jayber crow

You would think that after six months of blog silence I’d be back with some devastating insights into the global financial crisis, or the future of the church in the post-Christian west, or something at least a little profound and substantial.

Instead, here are my top five lists of books, music and movies that were new to me in 2008. First, the books (in no particular order):

Andy Catlett (Wendell Berry). For me, Wendell Berry and his Port William novels are now in a category all of their own. He’s been writing about this small Kentucky town for decades, and with the last three novels (Jayber Crow, Hannah Coulter, Andy Catlett) has reached something close to perfection. He can say more in the space between two words than most writers can say in several pages. This one is short and simple but deeply moving and satisfying. On the one hand, it’s about a few days uneventful days in the life of a small boy in a small town. On the other hand it’s about all of life – family, community, work, food, faith, death, loss, war, hurt, love, longing and hope.

The Road (Cormac McCarthy). This one sneaked in at the last moment. I’m a slow reader, but I devoured this in two sittings on the last two days of the year. I think I hardly breathed while I read it. I can’t remember being so emotionally devastated by a novel in a long time. Maybe it’s because it’s about a father and his son, clinging onto some sort of kindness and goodness while the world burns around them. The end of the world at the end of the year. Astonishing.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Jonathan Safran Foer). I can see lots of reasons why I should hate this novel. It’s a self-consciously “post-9-11″ novel, narrated by a nine-year-old boy who lost his father in the twin towers. It’s full of postmodern literary quirks – pages with only one word written on them, photographs of the back of people’s heads, etc. The little boy who narrates the story is impossibly intelligent and imaginative, if a little socially autistic. But somehow it has enough heart to pull it off. It’s funny and sad and provocative and hopeful and hugely enjoyable.

Lament For A Son (Nicholas Wolterstorff). This is written by one of the most formidably intelligent Christian thinkers alive today. But here he sets aside the philosophical fireworks (though not his intelligence) and reflects on the death of his son in a climbing accident. It’s simple and poetic and gut-wrenchingly moving. It’s wiser than anything I’ve read on “the problem of evil/suffering,” and the only book I’ll ever consider giving to someone who has been bereaved.

A Community Called Atonement (Scot McKnight). McKnight is fast becoming some kind of hero or role-model for me, both through his blog (Jesus Creed) and his books. It’s not only his wise and provocative ideas, but the way he articulates them in ways that reach out with generosity and grace to those who disagree with him. While some corners of evangelicaldom tear each other apart over definitions of the atonement, McKnight calls us to be a community which embodies the message of at-one-ment, reconciliation, forgiveness, peace. (Zoomtard agrees with me, too).

Just missing the cut were some other wonderful books: Confessions (St. Augustine), Revelation of Love (Julian of Norwich), On Chesil Beach (Ian McEwan), Not The Way It’s Supposed To Be (Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.), A Holy Meal (Gordon Smith).

And now I’m losing the heart and energy to keep commenting on all my choices, so here, without comment, are the movies:

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
There Will Be Blood
Goodbye Lenin
Juno
Once

In a good year for movies, lots of great ones miss the cut: Michael Clayton, Zodiac, No Country For Old Men, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Pan’s Labyrinth, Eastern Promises.

And finally, in a bad year for new music discoveries, here is what I could scrape together:

The Rifles EP (The Lowly Knights)
The Reminder (Feist)
The Boatman’s Call (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds)
The Swell Season (Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova)
Cassadaga (Bright Eyes)

Honorable mentions for Dig, Lazarus, Dig! (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds), Evolved (Martyn Joseph), Fleet Foxes (Fleet Foxes), Garden Ruin (Calexico), Impossible Dream (Patty Griffin) and I Never Thought This Day Would Come (Duke Special).

Now I’d love to know what has rocked your boat, tickled your fancy, blown your mind or warmed your heart over the past year. I’m haunted by the fear that I’ve missed something of astonishing beauty and brilliance.

Wishing you mountains of grace and peace in 2009.