Everlasting is the Past

First, the outside: This book is beautiful. i have purchased several books from this publisher, and they’ve all been beautiful, but this one is especially so. The cover feels like it was printed on watercolor paper. i love it.Now, the inside: i don’t read many memoirs, but i have read enough of Wangerin’s storytelling to anticipate that i would find myself sinking into this one within a page. And i did. i read it in a single afternoon. It begins in a car with a snowstorm swirling, the driver’s heart also swirling in fear. He concludes that first chapter, “I am, of course, that young man.” It was easy for me to identify with this young man. Anyone who’s experienced a dark night of the soul will identify with his fear, his doubt, the depression that says this season is forever. The whole book is permeated by a sense of quiet melancholy, like the solitude in a car in a snowstorm, but by the end of the book that melancholy is hopeful, peaceful. i was grateful for both the melancholy and the hope.While i identified with young Wangerin’s spiritual depression, his story is made of elements as nearly unlike mine as possible. Wangerin, a white man, pastored an inner-city black church and raised two black children, and the way he talks about racism—both matter-of-fact and bewildering, scandalous and normal—was a window into a world i have never inhabited. Institutionalized racism, white privilege, and other such topics are sensitive and very timely. The news is full of police violence and church-burnings, and truly healthy, reconciling conversations are hard to start and harder to continue. We need to find new language and new hearts to address issues of race. The gentleness and honesty in this book are so helpful.This memoir invited me to not only sink into the author’s story, but to discover in the process something more of my own.———Disclosure of material connections: i support the Rabbit Room and received a free copy of this book, which i was not required to review. All opinions here are my own.

Walter Wangerin is a very fine writer. We have enjoyed his other books. This tells of a pastor and writer's growth as a man and as a Christian. I found it to be inspirational and evocative of emotion. This book is a great read!

I consider Wangerin to be one of the truly great Christian authors. This delightful memoir stirs again that basic excitement of discipleship characteristic of all his work. As he nears life's end, I appreciate this beautiful recapitulation of a magnificent life that has inspired me for many years.

This book was everything that I expected. Walter Wangerin Jr is one of my very favorite authors and he doesn't disappoint when stepping away from fiction to tell about himself.

This is vintage Wangerin; much like the “early” Walt. Very helpful for its vulnerableness and a fine way to frame a memoir.

Wangerin's style is distinct--the quiet, calm rhythm of a master storyteller now telling his own tale. The story is both unique and that of many men--Wangerin wrestles with his faith, his vocation, his place as a husband, a father, a community member, a pastor. Each chapter of his story holds its own magic, but it is the stories of his inner-city church in Evansville that caught my whole heart. The beautiful people who made up his congregation, the grace with which they face the trials of their lives, and the graciousness they extend to their pastor--a church called Grace became the place where Wangerin found it.

Great author. Always gets me thinking outside of what my original thoughts would be.