Monday, October 09, 2006
Nonfiction Book Alert!
Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller
My friend and fellow writer, Michael, told me to read Blue Like Jazz. I loved it.
In Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller creates his own free-form expression of what faith and God means to him. His story is: How shall I live? How shall I love? How shall I believe? He uses his life and the life of his friends and others who have crossed his path to share a unique view of God. Miller opens his book by saying that “In America, the first generation out of slavery invented jazz music. It is a free-form expression. It comes from the soul, and it is true.” Miller also states that he did not love jazz music until he watched someone who loved it play it. He concludes that the same is true of God.
Miller’s voice is very humorous, very straightforward. He is not afraid to make fun of himself, or stereotype other groups as a brother would make fun of his sister. He stands at the center of the story, and at the edge of the story and outside the story. He is very quick to admit his faults, and mistakes in dealing with those around him. He uses very poetic sentences like, “And so from the beginning, the chasm that separated me from God was as deep as wealth and as wide as fashion.” Miller also uses short, and some might say choppy or childlike, sentences: “It is true that Mark said a lot of cusswords. I don’t know why he did it. He didn’t become a Christian till he was in college, so maybe he didn’t know he wasn’t supposed to say cusswords and be a pastor.” Miller also has a style of using people’s full names, or titles, or nicknames that he gives them, every time he mentions them. He uses a very simple active sentence structure that some might argue is juvenile and simple. It turns out this style of writing is very effective.
I personally love riffs. I think Donald Miller does too, because he has lots of stories. His stories always get interrupted or interrupt other things, but he always uses them to present a coherent idea. Sometimes he uses a riff to introduce a few characters, but doesn’t really develop them or explain their significance for another three chapters. His chapters are comprised of many short scenes and vignettes that revolve around the central theme of the chapter, like love or money or worship. I would consider Blue Like Jazz as a kind of memoir or personal essay, he just doesn’t write it chronologically. Instead he breaks his life into tiny little pieces and glues them back together thematically.
It seems to me that Miller has flip-flopped the formality of prose with the informality of dialogue. Miller’s prose is so energetic and alive to me because he has written it as if he was speaking to a friend. His dialogue takes the opposite effect, as if he wrote it for a dissertation on the quantum energy of neutrinos. Miller leaves out the contractions between I and the to be verb a lot.
“Well, Don, it was certainly interesting meeting you. I am sure I will see you again. Maybe won’t recognize you though.”
“Oh, yeah, cool,” I told her. “Maybe not, huh? But don’t worry, I will remind you who I am.”
Sondra Perl and Mimi Schwartz would say there is a certain flatness to that style of dialogue. I would agree. However, it seems to suit Miller and makes him unique.
Miller has a great strength in using specific examples that my mind responds to by saying, “yes, I know exactly what that’s like. I’ve seen/heard/felt/experienced/ that.” I believe Miller’s weakness falls in his voice finding a selective audience. Some reader’s might not like his style. I find it refreshing.
My friend and fellow writer, Michael, told me to read Blue Like Jazz. I loved it.
In Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller creates his own free-form expression of what faith and God means to him. His story is: How shall I live? How shall I love? How shall I believe? He uses his life and the life of his friends and others who have crossed his path to share a unique view of God. Miller opens his book by saying that “In America, the first generation out of slavery invented jazz music. It is a free-form expression. It comes from the soul, and it is true.” Miller also states that he did not love jazz music until he watched someone who loved it play it. He concludes that the same is true of God.
Miller’s voice is very humorous, very straightforward. He is not afraid to make fun of himself, or stereotype other groups as a brother would make fun of his sister. He stands at the center of the story, and at the edge of the story and outside the story. He is very quick to admit his faults, and mistakes in dealing with those around him. He uses very poetic sentences like, “And so from the beginning, the chasm that separated me from God was as deep as wealth and as wide as fashion.” Miller also uses short, and some might say choppy or childlike, sentences: “It is true that Mark said a lot of cusswords. I don’t know why he did it. He didn’t become a Christian till he was in college, so maybe he didn’t know he wasn’t supposed to say cusswords and be a pastor.” Miller also has a style of using people’s full names, or titles, or nicknames that he gives them, every time he mentions them. He uses a very simple active sentence structure that some might argue is juvenile and simple. It turns out this style of writing is very effective.
I personally love riffs. I think Donald Miller does too, because he has lots of stories. His stories always get interrupted or interrupt other things, but he always uses them to present a coherent idea. Sometimes he uses a riff to introduce a few characters, but doesn’t really develop them or explain their significance for another three chapters. His chapters are comprised of many short scenes and vignettes that revolve around the central theme of the chapter, like love or money or worship. I would consider Blue Like Jazz as a kind of memoir or personal essay, he just doesn’t write it chronologically. Instead he breaks his life into tiny little pieces and glues them back together thematically.
It seems to me that Miller has flip-flopped the formality of prose with the informality of dialogue. Miller’s prose is so energetic and alive to me because he has written it as if he was speaking to a friend. His dialogue takes the opposite effect, as if he wrote it for a dissertation on the quantum energy of neutrinos. Miller leaves out the contractions between I and the to be verb a lot.
“Well, Don, it was certainly interesting meeting you. I am sure I will see you again. Maybe won’t recognize you though.”
“Oh, yeah, cool,” I told her. “Maybe not, huh? But don’t worry, I will remind you who I am.”
Sondra Perl and Mimi Schwartz would say there is a certain flatness to that style of dialogue. I would agree. However, it seems to suit Miller and makes him unique.
Miller has a great strength in using specific examples that my mind responds to by saying, “yes, I know exactly what that’s like. I’ve seen/heard/felt/experienced/ that.” I believe Miller’s weakness falls in his voice finding a selective audience. Some reader’s might not like his style. I find it refreshing.
# posted by nonfiction hottie @ 8:22 PM 
