Another reviewer here called it "the War and Peace of manga"; how perfect.
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is a sweeping tale of agape. Nausicaä’s heart for all creatures –– human, animal, plant, even the parasitic Toxic Jungle –– is full to bursting, vibrant and selfless. It's awe-inspiring; we need paragons of virtue like her in fiction. It almost pushes the comparison from War and Peace, which is full of the most scattered, realistically messy heroes and heroines possible, to The Lord of the Rings, which really gives mythic proportions of virtue to its characters, as a form of showing us not what life is like, but what we are capable of as humans, as bearers of the flame of humanity, a flame which will live forever - which must live.
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is a sweeping tale of agape. Nausicaä’s heart for all creatures –– human, animal, plant, even the parasitic Toxic Jungle –– is full to bursting, vibrant and selfless. It's awe-inspiring; we need paragons of virtue like her in fiction. It almost pushes the comparison from War and Peace, which is full of the most scattered, realistically messy heroes and heroines possible, to The Lord of the Rings, which really gives mythic proportions of virtue to its characters, as a form of showing us not what life is like, but what we are capable of as humans, as bearers of the flame of humanity, a flame which will live forever - which must live.
How do you write a veritable epic, a trilogy with such a breadth of humanity and inhumanity, all contained in a few square kilometres of rural, biting Sweden?
Beartown is essentially a perfect novel. Of all the 21st-century authors I've read, Fredrik Backman has created the most astoundingly real characters to experience. You truly feel that some of Beartown's residents were not built for those climes (both literal and emotional), and the cold begins to seep into the cracks in their foundations. All the best suspenseful fiction knows that the cold is a dread catalyst. But, in turn, some of them really are bears, with an incorruptible core of warmth - whether they choose to share it or keep it to themselves.
I greatly appreciate that it stands perfectly well on its own legs; that being said, there should be a one-volume edition of this series, so that people truly appreciate how incredible this achievement of Backman's is.
Beartown is essentially a perfect novel. Of all the 21st-century authors I've read, Fredrik Backman has created the most astoundingly real characters to experience. You truly feel that some of Beartown's residents were not built for those climes (both literal and emotional), and the cold begins to seep into the cracks in their foundations. All the best suspenseful fiction knows that the cold is a dread catalyst. But, in turn, some of them really are bears, with an incorruptible core of warmth - whether they choose to share it or keep it to themselves.
I greatly appreciate that it stands perfectly well on its own legs; that being said, there should be a one-volume edition of this series, so that people truly appreciate how incredible this achievement of Backman's is.
This is a clear, engaging, comprehensive and, dare I say, life-changing synthesis of Sts. Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, one of the heaviest-hitting duos in the Church's history when it comes to illuminating God and the powers of the soul. Fr Dubay's thesis bears out completely truthfully: the Spanish saints preach nothing more, and nothing less, than the Gospel message, a truly convicting realization that dispels the mistaken notion that the "mysticism" they espouse is only for the greatest souls among us. Rather, every soul is called to be close to God, and it's so much less daunting when you realize the extent to which Teresa and John *love* God; so infectiously are they enamoured by God that you can't help but want to have what they have, regardless of where you are in your own spiritual life. It's an incredibly forceful realization, distilled masterfully by Fr Dubay. The image of the "fire within", an admittedly common metaphor for the Spirit, struck me so strongly because I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy in close sequence to finishing this book, and that story's message about "carrying the fire" (chiefly meaning hope and love) in the bleakest of trials is strikingly concordant with Catholic theology, made so raw and desirable. Whether you have read the primary writings of St Teresa or St John (which I highly recommend, the two I've read being The Interior Castle and Ascent of Mount Carmel) or you haven't, Fr Dubay's work will give you the confidence to show more seek God more intimately in your daily life. His love and union is not reserved for monks and nuns; it is for *all*. show less