. The title `Silver Birches' brings to mind the poem `Birches` by Robert Frost evoking a new meaning to the poem, well at least for me. "One could do worse than be a swinger of birches." For a trip into the mind of a grieving Christian (pain is pain whether you are a believer or not), for the enjoyable dialogue, the deep sense of walking with Christ and how it relates to the hard moments of life, pick this book and find a fictional story of honesty, reflection, grief, loss, and the many miracles that God performs in the lives of those who follow Him.

I've read a lot of books that tell a good story, but books that are really well written, those which really paint pictures with words, which make you feel the story are few and far between. Maybe that's because I generally prefer fluffy light fiction, or maybe it is because being able to write like that is an exceptional talent. Anyone can say there is a red-painted vase with a yellow sun. A few gifted writers can make you feel the red, and use the red to set the overall tone of the scene. Adrian Plass, author of Silver Birches is such an author. The main character in Silver Birches is David, a man in his late 30's/early 40's, who was recently widowed. David is one of those guys who makes his living talking about Jesus, but he hasn't given a speech since his wife died. He is evaluating what he wants to do with his life, and falling into depression when he gets a call from an old friend of his wife. The three of them had been in the same church youth group in their teens. Angela told him that his wife had given her something to give to him. She wanted to give it to him at her house, an old English manor, on a weekend attended by other friends from that youth group. He agrees to attend, as do several other people. The group gets together with the goal of telling the others their greatest fear. They eat, drink and talk. We learn about their hurts, fears, faith--and for some, lack thereof. That being said, this isn't the typical Christian novel. For one thing, I have read that some industry standards for Christian novels require that Christians do not drink alcohol. In this book they do, socially and without adverse effects. Also while the thread that holds these people together is membership in a church youth group, many of the stories told and issues addressed could be those of any group of almost middle-aged adults. I don't really want to give anything away (but this book is much more about the characters than the plot) but at the end one of the characters embraces traditional Christian sexual morality and rejects today's "if it is what I'm attracted to, it must be good". As I noted at the beginning, what struck me most about this book was the absolutely beautiful use of language. It is faith-based fiction and anyone who has been on one of those youth group weekend retreats with their Saturday night combination of sleep deprivation, prayer, candle or firelight and introspection will feel at home around the fire with this group. Just in case you haven't figured it out, I loved this book

"Famous Christian" David Herrick finds his theology and his faith somewhat lacking when his wife, Jessica, dies. Still grieving after six months, David is surprised to receive a letter from Angela, a longtime friend of Jessica's whom David met when the three were involved in a youth group some 15 years earlier. Even more surprising is Angela's reason for writing: Several days before her death, Jessica wrote to Angela and sent her something to give David after she died, at a time and place of Angela's choosing. Recently divorced, Angela lives in Headly Manor, "one of the most haunted houses in England," which she and her ex-husband used as a source of income by charging visitors to experience the legendary residence of assorted ghosts. She plans a weekend reunion for those in the youth group that she and Angela knew best and tells David she will give him Jessica's gift at that time. If all this sounds like a setup for a predictable romance between David and Angela, you'll be delighted to know that British author Adrian Plass's writing is anything but predictable. He consistently turns away from the obvious plot path, opting instead for less-traveled roads that not only keep the story moving along but also offer far more interesting opportunities for the characters to show themselves for who they are. Each of the former friends who meet at the house for the weekend is a fully developed, fully believable character haunted by his or her personal ghosts. Headly Manor's ghosts may be imaginary, but the ghosts that accompany the reunion guests are all too real. From the start, you sense that GHOSTS is going to turn out to be a "Christian" book --- God speed the day when we can discard that designation! --- like no other you've read. After an opening in which David has a nightmare within a nightmare, Plass begins to tip his hand and reveal himself as the extraordinary writer he is. His poignant portrayal of David's approach to processing his grief --- his unwillingness to move the books on Jessica's nightstand or disturb the other "tiny museums of personal randomness" for months after her death --- culminates in David's suggestion that God reward his faithful service in ministry by allowing Jessica to appear to him one last time. It's a request that under other circumstances David would likely call unbiblical, but grief does that to a person. It changes one's theology, if only temporarily. The events of the weekend comprise the largest share of the story, a story that Plass tells both skillfully and beautifully. The skill is evidenced by his ability to express spiritual and psychological truth with subtlety and finesse; the beauty is evidenced in Plass's apparent love of language, which he uses with grace and elegance. Throughout, the dialogue and action are wholly believable; the reunion guests are real people whose faith has at times taken quite the beating --- and whose spiritual struggles are nowhere near over. As the weekend unfolds, so do the hi

It's a good book.The worst out of the way first---I'm not sure if I buy some of the plot contrivance: why the five (other than David) accepted an invitation to this reunion, why they would feel at all open to sharing their deepest fears with people they (for the most part) hadn't seen in over a decade. Plass' solution is possible, but it feels as if it were on the fringes of possibility.His characters and themes, on the other hand, are evidently and powerfully true-to-life for the evangelical Christian, so much so that when I felt myself poking holes in the plot, I told myself to stop---I didn't want to ask those questions of this book. It had too much other truth to tell me.Adrian Plass is good at naming what goes on in the evangelical, and in this book specifically, what the evangelical is afraid of. We're afraid of death, afraid to find out that the vast majority of people we know are right (there really is no God), afraid that our secrets are too dark for the holiness our God and church demand of us, afraid that our "Christian" persona lies about our insecurities. Plass, as usual (see his other works), goes right ahead and names these fears---the worst is out in the open---then writes grace into the script. The people in the story have to name their worst fear in front of the other people (it's a sort of ice-breaker, go figure). Then the other characters in the story give the fearer love, acceptance, and hope with well-timed, well-chosen words and actions. Because Plass is so right about the fears, I'm ready to believe him when he talks about the grace. In fact, his book is grace, a gift of hope to the people who struggle in the ways that his characters struggle, so in a way, his book proves that what he says is right.In particular, these characters return to their youth-group reunion bruised by other people, but through the others in this group comes the love that is their hope. That's a vision of the church I could get excited about.

I enjoyed this book very much -- it wasn't a typical Christian formula story by a Christian author. The book showed the life struggles of several seemingly real characters -- and how none of their lives are what they had imagined them to be 20 years earlier. It reminded me of a Christian version of the movie "The Big Chill." I am anxious to read more by this author.