Customer Reviews

Desert Ascent: Or a Brief History of Eternity

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A great seredipitous find at the local library, only now apparently it's out of print. Bummer! (Actually "unavailable indefinitely" from the publisher. What does that mean?) Anyway, Peter the Abbot is about to close down his 1600 year old monastery. the powers that be are bringing "rationalization" to the desert. and he will, too, if he can only solve the spiritual crisis of Carol, who can't decide between sex and a bishopric, Tear-Sing the Sad, who's only looking for people to understand him, avoid Dalip, who only "wants to help," get rid of the terrorists occupying the monastery, keep track of Constantine the Boy, who is lost in the mist of senile dementia, and. . . if he can only find a ladder. . .

It's wry, funny, sad, horrifying, and uplifting in turns. One of those quirky stories that ends up haunting you long after you've read it.

My first reading of this book blew me away as it introduced to me concepts of Christian belief that I was not familiar with. What I really liked about this book is the humble, self critical nature of the Abbot who is not the usual wise figure commonly portrayed, but instead a real human being like me on a journey. He's just travelled a bit further. But it is the end of the book that stayed with me. It ends with a whimper, not a bang, but I think that is the way it should be. On second reading I still loved this book but the writing flaws became more apparent. "Flaws" is too harsh, more that the writing architecture was evident where a more experienced writer could have hidden them better. Still, definitely worth a read.