Official Review: PUWULO by BD Gray
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Lucy
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- Latest Review: "PUWULO" by BD Gray
Official Review: PUWULO by BD Gray
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "PUWULO" by BD Gray.]
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Puwulo is a novel centering on the adventures of a young Southern Baptist Engineer, Jack, who becomes marooned on a tiny island off the coast of Papa New Guinea. We follow Jack as he calls to God to save him from certain death after a boating accident at sea. In a state of fear, Jack turns his life-threatening situation over to God, and is rewarded for his faith by being marooned in a tropical paradise rescued by a the daughter of a Southern Baptist missionary, with whom he falls in love since they are clearly destined by the Almighty to be together.
The book is a fairly short novel, self-published, and which is available from Amazon. The central theme of the book is that if once the believer places his or her entire life in God's hands, everything will work out according to the ineffable Plan. This book, therefore, is more a romance than a thriller or adventure, and carries with it all the unrealistic dimensions of a romantic novel, which, ironically, is written both by a man and from the male perspective.
This book sets up a romantic vision of God, of divine serendipity, femininity, and of missionary work, and reminds me distinctly of ninetieth century accounts of the mission fields I have been reading in my studies of Religion in History. Had the author placed this novel in the late 1880s it would have made more sense, and may even have made for a better novel. As it was, the novel is a lackluster affair packed full of gender and racial stereotypes, and surprisingly, stereotypes also about modern missionary work as the author reverts to obsolete ninetheenth century motifs.
Missionary work of the kind described in this novel - the lone pastor off to minister to the Heathen on a remote island where the Heathen are taught the bible not in their own languages but in the Authorized Version, is a model which went out of fashion a very long time ago and was never very successful when it was in vogue. It is a little cringeworthy to see it in a book supposedly set in the present day. Modern missionary work is nothing like this - they go in teams, usually of skilled professionals and are usually doing something socially useful on the premise that loving one’s neighbour has something to do with improving their physical conditions. The book therefore could have been better researched. The author of a book about modern-day missionaries needs to have some inkling about what modern missionaries actually do. You will find them in medical clinics, or schools, or digging wells or irrigating fields, because since the good news has to be taken to the poor, feeding the hungry, healing the sick etc requires some skills beyond trying to teach locals who only speak pidgeon English to read the Authorised Version. In the real mission fields, Bibles are always translated into the local language. That was, after all, the whole point of the King James Version in the first place, or the language of Heaven would still be Latin.
Then of course is the relationship, and the important sub-theme that a good Christian woman must never, ever, contemplate dating or marrying outside her caste - she must be on her knees praying that God will send her a nice white Southern Baptist missionary to marry, cook for, clean for, and breed with. Mary Jane (really? A southern Baptist woman from Alabama called Mary Jane? I’m surprised our hero was not called Billy Bob) has learned this version of feminine piety early on. Opinion of your own? Don’t worry your sweet little head, darling. Aspirations of university? Forget it, sugar. Daddy won’t let you leave, there would be no-one to cook and clean for him. Lonely? What about the nice young Christian men in the village her pastor father converted? Oh, that’s right, they’re brown. And you’re a nice white girl from Alabama. ‘nuff said. Mary Jane is a stereotype of white Christian femininity, as sweet as vanilla pudding and as dumb as an ox, and acts for the most part as though she has a learning disability and is unable to manage even the simplest of technologies despite having spent her formative years in the United States. Fortunately for Mary Jane, she can cook. That’s apparently the way Southern Baptist men like their women. Chliche away!
This book is not a bad book because it is a Christian book. There are excellent Christian writers and novelists out there, for example, Frank Peretti, CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien are some of my favorites. This book is badly written because it relies on chiches and is packed choc-full of ethnic and gender stereotypes as the complimentarian ideal is held up for all us good (or in my case, bad) Christian women to aspire to. Perhaps the very worst stereotypes in the book are those of Southern Christians and of Christianity itself.
I’m so glad I don’t believe in Mary Jane.
I rate this book 1 out of 4 stars.
***
Buy "PUWULO" on Amazon
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The book is a fairly short novel, self-published, and which is available from Amazon. The central theme of the book is that if once the believer places his or her entire life in God's hands, everything will work out according to the ineffable Plan. This book, therefore, is more a romance than a thriller or adventure, and carries with it all the unrealistic dimensions of a romantic novel, which, ironically, is written both by a man and from the male perspective.
This book sets up a romantic vision of God, of divine serendipity, femininity, and of missionary work, and reminds me distinctly of ninetieth century accounts of the mission fields I have been reading in my studies of Religion in History. Had the author placed this novel in the late 1880s it would have made more sense, and may even have made for a better novel. As it was, the novel is a lackluster affair packed full of gender and racial stereotypes, and surprisingly, stereotypes also about modern missionary work as the author reverts to obsolete ninetheenth century motifs.
Missionary work of the kind described in this novel - the lone pastor off to minister to the Heathen on a remote island where the Heathen are taught the bible not in their own languages but in the Authorized Version, is a model which went out of fashion a very long time ago and was never very successful when it was in vogue. It is a little cringeworthy to see it in a book supposedly set in the present day. Modern missionary work is nothing like this - they go in teams, usually of skilled professionals and are usually doing something socially useful on the premise that loving one’s neighbour has something to do with improving their physical conditions. The book therefore could have been better researched. The author of a book about modern-day missionaries needs to have some inkling about what modern missionaries actually do. You will find them in medical clinics, or schools, or digging wells or irrigating fields, because since the good news has to be taken to the poor, feeding the hungry, healing the sick etc requires some skills beyond trying to teach locals who only speak pidgeon English to read the Authorised Version. In the real mission fields, Bibles are always translated into the local language. That was, after all, the whole point of the King James Version in the first place, or the language of Heaven would still be Latin.
Then of course is the relationship, and the important sub-theme that a good Christian woman must never, ever, contemplate dating or marrying outside her caste - she must be on her knees praying that God will send her a nice white Southern Baptist missionary to marry, cook for, clean for, and breed with. Mary Jane (really? A southern Baptist woman from Alabama called Mary Jane? I’m surprised our hero was not called Billy Bob) has learned this version of feminine piety early on. Opinion of your own? Don’t worry your sweet little head, darling. Aspirations of university? Forget it, sugar. Daddy won’t let you leave, there would be no-one to cook and clean for him. Lonely? What about the nice young Christian men in the village her pastor father converted? Oh, that’s right, they’re brown. And you’re a nice white girl from Alabama. ‘nuff said. Mary Jane is a stereotype of white Christian femininity, as sweet as vanilla pudding and as dumb as an ox, and acts for the most part as though she has a learning disability and is unable to manage even the simplest of technologies despite having spent her formative years in the United States. Fortunately for Mary Jane, she can cook. That’s apparently the way Southern Baptist men like their women. Chliche away!
This book is not a bad book because it is a Christian book. There are excellent Christian writers and novelists out there, for example, Frank Peretti, CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien are some of my favorites. This book is badly written because it relies on chiches and is packed choc-full of ethnic and gender stereotypes as the complimentarian ideal is held up for all us good (or in my case, bad) Christian women to aspire to. Perhaps the very worst stereotypes in the book are those of Southern Christians and of Christianity itself.
I’m so glad I don’t believe in Mary Jane.
I rate this book 1 out of 4 stars.
***
Buy "PUWULO" on Amazon
Latest Review: "PUWULO" by BD Gray
