For almost a decade now, religion books have been the publishing
industry's "big story," surprising even the most savvy and sympathetic experts by both their sustained growth and the increasing sophistication and range of their topics. Now, as the first year of a new millennium ends, publishing's big story itself has a big story. Religion fiction.
Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins' "Left Behind" series has led the way,
growing
steadily in popular appeal and audience during the past 18 months. "The
Indwelling," the seventh volume in the projected 12-volume "Left
Behind"
series, was published in May to huge sales, but by this fall, when
volume
eight, "The Mark," appeared, the buzz of anticipation had grown so
exponentially that its publisher, Tyndale House, ordered up an nearly
unprecedented first printing of two and a half million copies, only to
have
to rush back to press for an additional 300,000 copies immediately upon the
book's November 11 release. In total, "Left Behind" products (including
audio
and kids' books as well as the adult titles) number more than 30 million
units.
Though LaHaye and Jenkins have undoubtedly spearheaded the Christian
fiction
push, readers have bought all kinds of Christian fiction for pleasure
this
year. Vinita Hampton Wright's "Velma Still Cooks in Leeway" has enjoyed
not
only reader approval but strong critical acclaim; reviewers have pointed
to
"Velma" as a strong sign that Christian publishers are starting to care
about literary fiction.
Other titles, like Sharon Ewell Foster's "Passing by Samaria" and Lynne
Hinton's "Friendship Cake," though less piercing than "Velma," have also
won
reader loyalty. Remarkably accomplished for a first novel, Foster's
"Samaria" crosses another border by featuring an African-American heroine, Alena, whose story deals openly and movingly with the consequences of racism in post-World War I Chicago. Hinton's
"Friendship Cake"
moves
far more quietly through a circle of women who, in swapping recipes,
manage
as well to swap intimacy and their own unpretentious lives.
Conservative groups say Americans want their stories without violence or
overt sex or foul language. The accuracy of that assertion accounts to
some
degree for the commercial success this year of such books as "Velma" and
"Samaria," but attributing these novels' success to a moral code
external to
the books themselves is unfair as well as simplistic. Morally correct
fiction has long been a staple of evangelical Christian publishing
houses.
But the new Christian authors have jumped out of that
venue--"Friendship"
is published by commercial publisher HarperSanFrancisco, for
instance--and
have shown a marked willingness to tell a story with credible realism as
well as spiritual candor and literary skill. Foster, Hinton, Wright,
and
several others to break out into larger markets this year may see life
through a Christian lens, but they record that vision as would honest
and
creative artists of any stripe who trust their material and whose first
loyalty is to the story.
The continued boom in religion books has not been limited to Christian fiction, nor simply to fiction for adults. Dvora Waysman's "Esther--A
Jerusalem Love Story" from Simcha
Press
is the quintessential example of the emergence of more sophisticated
books
for Jewish readers. The nearly
autobiographical story of a
young
woman's moving to Israel at all costs has moved hearts (as well as cash
registers) all fall.
As for kids' books, no book in publishing history,
not even John
Grisham's
novels, have created the furor that the new "Harry Potter and the
Goblet of
Fire" triggered last July. But this fall, concern about Harry's total
dominance of young minds and souls began to pale, however, with the
publication of "The Amber Spyglass," the long-awaited and final volume
in
Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy.
Borrowing heavily from John Milton's "Paradise Lost," Pullman's series
has
commanded large audiences from the beginning, but response to the
trilogy's
concluding volume has exceeded every expectation. "The Amber Spyglass,"
which had placed high on every major best-seller list (and has earned
the
recommendation of Potter author J.K. Rowling herself) is overtly
anti-Judeo-Christian. God, according to Pullman, is nothing more than
the
first creature to evolve from the dust of proto-time, and the accretion
of
centuries of theology is humankind's greatest encumbrance.
While fiction may have dominated the religion market, its first cousins
of
autobiography and memoir ran a close second. The year saw two appealing
and
warmly received biographies by two of America's most controversial
theologians. Bishop John Shelby Spong moved many readers with the
poignancy
of "Here I Stand," while he enraged others with what they saw as
self-aggrandizing
associations with the life and times of Martin Luther and the first
Reformation. Dominic Crossan's "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" both
endeared
this Jesus Seminar veteran to many with its love stories and annoyed those who find heresy resident among all historical Jesus scholars.
One of the more arresting phenomena of the reading year was the presence on
list after list of Annie LaMott's memoir, "Traveling Mercies." Published
in
1999, "Traveling" came into its own this year as that thing every
publisher
dreams of: a word-of-mouth sensation. LaMott, often referred to as "the
Christian with a truck driver's mouth," has a salty, no-nonsense faith
that
is accessible and credible.
The other shining star in the memoir category was Hannah Green's
posthumous
"Little Saint." The story balances Green's expatriate life in the
south-central French village of Conques and the life of a fourth-century
Christian martyr, Sainte Foy, whose remains are venerated in Conques.
"Little Saint" carefully and exquisitely renders one Protestant woman's
struggle to engage and finally understand the business of saints and of
their place in the life of faith
This year was a lucrative as well as productive time for serious or
thoughtful nonfiction as well. Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz's "A Guide to
Jewish
Prayer" will stand for years as a masterful and comprehensive treatment
of
its subject. David Noel Freedman's "The Nine Commandments" first roused
and
then sustained public interest with its thesis that the 10th Commandment
underlies all the others. Keith Hopkins' "A World Full of Gods" took a
quirky but scholarly and refreshing approach to what the author calls
in
his sub-title "The Strange Triumph of Christianity." By the time Hopkins, a
real-life British scholar, has finished moving his paid time-traveler
assistants back and forth from his own real-time university offices to the
sites and events of early Christianity, even the most sober reader is charmed
as well as informed. One of the year's surprises was the number and commercial success of
patently Catholic titles. "I Like Being Catholic," edited by Michael Leach
and Therese J. Borchard, landed almost instantly on Publishers Weekly's
religion best-seller list, presumably selling to non-Catholic as well as
Catholic audiences. Another highly successful title that clearly
appealed to
Protestant as well as Catholic audiences was Bert Ghezzi's "The Voices
of
the Saints," which tries to make the saints accessible to
untheologically trained readers.
"The Catholic Youth Bible," according to publisher St. Mary's Press,
had
youngsters lined up two and three thousand deep waiting to buy a copy of
the
age-specific, niche Bible. Garry Wills' "Papal Sins," an informed,
controlled, and at times wrenchingly personal exposition of the
theological
and psychological errors of Vatican policy over the centuries was
another
major Catholic book this year.
At the other end of the spectrum, Oprah continued to push her
"Oprah's
Book Club" titles to the top of the lists, in large emphasizing
spirituality
over established traditions. Americans' desire to escape the social,
cultural, and political expectations and characteristics of
institutional
religion, while maintaining a spiritual life of their own making has
created, as Oprah understands so well, a huge market for books of
spiritual
and individual inspiration as well as for how-to's on spiritual
growth.
Oprah isn't alone in pursuing this market. Gary Zukov, a wildly popular
writer in the field, followed his 1990 "Seat of the Soul" with "Soul
Stories."
The equally touted Neale Donald Walsch scored as well with his
"Communion
With God," the much-anticipated sequel to his 1996 best-seller, "Conversations
With God."
This generalized spiritualist apparently lends great credence to the Zen
mode of living. Zen-of-cooking-sweeping-and-your-kitchen-sink books have
been ubiquitous this year. Readers can bone up on "Zen Sex" (by Philip Sudo), "The Zen of
Organizing" (by Regina Leeds),
and even the Zen of housekeeping (in Gary Thorp's "Sweeping Changes: Discovering
the
Joy of Zen in Everyday Tasks"). Budding Taoists can try
out "The
Tao of
the Jump Shot" (by John Fitzsimmons Mahoney).
What began several years ago as a kind of rebellious pushing away from
established religion seems to be moving now, however, toward a
spirituality
more rooted in both tradition and thoughtfulness than was the case
originally. Two substantial and highly disciplined volumes bear witness
at
year's end to the truth of that change. Both "The Best Spiritual
Writing 2000" and "Ordinary Graces: Christian Teachings on the
Interior
Life" are proving to be commercial as well as critical successes. "The
Best," edited by Philip Zaleski, has an introduction by popular
spirituality author, Thomas Moore, while "Ordinary Graces," is edited by Lorraine Kisly and has an introduction by Zaleski, an indication
perhaps of the limited number of writers
presently publishing into the area of more visceral spirituality or,
perhaps, just proof that as this growing field of public appeal enters
2001,
it already enjoys the guiding hand of some of our best and most able
authors.