"You didn't see that coming?"

Dreher-fan Jordan Poss writes a generally positive review of HDCSYL. But it is also quite honest, and he can't help pointing out several things with which I heartily agree. Excerpts:

Despite returning home, Dreher recounts that his relationships with family—especially his father and nieces—were terrible. I like Dreher a lot and value his opinions, but having read his work for several years now, he strikes me as a classic oversharer. Reading Little Way, I could only wonder, despite being moved to tears, what his family thought of such a soul-baring memoir. In my experience, a tell-all—even an affectionate, nostalgic tell-all—alienates people. This book gave me an answer: “I showed Mike the manuscript of Little Way before I turned it in, and asked him to let me know if he wanted me to make any changes. He did not ask for changes, but as I learned later, the book displeased him greatly. He thought I had used his wife’s death to tell a story about myself” (30). As a reader, I too had had a hard time escaping this impression.

We told you so, we told you so. Of course we all had that impression. The reason that Mike Leming thought Rod Dreher had used his wife’s death to tell a story about himself was that Rod Dreher had used Mike's wife’s death to tell a story about himself.

I really liked How Dante Can Save Your Life, but I still wonder about the propriety of what Dreher has chosen to share with his readers—especially considering that one of the sources of strife within his family is his previous book. Dreher writes with great feeling and sincerity but, as another reviewer has noted, the narration sometimes comes across as self-pitying, even in the later stages when he has learned how selfish he is and is striving toward greater humility. Even as he learns to let go of his bitterness and anger, he reminds himself over and over again of the incidents that made him bitter and angry.

Yes; he seems to love being bitter and angry. It's as if I said to Keith, "Keith, I have totally gotten over the time that you made fun of the space helmet I made for Halloween when I was 27 years old, and I hope that nothing will ever, EVER remind either one of us how much I cried about that at the time, and then got drunk and broke up with my girlfriend. But now that I've read Dante's Divine Comedy, I'm ready to forgive you ONCE AND FOR ALL for that and I will do so right after I pass out and take a 5-hour nap."

Some additional perspective on General Rod Dreher and his Benedict Option™

While attorney and Iraqi War vet David French and professional foodie Rod Dreher debate the sense of the latter's Benedict Option™, let's not forget that currently self-appointing General of his Benedict Option™ (GBO) Dreher already has a book just freshly out, not the one he is using this debate to generate future publisher interest in, of course, but rather his previous, already written Dante book.

What, you might ask, is this Dante book about?

As followers of Dreher's blog over the course of his developing and promoting the Dante book only know too well, the book is about how Dante saved Dreher from the "dark wood" of depression and allegedly stress-induced mononucleosis caused by his family - those who know him best - not sharing his own vision of himself. His wife finally tired of his taking to his bed to sleep interminably and demanded he get professional psychological help.

Let this settle in for a moment. The general who is proposing to develop and lead us through our culture war campaign was driven to his fainting couch by his in-laws not liking him the way he wanted and ultimately booted from it by his long-suffering wife.

Is the phrase "folds like an origami under pressure" really adequate to describe this sort of petal-like character in a would-be leader of any sort of war?

And when contemplating the sympathy-sucking milquetoast depressive Rod Dreher of the Dante book versus the guerrilla general-to-be Rod Dreher of his Benedict Option™, the question obviously forces itself upon us: which, if either, is even the real Rod Dreher?

But, hey, I say follow him as far as the parking lot, at least.

Who will be buying Rod Dreher's Dante book?

To get people in the proper frame of mind to purchase a book about how a book saved one's life and could very possibly save theirs, too, and starting next month, to boot, one subtle and extremely shrewd move is to casually pose the question, was there ever a book that saved your life?

So, question to you: was there ever a single book, other than the Bible, the Koran, or a holy book, that saved your life, in the sense that it brought you back to reality, or kept you from making a serious mistake? If so, what was the book, and how did it work for you?

The sort who probably will be buying Dreher's Dante book:

Blog commenter Mark Hamann says:
March 26, 2015 at 2:31 pm

Yes. The Ink Dark Moon, a book of Heian period tanka written by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu. Once in the early 90's I was suicidal over the lack of traction in my love life, and that book made me realize that I’m supposed to suffer over that. And write tanka to express my suffering which I did on index cards which I still have.

Blog commenter McKay says:
March 26, 2015 at 2:50 pm

If you haven’t read David James Duncan’s The Brothers K, you are living an incomplete life. I read it in the midst of my PhD program, while I was reading all this counter-Enlightenment philosophy stuff and critiques of modernity (MacIntyre, the Southern Agrarians, Camus, et al.), and I really was growing profoundly depressed about the state of the world. The entire structure of secular modernity, and thus the structure of daily life, was starting to seem like some cruel techno-managerial artifice designed to force us into solipsism, atomism, and self-absorption...

The sort who probably will not:

Sherelle Taylor* says
March 26, 2015 at 3:09 am

Yeah, well you know Shirley got beat up real bad, yo, that man never did treat her right but they're gonna let me take her shift too since it starts right when mine ends, mmh hmmh, but I'm young and in pretty good health so God willing I can pull it for at least a month if I need to while she gets better which means I can get Jayden that bike he's been wanting for his birthday instead of putting my Mama's ring in the pawn shop again which is pretty sweet if you ask me though I really feel bad for Shirley she deserves better God knows she does.

* Cashier, 10:00 pm - 6:00 am shift, Big Bargain World. Not suicidal over the lack of traction in her love life, just has her hands full at the moment. But ask her nicely anyway.