I have to be honest that I’m not the kind that’s much up for a fiction book, but this one caught my eye.  It’s based upon a remarkable true story and yet definitely blends itself with fiction, allegory, and some inspiration.

The story is of this little town of the Gulf coast. The town is filled with people with their problems and issues and yet this old man, named Jones, seems to show up in these people’s lives right when they are on the verge of losing hope. After several hours of talking with Jones, who seems to know everything about everyone, they make a change in their lives because they made a change in their perspective.

The book to me seemed to drag on for me to different characters every chapter and I wasn’t quite understanding the connection as a storyline. I suppose I began the book thinking it was about the first person writer named Andy, but it was more about the old man named Jones and the new perspective he was wanting people to gain.

The “quick” fix to people’s perspectives seems a little too unbelievable for me. The wisdom kind of sounded a lot like messages at a church on a given Sunday. Not saying they weren’t helpful, but it was striking that these people’s perspectives were changed so quickly.

In the end, I found it full of little wisdom nuggets that was more than just the idea of gaining a new perspective. The end of the book has questions that make for good discussions in book clubs or church small groups. Reading a chapter at a time and then doing the questions would be something I believe the book is perfect for in order to gain the true perspective the book deserves.

Check out the book and other valuable resources surrounding the book here at Thomas Nelson Publishers.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 4th, 2009 at 7:19 pm and is filed under Random Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.