Pros: Thought provoking, easy to read, overall edifying
Cons: Needlessly Lengthy, Rampant with author's controversial agenda
The Bottom Line: Despite my problems with the author's agenda, I do appreciate the way I was stirred to further thought and I learned a lot, though perhaps not what the author intended.
missjen's Full Review: Neta Jackson - The Yada Yada Prayer Group
I will start by saying that I usually don't enjoy Christian fiction. It's usually either fraught with overly sappy, idealized Christianity, or is indistinguishable from secular works (which are usually artistically better crafted), apart from a few token Jesus references.
But I found myself in an airport with an unexpected delay and nothing to do and this book seemed the best choice of the harlequins, thrillers, and get-rich-quick how-tos offered by the airport store.
Ms. Jackson IS decidedly Christian and her books are a natural outpouring of that. The book is rich with scripture references and each character is at a different place in her spiritual walk with Christ. I found myself appreciating the references to familiar contemporary worship songs, practices and public figures--making it easier to appreciate the characters as "real" women in a real world rather than fictional ones in a fictional world.
I found myself identifying a lot with Jodi Baxter. I've always been the "good girl"-raised in the church all my life and ever fearful of coloring outside the lines. I appreciated that her thoughts and confessions were real and not waxed eloquent with some sort of happy-Jesus-face. And I appreciated that the temptation TO wax eloquent was addressed with a consistent internal dialogue. I've often had the same conversations with myself.
I've read the entire Yada Yada series and one thing I've noticed that is consistent between most of the books is that the author takes a LONG time to develop the story. The back covers tease of dramatic events that stir the sisters to action yet in both books, those dramatic events do not happen until the very end of the book. Hundreds of pages are spent laboriously setting the scene, then BAM! something happens and then is wrapped up neatly in the last 30 pages of the book. I'd appreciate it if more time were spent on dealing with the circumstances, rather than endless pages that seem to repeat themselves. On the other hand, I can appreciate that for most of us, we spend 90% of OUR lives in the normal everyday and not in the life-changing dramatics, so perhaps that is purposeful, too. I will say the author did a better job toward the end of the series of establishing the background quickly. One benefit to her method is you could pick up the series almost anywhere in the middle of it and still enjoy it.
My biggest objection to the series is against Ms. Jackson's not-so-subtle agenda to remind European Americans of how racist we have been as a people group throughout American History. Every demon of racism is struggled with by a white person in these books Ms. Jackson is bent on a Promise-Keepers-esque goal of "reconciling" the races, but her vehicle is by having Caucasians forever indebted to other races and constantly apologizing for the sins of the past. I realize that racial tensions are REAL and agree wholeheartedly that reconciliation is needed throughout the world, including in the church. However, I am resentful of Ms. Jackson's apparent opinion that would conclude that Caucasians are single handedly responsible for any divides that exist. I
I also am exceptionally uncomfortable with the idea of all whites apologizing for every sin of racism ever committed by any white, anywhere. At some point I began to resent her persistent accusations, having grown up in multi-cultural Los Angeles as a MINORITY and having not a racist bone in my body. Her purpose in the multicultural characters seems to be to teach the poor little white girl about the world, about faith and about God. The non-white characters are the most spriritualy mature. The white characters rarely teach the non-white characters anything and are never praised in the book the way the non-white characters are. dislike the lumping together of "Whites" as one people but the distinction that exists among her portrayals of other characters. Hoshi is not "Asian." She is Japanese. Nony is not "Black." She's "South African." The other characters are "Jamaican," "Cuban," etc. But the few Caucasian characters are all just "White" (rather than German, English, French, etc), and they are all guilty of the same sins and demons and all accountable for everything ever committed by anyone even remotely white.
In spite of this, I find myself having just ordered book 3 because apart from this, Ms. Jackson IS a gifted story teller and I have come to appreciate many elements of the story, not-so-hidden agenda excluded. I am hopeful that the story will come full circle and conclude that all races are responsible for the tensions and divisions, and that while we all can be active in pursuing reconciliation, at some point we have to move on from the past and trust God to redeem the future.
But again, this book has a lot that I DO appreciate. As I said, I love the scriptural references, the way the author teaches the reader through the characters to pray the Word, the way that the main character is honest with herself in her "habit" centered relationship with Christ....all of these are the product of an introspective, thoughtful, mature Christian and I found myself enriched in spite of my objections to the one element. For that reason I would recommend this as something you might enjoy reading, though I wish that the author's controversial agenda did not take such a commanding lead from the otherwise exceptional stories.
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