Book Review (Unidentified)
Sometimes I receive unsolicited books in the mail, sent by publishers for review here on the blog. It’s a nice surprise when that happens, and usually I’m glad to provide my services. Some of the books aren’t really on my reading list, and since I can’t let what just shows up in the mail determine all my priorities, I don’t review all of them. (I think the publishers probably understand.) I cover a lot of them, though.
One recent book really flummoxes me. I’m not going to identify it, except to say it comes from a major publisher, and its author “has written several bestselling books.” The theme seems interesting, maybe even important. But I couldn’t read beyond the first chapter. I kept getting stuck on sentences like this one:
Somehow in the process of studying and meditating on the subject matter, God gave him a revelation that he summed up in one verse: “The just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17).
What is the subject of this sentence? Grammatically, it’s God. Was God in the process of studying and meditating on the subject matter? No, it was Martin Luther, as the context reveals, but the context does not correct the dangling modifier there.
Here’s another sentence with the same grammatical goof-up, as well as another problem even more pervasive in this book (at least, as far as I got): a rhythm problem. It doesn’t flow well at all.
Advancing through the halls of the former monastery turned home to Luther and his beloved wife, Katie, the flicker of emotion that I had sensed as I first stepped onto the ancient stone floor increased.
I can just see that flicker of emotion advancing through the halls, disembodied, fluttering over the ancient stone floors like a pixie light.
Awkward, arrhythmic constructions abound. Another example:
However, as powerful as that hallelujah-chorus-type experience was, God had prepared a stronger exclamation point to our adventure that none of us could have orchestrated.
These three examples come from within the space of just six pages.
As a blogger I know I can make similar mistakes. Just yesterday I caught myself in the act of publishing a dangling modifier. Sometimes, when I read old posts, I’m embarrassed at how clumsy my phrasing was. (I’ll probably look back at this blog entry a month or two from now, and shudder at mistakes I’ve made, even in the process of criticizing another’s errors.) Blogging is different, though: it’s very spur-of-the-moment. We tend to publish with a minimum of re-writing, and there’s no professional editor looking over bloggers’ shoulders. When I’ve written for print, believe me, the editors had a lot to say! I can’t imagine how the publisher let this book pass.
This unnamed book might have really important things to say, but this thicket of grammatical/linguistic errors is too much to push through. I’m not going to find out what the rest of it is about.
