Give me a book and I am like a dog with a bone. I can’t put it down. Such was the case with my latest choice, The Peaceable Kingdom by Jan de Hartog, 1971. “Massive book” “epic fiction,” and “sweeping saga” are just a few of the descriptions given it by various newspaper reviewers. My paperback copy ends on page 896.
Having adopted the motto, “So many books, so little time,” I had stopped reading anything of this length, so it was with some trepidation when I started it. But the book was mentioned by E. Glenn Hinson in an essay entitled “Elpisizing*” (Weavings - A Journal of the Christian Spiritual Life, Volume XXVII, Number 2), and I was intrigued.
How did someone bring hope to young children who were imprisoned in a windowless, smelly, bug-ridden cell in 17th-century England? It was a Quaker, Margaret Fells, the wife of a judge, who did it by moving in with the little ones and improving their conditions. Throughout the narrative in Part One (the first 446 pages), the reader is informed of the origin of the Quaker religion and its tenets and sees it in action.
It’s about one hundred years later when Book Two begins, and the descendants of the Quakers in Part One are residing in Pennsylvania. The theme is no longer prison reform. Slavery and conflict between settlers and Native Americans are addressed. I was spellbound, and so today I decided to just read until I came to the end.
Let me digress a bit. I assume the book is out of print because I had to order a used copy on the Amazon website. I’ve had fairly good luck ordering used books, and the one I chose was supposed to be in good condition. I was a bit surprised when it arrived with the back cover torn (a piece missing) and the page edges looking well-worn. I was more surprised when I was on page 168, opened the book wide, and that entire part of the book just fell off! However, I was the most surprised when I read page 880, and the next page was 893!
What??? What??? How can this be? Here I am at the end of the book, a new generation of Quakers is heading westward, and the narrative stops. It’s gone. I’ve read 880 pages and have no end to the book. I begin stomping around the house in disgust.
I’m not thinking such peaceable thoughts about the bookseller from whom I bought my book. I can think of only one solution to my dilemma. I sit down at the computer and order another copy of the book. A hardbound this time, $7.00. It says I will receive it in A MONTH! I can hardly believe it. By then, I will have met other characters who will have taken over my imagination. But still, I need a resolution after 880 pages.
And now I am going to digress once more. Probably a year ago I received from a friend an e-mailed survey that would reveal how my beliefs related to the tenets of various religions and Christian denominations. Turned out the Quakers and I were in 100% agreement. With my anti-war stance, it shouldn’t have been unexpected, but I knew little about the Friends. Now I understand more, and from what I’ve read, I think my beliefs are very similar to theirs. As it says on page 701, If God is anything at all, He is what St John said he was, what George Fox [who began the Quaker religion] said He was and what Margaret Fell, bless her soul showed He was: love. All other definitions are efforts on our part to evade the demands of that final realization. Yes, that’s what I believe, 100%.
This blog? It’s twofold. It’s the story of this frustrated reader who couldn’t finish her book, and it’s about my continued spiritual quest. It’s about peace and love. I recommend that you read the book, but before you start, be sure all the pages are there.
*the Greek work for “hoping”
No comments:
Post a Comment