Customer Reviews

All That's Holy: A Young Guy, an Old Car, and the Search for God in America

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you buy this book I promise you won't be able to put it down once you start reading it. The places Mr. Levinson visits and the encounters he describes are so interesting, fun, and witty that you'll find yourself wishing you could have been his traveling companion. The next best thing to that is joining the author in spirit while reading about his journey.

Although motivated by a desire to understand what drives people's religious beliefs, Mr. Levinson uncovers a lot about American society in general that transcends religious tendencies.

So, if you enjoyed Jack Kerouac's On the Road do yourself a favor and buy this book, too.

The idea of someone going from one town to another with the soul purpose of exploring individual faith is an intriguing one. However, Tom Levinson, though his hearts in the right place, writes a book that's only half of what it should be.

When I first heard of this book I half expected it to be a sort of biblical "On the Road", a journey of faith or in search of faith. Instead we get Tom Levinson, a Theology student who is basiclly tying up his academic loose ends. He travels across the country talking to Jews, Wicca's, Sikhs, etc. This is all fine but unfortunately Levinson has the prose of a graduate student. I didn't expect him to be Keroack, but I did expect something richer, something more fulfilling. Levinson respects all his interviews but there is little insight. He creates a business card which reads "Project Director of "God Is: An Oral History of Faith in America". Cute, but it comes across awkward and maybe even a little silly.

I read this book almost a year ago and sadly all I could originally remember were two passages, one in which the ever polite Levinson is surprised by the arrogance of an evangelical Christian minister. That was the best surprise of the book for me and frankly this book needed more of them.

For better books on road trips I'd recommend:

"On the Road" by Jack Kerouac

"A Walk Across America" by Peter Jenkins

or "The Kindness of Strangers" by Mike McIntyre

For books based on religious investigation I'd recommend:

"Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia" by Dennis Covington

"Under the Banner of Heaven : A Story of Violent Faith" by Jon Krakauer

"The Tao of Pooh" by Benjamin Hoff

or "Nine Parts of Desire : The Hidden World of Islamic Women" by Geraldine Brooks

For media based on religious experience, I'd recommend:

The movie "Saved", now on DVD

Or go to the website based on the radio show This American Life and listen to shows

"Leaving the Fold" and "My Experimental Phase"

Granted my recommendations tend to be, for the most part, darker, but established religions are all combinations of dark and light. Levinson gives us neither, just a friendly informative, almost text book like approach to the diversity of religion in America.

(2 and a half stars)

All That's Holy will make you question nearly every belief you've ever held about religion and your own personal faith - but in a good way. Levinson's conversations with strangers across the country and his exploration of his own religious leanings is the quintessential pilgrimage story, with one small exception: this time you'll actually care. Whether you're "religious" or "definitely not," All That's Holy presents an entertaining and insightful survey of religion in America today. And besides, any book that has the author's grandmother quoted on the back alongside nationally best-selling authors is a keeper.

This book is a discursive traveling review of religion and faith in America. A young man discovers himself and his own faith as much as he discovers those that compose the fabric of our nation. De Tocqueville mixed with Kerouac, Levinson writes in language that everyone can understand: intimate, fresh, vibrant and realistic. A dashboard confessional of emotion and personal trials in an attempt to provide the reader with a telephoto lens of American religious belief and deity worship. Levinson shares not only his happiest and most triumphant moments, but also his failures and own shortcomings in a successful and winning method of connecting the reader to the author's subject. One cannot help but become ensconced as Levinson's 1994 Nissan becomes the vehicle in which the reader gets to visit a death row inmate in the Southeast, Wiccan congregations in Texas and Coffee Churchs in Seattle. A beautifully written didactic study that is both engaging and poignant, all smiles and tears. A brilliant study of enlightenment through pilgrimage and a redefinition of what makes something holy.

Tom Levinson's quest is to talk to a kaleidoscope of Americans about their religions and their faiths. `All That's Holy' highlights the religious plurality that can be found in America today, from the fundamentalist to the funky `Coffee Messiah'. Tom's writing, while not gripping is engaging, informative and colorful. His vignettes and insights offer lessons to learn, "We are all backpackers in this world."

Beware, that this book is like taking a cross-country GREYHOUND bus trip. You climb aboard with anticipations, initially you are enchanted with the world that passes by, but after a time the scenery pans into a blur, and the images are no longer unique and the tedium returns. Ultimately, after 300 plus pages, and with only a momentary interruption by the sensational, I found myself both relieved and happy to have reached the end. Recommended.

What a great book! I just finished it last night, and I'm recommending it to all my friends. Refreshing, funny, poignant--this is truly an enjoyable read.