John Fischer (1) (1947–)

Growing up in the 1950s, Ben is an unusual boy who can't stand pretense or empty practices, especially when it comes to Christianity. He, along with his relationship with his best friend Jonathan, impacts his community in a remarkable way in Saint Ben by author John Fischer.

Admittedly, I had the wrong impression about this ChristFic book before I started it. I thought it sounded like a story about an innocent boy who's so passionate about God that his passion makes the hypocritical grown-up show more Christians around him see the error of their ways.

But Ben isn't an innocent boy on a mission for God. Ben's friendship with Jonathan, the narrator of this story, isn't a carefree schoolboy friendship. The key grownups in the story aren't one-dimensional pictures of piety. And this isn't a sweet or simplistic little tale with a nice and neat ending.

Sure, it has a nostalgic feel to it, with its '50s setting (still considered contemporary fiction at the time the novel was written) and distinct threads of U.S. history and Americana woven through it. And much of it plainly depicts two boys experiencing the time right before adolescence as they play, wonder, get into humorous mischief, and that kind of stuff.

Yet, though it's simply told, it's a complex story. The kind that's supposed to make you think and feel and think some more. A story that doesn't hand out a bunch of easy answers to the problems it depicts and the questions it raises.

Now, one partly "resolved" matter in the story didn't settle with me, as it addressed the issue of sexual abuse in the church. I understand how the issue would more or less be "over" for the two main characters after a certain point, since neither one of them have been abused. But that kind of problem isn't resolved just because someone may have gotten the offender to stop it. Merely putting a stop to abusive behavior doesn't heal the victims, sweeping the issue under the rug doesn't fix a church or the people in it, and an offender who manages to remain in position is likely to reoffend in the future.

This novel doesn't go further into all of that though, since then it wouldn't be Ben and Jonathan's story. Still, the manipulation, secrecy, and blindness/denial the story touches on there is haunting because it's too common in real life. In too many real churches.

On another note, although the events involving Ben and Jonathan in the novel's last quarter didn't surprise me, my particular sensibilities made a certain aspect of the ending a bizarre, highly disturbing one for me. Creepy as all get-out, and not in a fun way.

Yet, the disturbing, sobering, abundantly meaningful, unusual ending of this book fits the unusual boy who drives the plot...like a motorist in an unusual American automobile.

I can't describe all the ways this story touched me, but I'm unlikely to ever forget it. Once I'm mentally prepared to read the sequel, I will. show less

It's been a few years since Jonathan was faced with the greatest tragedy of his young life. He's still dealing with the aftereffects of loss along with other trials and triumphs of advancing adolescence in The Saints' and Angels' Song by author John Fischer.

Now, one thing I didn't expect this sequel to Saint Ben to be is another Saint Ben, and it isn't. It's quite a different ChristFic book. Still nostalgic in its '60s setting, still amusing at times, still with a literary feel, and still show more full of references to Ben—but quite a different book, all the same. I approached it as a different book as well.

I had a pretty hard time gaining a grasp on it, though. Some parts weren't too interesting for me, I've never liked Jonathan's parents, and this story felt downright weird in places. At times it almost seems like Jonathan is all but obsessed with thoughts of Ben, and the angel theme feels overdone at moments.

Along with the setting and the introduction of a Black character, the N-word shows up in one part of Jonathan's narration as he explains that some people use the word. But it only appears in that one paragraph and isn't flung around in the story's dialogue.

What I like most about this novel (and can also appreciate from the previous one) is how it presents children/adolescents as people, since that's what they are. Jonathan and his young friends aren't experiencing some kind of pre-life or lesser life than that of adults, but they're living life, and I like it when Jonathan plays an active role in determining what may happen next.

And I confess that when folks in the book sang "The Love of God" (the song from which this book gets its title), I sang right along! Granted, I was singing the 2002 MercyMe version, but still. It does make for what's most triumphant about this story. show less

Who Are We to Judge?We have met the Pharisees, and they are...us. That's because we are all slaves to self-righteousness and judgmentalism. It's built into human nature. We set "the standard"--the list of do's and don'ts--to which others must adhere.

(Minor spoilers)I liked the idea and I think I know where the author was going...sort of a "Pilgrim's Progress" with horses...but it either was too long or too short. We have one short story, which is a nice allegory...and then all but one of the characters disappear (die? we are not sure) and another, shorter story begins - and they are connected, but do not form a whole.. It is well written, and nice for horse lovers...but it seemed disjointed. I would liked to have seen the story more show more fully developed. I would love to read more explaining what happened....and what will happen show less