Saturday, November 05, 2005

through painted deserts

I recently finished Donald Miller's
Through Painted Deserts : light, God, and beauty on the open road.
It is the revised edition of his first published book : Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen maintenance, and it reads both ways. He is simplistic, telling great stories (like you'd imagine a good writer's first book to be, maybe). But he also strikes off in Miller-style God-ramblings. They are great ramblings including places and people they meet along the way.
And, in terms of Blue Like Jazz or Searching for God Know What, this book has even more personal/living character to it because of the narrative it is following. Don and his friend Paul are leaving Houston, Texas for Oregon. Paul is from Oregon - Don has never been. At one point they are discussing loving nature and living in Texas - Paul says:

"I don't mean any disrespect. I truly don't. But Texas isn't nature. Texas is city and smog and humidity and heat. If you want to hunt and fish, that's fine, but if you want to climb and kayak and all, no luck."

This is their journey, and it is a perfect context for Miller to weave questions and inspirations about life. AND - I read in a Q & A with Don that he had hoped to include the words "in America" to the title - "light, God, and beauty on the open road in America." That is fitting; this book relates to our specific American society right now, from the land's terrian to the culture's values. These are the painted deserts this book moves through.
Of course, this connection with the land is a huge draw for me. I'm not ashamed of that - and I don't think it's something like, "well, Shaun likes Thoreau and Wendell Berry ... you know, that connection to nature stuff." No. That's not why I like this book. I think there is a theme in great writers and thinkers of the act of land, nature, and wildness feeding our imagination. I don't think it's some "style" of writing that I just happen to enjoy and some writers just happen to employ.
Here's quote I love from Through Painted Deserts "the Woods" chapter. Don finds himself in the woods, staring at the stars at night:

... nature has never inspired me until now. God is an artist, I think to myself. I have known this for a long time, seeing His brushwork in the sunrise and sunset, and His sculpting in the mountains and the rivers. But the night sky is His greatest work. And I would have never known it if I had stayed in Houston. I would have bought a little condo and filled it with Ikea trinkets and dated some girl just because she was hot and would have read self-help books, end to end, one after another, trying to fix the gaping hole in the bottom of my soul, the hole that, right now, seems plugged with Orion, allowing my soul to collect that feeling of belonging and love you only get when you stop long enough to engage the obvious.

These declarations line the book, couched within the story of two guys beginning a friendship & asking real life questions on the roads of America in a volkswagen van. The first chapter is titled Leaving. The last chapter is titled Sunrise. They are most appropriate to the story; and it is good from beginning to end.

highly recommended,

-s.o

2 Comments:

Blogger Brian Rhea said...

this sounds amazing! thanks for the review and for the great quotes. it's got me longing for rural America again.

a couple of summer's ago when we were living in Paris and planning the wedding, Laura's dad who is big-time in to astronomy would "walk" us through the night sky. it got to the point where we could pick out a lot of constellations ourselves and as the season aged, we observed the sky's face changing.

last weekend, we were in Paris and I went outside one night. i looked up at the sky and could barely find my way to the north star. it made me sad. it was like i'd lost touch with some dear friends.

9:30 PM  
Blogger s.o said...

good way to put it.
I'd love to know more about astronomy myself. miller "struck a chord" with me when he described that experience - Orion plugging the hole in his heart.

real.

11:37 AM  

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