"Where the Light Fell" (Philip Yancey)

TITLE: Where the Light Fell: A Memoir
AUTHOR: Philip Yancey
PUBLISHER: New York, NY: Convergent Books, 2021, (299 pages).
 

Growing up, he never knew how his father died, let alone the painful secrets about his eventual termination. Digging through his family history from an old scrapbook, he learns about the terrible polio disease that hits close to home.  Raised in a poor neighbourhood, who would have known that he would grow up to become one of the most cherished writers in the American evangelical world. While many writers and famous persons write their memoirs first before launching their writing careers, Yancey seems to reverse the trend. Most famous for his books such as "What's So Amazing About Grace" and "The Jesus I Never Knew," after a few decades of writing about spiritual matters, he devotes his latest book to share about his own life journey from boyhood to the present. With a sharp eye for poignant details, he reflects on his past with brutal honestly with subtle hints on how he would have lived any differently. With hindsight from the tragic loss of his dear kitten, he might have second thoughts about getting a pet. With a penchant for details and a creative prowess for storytelling, Yancey is able to help readers put themselves in his shoes. One humorous way is in how he describes a mealtime with food he disliked, such as eating tomatoes. He tells about his experiences living in the South and having first-hand witness of the ugliness of the racial tensions. Moreover, his very own family doctor was a high-ranking member of the KKK! These together with personal details about his family background give readers insights like never before about one of the most celebrated authors in the evangelical world. 

From childhood to high school; college to his own brother's bad experience at a Bible college, he shares his gradual shift out of his fundamentalist church upbringing. It was a difficult journey that sets the stage for his insights about grace. He devotes some detail about how his path diverges from his brother Marshall. Two brothers went to Wheaton but ended up on different paths of faith. Even his own writing career has its moments of difficulty. Once, his own mother was unhappy when he published Soul Survivor which painted a poor light on Southern fundamentalism. This memoir might reopen old wounds, something which the author would have anticipated but still felt the need to share in writing. I sense that in the revelation of such intimate details about his own relationships with his family and his Church upbringing, this memoir might very be his own journey of acceptance and healing. He confesses how this book was conceived over 50 years ago, only to be published much later. 

My Thoughts

Philip Yancey is one of my favourite authors. It is not simply the content of his books that captures my interest, it is also the way he writes. With penetrating truth and open honesty about his own life, he shares his own story in this powerful memoir from the unknown past to today's present. As the author of one of the bestselling books on pain and suffering, "Where is God when it hurts?" his own life is a real-life demonstration of his own grappling with what he wrote. It reminds me of the popular maxim, "Hurt people hurt; Healed people heal." In this memoir, Yancey does not hold back on his past but seeks to know, understand, and reconcile his history with the grace of God he has often taught about. 

Why should anyone read this book? For sure, those who loved reading books by Yancey would pick this book up without a second thought. After all, if readers have been blessed by his earlier books, why not read about the author of such great works! Knowing more about the author could very well give greater insights into the spiritual works of this popular author. Those who are totally new to Yancey might see this book as a launchpad into his other writings. I remember that Yancey himself once lamented on a changing reading climate, that not only is there a decrease in people buying books, there is also a shrinking interest in Christian literature. Like how the author has dealt with change in his own life, we too will need to learn how to deal with changes in our modern world. We need not be afraid to approach our own backgrounds with brutal honesty. If Christ is our Redeemer, surely, he can redeem not only our lives, but our past as well. Yancey knows it and in this memoir of openness, he shows us that he is not afraid of his own past. It is for this very reason that he is able to tell of his own life without fear and with great faith. 

Philip Yancey is the author of over thirty books, including The Jesus I Never Knew, What’s So Amazing About Grace?, and Soul Survivor: How Thirteen Unlikely Mentors Helped My Faith Survive the Church. Yancey’s books have garnered thirteen Gold Medallion Book Awards from Christian publishers and booksellers. He currently has more than seventeen million books in print and has been published in over fifty languages worldwide. Yancey worked as a journalist in Chicago for some twenty years, editing the youth magazine Campus Life while also writing for a wide variety of publications including The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Christianity Today. In 1992, he and his wife, Janet, moved to the foothills of Colorado, where they live now.  

Rating: 4.5 stars of 5.

conrade

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This book has been provided courtesy of Convergent Books and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.