This is my second John Dunbar book in as many weeks, and it leaves me eager for to start my third.
The Uncalled is a lovingly told tale of a Fred Brent, who is the only son of the famous, abusive, vagrant, drunk Tom Brent and mother Margret who dies, it seems of exhaustion, when the child is 5. The boy is unwanted by the town, as the people are suspicious of what good could come of one of Brent blood, and finds himself from the Brent house, "more sagging and diapidated in appearance than its direputatable fellows. From the foundation the walls converged to the roof, which seemed to hold its place less by virtue of nails and rafters than by faith. The whole aspect of the dwelling, if dwelling it could be called, was as if, conscious of its own meanness, it was shrinking away from its neighbours and into itself," to under the auspices of Hester Prime, a woman with severe ideas about duty, and a clear account of how the Devil lives in the mischief of young boys. Fred Brent's strict puritanical upbringing is mitigated by one of Hester's few friends, Eliphalet Hodge. Thankfully, Eliphalet takes a softer view of raising children that includes the occasional toy, candy and baseball game.
Hester connives to guide Fred into becoming a preacher and the balance of the book is the way that Fred negotiates Hester's sense of duty, Fred's first love, and the legacy of shame and evil inherited by being one of Tom Brent's brood.
I will boldly say that this is the best Christian fiction I have ever read. I haven't read much Christian lit, so you don't have to read too much into that statement. The story is exquisite, and the message of faith and redemption is muted to an appropriate pitch, and my only qualm with the book is the dialogue. Dunbar's fine and elegant prose is ruined for me because he insists on writing vernacular dialogue, a la twain. My mind and tougue have a hard enough time finding their way around the King's English, such that I'm thankful that this book is not dialogue heavy because if it were, I don't know if I would be able to endure it. The dialogue is true to life, and Dunbar does an admirable job of showing how the accent changes depending on the quality of education of the speaker.
I like Sport of the Gods better as a story, but just barely.