Customer Reviews

Annals of a Quiet Neighborhood (Macdonald, George//Sunrise Centenary Editions of the Works of George Macdonald)

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This is a very good book. Very very very good. That's a triple very. Very good.
In this tale, "The Annals of a Quiet Neighborhood", George Macdonald recounts in very fine detail his first experience as Parson. After reading the book I almost wondered why it was titled "Quiet Neighborhood". Sounds boring doesn't it? Well, it's not. You'll discover some of the most remarkable and extraordinary people in the pages of this book, all with a story of their own. This is one of those books that offers the reader, however, more than a merely interesting story; though it is that as well. Some of George MacDonalds most core beliefs are revealed through the voices and actions of his characters, including the Parson himself (George Macdonald, or Mr. Walton in the book). How much of the book is fiction, and how much of it actually happened, I do not know and it doesn't really say. Nor do I think it matters a great deal.
What I really love about MacDonald's fiction in general and this book in particular is how he manages to take the theology in his "Unspoken Sermons" (A great book too, in its own right), and translate it into every day situations. While "Unspoken Sermons" deals largely with the theory, Macdonald's fiction stories show practically how these truths can be lived and seen in every day life. Even so is this book. If you like anything else of Macdonald's you'll like this too. If you haven't ever read any Macdonald, well, your missing out. It's easy to see why this man had such a big influence on some of the leading thinkers of the 19th century such as C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton.

This is a good book, but it really can't compare with my favorite MacDonalds, such as Donal Grant and some others. I don't mind MacDonald preaching at me, or why would I ever read his books? I like his preaching. But in this book it seemed a little tiresome at times, and the main character (it's a first-person tale) isn't as appealing as the main characters in the other MacDonald books I've read. The best character by far--and the book is well worth reading just for her--is twelve-year-old Judy. She's marvelous. You can't get enough of her. You love her so much! And she's so funny. The two worst villains, Mrs. Oldcastle and her servant, Sarah (aka, the White Wolf) are equally marvelous in a wicked sense. But if I reread it, I'll skip quite a bit here and there.