Customer Reviews

Silver Birches: A Novel

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Still reeling from the death of his wife Jessica, the last thing David feels like doing is spending a weekend with old youth group members getting reacquainted. However, his old friend Angela was given something by Jessica before she died, and the only way for David to get it from her is to attend a weekend retreat at her country home with several members of his childhood youth group. Honesty, humility, and raw human emotion result.

I thought this was a beautiful story. There is something quite lovely and enchanting about the character of David, and watching him struggle with faith and grief, alternately and simultaneously. I thought the characters in general were incredibly well developed, and could actually see the story playing out in my mind like a movie. My only wish is that we had learned a bit more about Jessica, and were able to feel more connected to her as a character, instead of a memory.

The book is set in England, and there is something delightfully British about it. It has a tone different from American books. The story is poignant and emotional, making one want to smile and weep all at the same time. This book evoked a strong emotional reaction from me.

I loved that this book openly discusses faith, with many of the characters having crises involving faith or religious issues, yet the book never feels preachy or presumptuous. It is a note we as Christians should take. I find this book to be appropriate for a wide variety of audience. It may be a little deep for young adult readers, but certainly still appropriate content wise.

If you're already a fan of Adrian Plass, my advice is easy: Buy this novel and, yes, you'll thoroughly enjoy it. If you've never discovered this British gem, then you might also want to order something like his classic The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass, Aged 37 3/4 or maybe something newer like his ABCs-of-faith book Bacon Sandwiches & Salvation.
The novel will be a lot more fun and spark more reflection if you have a sense of Adrian's razor-sharp wit and his deep, compassionate faith.
In this novel, he casts himself as the main character. Those who've seen Adrian in one of his world tours will be glad to know that his real wife, Bridget, who appears on tour with him is alive and well! In the book, the main character, named David, has lost his wife in a tragic and transformative experience.
He agrees to accept an invitation to a reunion with old friends--something the real Adrian also has attempted in his life and still recalls the emotional scars of that weekend. He transfers that kind of emotional wrestling match into this novel.
Plus, to spice things up, he sets it all in a sort of "haunted house"--just eerie enough that it's appropriate to the book.
The title? Well, Adrian's main character actually tries to live out the Robert Frost poem by climbing a birch tree ... but I won't spoil the novel by telling you what happens.
It's well worth meeting this fine fellow of faith. If you're a restless Christian yourself, you'll richly enjoy this companion!

I've read a lot of books that tell a good story, but books that are really well written, those which really paint pictures with words, which make you feel the story are few and far between. Maybe that's because I generally prefer fluffy light fiction, or maybe it is because being able to write like that is an exceptional talent. Anyone can say there is a red-painted vase with a yellow sun. A few gifted writers can make you feel the red, and use the red to set the overall tone of the scene. Adrian Plass, author of Silver Birches is such an author.

The main character in Silver Birches is David, a man in his late 30's/early 40's, who was recently widowed. David is one of those guys who makes his living talking about Jesus, but he hasn't given a speech since his wife died. He is evaluating what he wants to do with his life, and falling into depression when he gets a call from an old friend of his wife. The three of them had been in the same church youth group in their teens. Angela told him that his wife had given her something to give to him. She wanted to give it to him at her house, an old English manor, on a weekend attended by other friends from that youth group. He agrees to attend, as do several other people.

The group gets together with the goal of telling the others their greatest fear. They eat, drink and talk. We learn about their hurts, fears, faith--and for some, lack thereof. That being said, this isn't the typical Christian novel. For one thing, I have read that some industry standards for Christian novels require that Christians do not drink alcohol. In this book they do, socially and without adverse effects. Also while the thread that holds these people together is membership in a church youth group, many of the stories told and issues addressed could be those of any group of almost middle-aged adults. I don't really want to give anything away (but this book is much more about the characters than the plot) but at the end one of the characters embraces traditional Christian sexual morality and rejects today's "if it is what I'm attracted to, it must be good".

As I noted at the beginning, what struck me most about this book was the absolutely beautiful use of language. It is faith-based fiction and anyone who has been on one of those youth group weekend retreats with their Saturday night combination of sleep deprivation, prayer, candle or firelight and introspection will feel at home around the fire with this group.

Just in case you haven't figured it out, I loved this book

Although this is a fiction novel, I almost relate it to C. S. Lewis' `A Grief Observed` because it relates, in fiction form, the same grief and honesty that Lewis offered.

This is the first work of Adrian Plass that I have read but I plan to read many more. This review is from the audio book format with Plass as the narrator which certainly added to the enjoyment of the book as the author provides the tempo and inflection meant when the book was written.

The story is told from David Herrick's perspective, a grief stricken Christian speaker by trade, and explores all the nuances of Christian bereavement.

Conversations (prayers) with God, to God, at God are woven throughout the book making it identifiable to all Christians who have lost someone dear to them. An unbeliever reading this novel would be surprised at the admittance. A believer reading this book will smile and connect with the honesty.

In this story, David Herrick has lost his beloved wife and struggles with all the words, phrases and counsel he has offered to others in his many years as a famous Christian speaker.

He accepts a mysterious offer from a long ago friend from his high school youth group at church. More mysterious is the fact that Angela, the hostess, schedules the reunion because of a request his late wife had made shortly before her death.

They meet for a weekend in a haunted manor and set the agenda for all to spend their time there being `open and vulnerable.' Many years have passed since their weekly youth group where they had shared their thoughts and dreams as teenagers. Now, they revisit some memories and make many more.

It is a very enjoyable book. I found the conversations that David Herrick has with the other members of the group insightful, witty and winsome. The English conversational style is art all its own and discussions in this book stir the readers mind to wonder if the dialogue would be same given the situation.

The title `Silver Birches' brings to mind the poem `Birches` by Robert Frost evoking a new meaning to the poem, well at least for me. "One could do worse than be a swinger of birches."

For a trip into the mind of a grieving Christian (pain is pain whether you are a believer or not), for the enjoyable dialogue, the deep sense of walking with Christ and how it relates to the hard moments of life, pick this book and find a fictional story of honesty, reflection, grief, loss, and the many miracles that God performs in the lives of those who follow Him.

I can't believe that this book sat in a to-be-read pile for months. I don't know if it was the bland cover in the monochromatic silvers and grays. Or if it was the subject matter, a well-known Christian speaker loses his wife and the story begins in the midst of his depression and struggles. Whatever it was, don't make the same mistake I did.

If you love prose that often reads like poetry (the good kind), thought-provoking, faith-tweaking, realistic fiction, or love British authors, then pick up this book.

Rich, rich, rich details and storytelling poke at sensitive spots in Christ followers. The scenario of half a dozen youth group friends meeting for a weekend twenty years or so after last seeing each other sounds like it might be a bit like a Christianized/sanitized version of The Big Chill. There are moments it feels like that. But that might be because real Christians also have personalities and issues that don't look a whole lot different from unbelievers. And though similar to the storyline of The Big Chill, it's not actually sanitized a whole lot. A big theme is the Christian and his or her sexuality. Then toss in the waves that nearly drown followers when God does not do as He is expected and instead bad, awful, inexplicably hideous things happen that leave us gasping for air and a break. An even bigger one...what if a person, a good person prays and asks to be delivered from something yet still struggles with it twenty years later? Oh yeah. This book, tiny though it is -- less than 200 pages -- is heavy and deep.

I am so glad I read this book. I'll be investigating other Plass offerings. Powerful.