Into the Fire

Well . . . for those of you who enjoyed the film “Big Fish” or for those of you who reveled in the novel My Name Is Russell Fink or for those of you who figured you played your best music or wrote your finest words under the influence of LSD, I recommend the short but eccentric novel Danny Gospel by David Athey. If you have any doubts as to your own mental health, you might want to skip this one because it is a surreal adventure into a world where you’re never sure if any of it represents solid ground or a reality to be salvaged.

Those who prefer to read—and write—“literary” prose often shower novels such as this one with praises which include words like “profound”, “compelling”, “mystical”. And this is in fact a well-written imaginative story with characters who seem to float in and out of realism and sensibility landing somewhere indefinably in between.

Danny Gospel is the middle child with an older brother Jon and a little sister Holly, growing up in a family who gives free concerts performing gospel songs and Negro spirituals all over the fairs, at festivals, and in churches throughout Iowa. With Dad’s baritone voice and Johnny Cash dress, Mom’s angelic Celtic harp and floor length black hair, Grammy’s “sweet guitar”, Jon’s banjo, and Holly’s old violin, the family sang hymns and watched people come to Jesus when they weren’t trying to keep their farm producing crops. After the tragic death of the Christmas-loving Holly, the Gospel family crumbles and dies leaving only Jon and Danny. As a young adult, Danny’s existence has slipped into a stream of consciousness journey which involves a number of pigs, a mysterious woman in white, the dream of getting married on Christmas Eve to an ex-girlfriend, a pink Cadillac with lifts, a spontaneous recitation of a made up poem on a pool table resulting in a barroom brawl, and the persistent desire and pursuit of a “normal, happy life” which in no way takes place through the pages of his story.

“Literary” is code for scintillating language skills and usage, describing character-driven pieces. In Danny Gospel there are abundant pictures of very vivid and unique characters, scenes, and circumstances, often shimmering and glowing in brilliant colors and lights, continually shifting like tectonic plates under California, and all of which I’m quite sure symbolize more things than I’m capable of identifying with my small mind. And while I think the book quite inventive, I’m not convinced it warrants the interpretations given by the elite literary crowd who praised the work in the endorsements at the beginning of the novel. The story is a clever and compassionate approach to the pain and sorrows of a lonely, oddball member of a family ravaged by tragedy and alienation, but it feels more like an exercise in creative writing at a high level where it seems the talent of David Athey has been given a road to ramble down in novel form, no doubt pleasing his like-minded editor, Dave Long, at Bethany House.

Father, you are the God of all creation. I pray you would continue to inspire David with the unique and colorful ways you’ve designed for him to write. Help him to hear your voice all along the way. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.