This review was originally written in 2007. I am moving reviews from my general blog to my book review blog.
I am always on the look out for books that bring to life other
cultures and other ways of living and this book certainly does that. It
is the story of a son of a Christian minister, who was killed during
the Boxer Rebellion in China. Theodore, the son and a very devout
Christian, escapes and ends up traveling to Tibet with an Englishwoman
who is a botanist and her Chinese escort. Theodore has his Christian
faith sorely tested and ends up still a believer, but with a much
broader view of the range of human experience, both religious and
secular.
I enjoyed the book, but toward the end, I
felt it got to be rather long. I guess it reflects my own bias, because
the religious parts interested me less than the cultural and travel
oriented parts. I even liked the botanical things more than I cared for
the religion. But, I also remember my early teen years when I was
staunchly religious and I think that this might have appealed to me
then.
I am not sure how current teens would react to
the strict Christian dogma that Theodore seems to espouse. I think many
would find it rather outdated. But then I think about how some people
nowadays go around asking you if you are a "Christian" and basing a lot
of their opinion of you on your answer to that question. It is a
question that makes me uncomfortable, as I feel that religion is a
completely personal thing, something I would much rather keep entirely
to myself.
Again, I enjoyed the book, but I am not sure it would appeal as much to current day teens.
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