Say goodbye to The Prayer of Jabez, The Purpose Driven Life, and Boy Meets Girl. Christian pop-culture has a new kid on the block thanks to Donald Miller’s best-seller, Blue Like Jazz.
The growing suburban hipster Christian demographic is growing more powerful, and it has embraced Donald Miller’s latest brain-child. Now we will all be able to witness clean-cut, “relevant,” young college students, pouring over Blue Like Jazz at Dutch Bros. while Switchfoot blasts out from their new silver IPODs.
This book, which falls far short of genius, appeals to those Christians who are becoming increasingly ashamed of their doctrinal beliefs. It revels in abhorring stale Christianity in favor of a touchy-feely, we’re-so-cool-we-discuss-poetry-in-pubs sensibility. Sadly, the result is just another Christian bestseller that will permeate Christian bookstores worldwide in the form of journals, notebook paper, envelopes, t-shirts, caps, and “Blue Like Jazz” study Bibles.
Donald Miller’s book is a shameful and failed attempt to imitate Douglas Coupland, the golden-boy of Generation X fiction. It appeals to the pseudo-intellectual, self-described chic, I’m-too-cool-to-consider-myself-to-be-cool, wannabe urban type of reader.
Miller’s “why can’t we be friends” mentality is a clear representation of the new Christian sub-culture – those desperately trying to appear cool to the world by making malicious stabs at their religious roots. Miller, you’re right. Let’s assert our relevance by casually swearing and peppering our conversation with witty references to Portland pubs and artsy movies – not because we actually care about these things, but because relevance is the god we bow down to in our Don Miller-induced stupor.
All of this might be forgiven, I suppose, except for the fact that this whole package is wrapped up in Miller’s shoddy writing style, and is percolated with his shameless lack of insight. His book is nothing more than a poorly written, poorly executed attempt to make Christianity hip again. But don’t worry, if you still secretly harbor a desire to read this book, all you have to do is go to one out of the plethora of Blue Like Jazz Bible studies that are sure to be springing up in a town near you.
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2 comments:
That review was top-notch. After reading it I find myself wanting to start a white supremacist group and chant things like, "F*$K Donald Miller, and Hail Whitey," but I'm not going to, because, like it or not, "Blue Like Jazz" is the classic sequel to "White Like Whitey: One man's quest to bring life back to neo-nazism," and to go against that book would be to go against everything that I am.
After reading few chapters of this bazaar book, I have concluded I, too, should write a book! If he can make $ writing so poorly, I know I can make $, too! This is too much of a flashback, a time where beatniks would get together. Remember Doby Gillis? Telling my age. forever
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