Book Review- Night of the Living Dead Christian

So, you may be suprised to see a review for Night of the Living Dead Chrsitian by Matt Mikalatos on my blog, since it never managed to grace my "What I'm Reading Now" list to the left.  That's because I started it yesterday, and finished it today!  No time to pause and update a silly list.

Here's the trouble with reviewing a Mikalatos book.  Matt is so funny, and witty, and imaginative that for some reason when I try to explain what I like about his books, I can muster up none of the above.  I'm convinced that my review of his book My Imaginary Jesus must be one of the blandest, least inspired reviews I've ever written, despite the fact that I really wanted to say great things about it.  There's something about really witty people sometimes that can make you feel like you've never had an original thought in your life.

Instead of trying to go about this review in a comprehensive way, or a persuasive way, I'm just going to rattle of some things I do feel like I can say about Matt's books.

1. They're hard to put down, and they make you laugh.  I finished both of them in a couple of days.  I don't know if you consider "a fast read" a pro, but I think the qualifiers make it one.

2.  They whole time I'm reading them I'm amused, but I also have the feeling that somehow they are reading me a little, and might be about to tell me something about myself that I both don't want to admit but want desperately to have explained to me.  I think that's a real gift Matt.  Kudos to you.

3.  It's difficult to boil these books down to a maxim that can be easily acknowledged, embraced, and incorporated into life, or even behavior.  I couldn't walk away from My Imaginary Jesus, do a "find and replace" search of my life, and delete all imaginary Jesuses.  If only.  Instead, I am much more challenged to ask myself if the Jesus I'm relating to in any given moment is one of his own choosing, or if I am embellishing him in any way.  I must let the man speak for himself, for heaven's sake.  I suspect much of the same after putting down Night of the Living Dead Christian.  Not sure I can tell you just what I learned from it.  But I know it did say something to me, and we'll see what this is when I start to recognize some vampire or gargantuan tendencies pop up in my life.  Matt seems to recognize what Tozer knew when he said that sin can't be instructed out of our lives no more than leprosy can be instructed out of our system.  These books don't attempt to treat us, that is the job of the Physician.  Instead they, in a very fantastical way, open our eyes to reality, and entertain us too.

4.  I found a little bit of myself in all of the monsters listed in the "Are you a Monster?  A Layman's Self-Diagnosis Guide to Common Monstrosities" appendix in the back.  I wonder at all why anyone would let me lead anything, especially other people.  Surely this can only turn out good by the grace of God.

5.  I now have a special interest in the Portland/Vancouver (not Canada) area.  Being an east-coaster, not by choice, but by providence of birth, I've somehow managed to make it all the way to the middle east but never further west than Colorado.  I'm going to Portland next month for the first time.  That' right.  I'm coming to see you Mikalatos.  If I find the time, I hope to visit a communist cafe or have some resurrected ice cream while I'm there.  I'm also particularly interested in this large bookstore, although I don't know why, since soon I will be moving far away and unable to take 98% of my current possessions with me.

6.  Last but not least, thanks to Matt for avoiding the sacred/secular split, and letting me find some of what I like about Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, mashed with my faith and my life's work and mission.  I hope for our sake that he spawns many more literary Matt Mikalatoses that will delight us and edify us at the same time.

Bam.  Reviewed.  I recommend it, with my only admonition being that you let yourself laugh while you read it (don't kill the experience by over-analyzing everything.  Enjoy).