April Reading Log

Five books this month and SO MANY PAGES. Look below to see what I'm talking about!

THE IMPERFECT PASTOR by Zack Eswine

Based on the title, you might have thought I wrote a memoir and forgot to tell you.  But in fact, this was a truly enlightening book about pastoral ministry—sometimes confessional, sometimes devotional, and always helpful.

At its heart, The Imperfect Pastor is a plea to young pastors to slow down and trade ambitions of mass ministerial impact for the still, small work of loving real people where they are. Author Zack Eswine, a pastor himself, tells of the mistakes he made as a young pastor with big dreams and how he only found peace—and success—when he stopped looking for the Next Big Thing and instead focused on the people God had given him to shepherd.

Written in a style reminiscent of Eugene Peterson (HIGH praise) and with similar thoughts, this was a book I took in slowly, even as I was tempted to gulp it all down at once. For pastors, especially those slogging through difficult times, I can't recommend The Imperfect Pastor enough.

LES MISÉRABLES by Victor Hugo

My all-time favorite Broadway musical is Les Misérables, which adapts Victor Hugo's 1862 novel. Its overtly Christian themes of grace, justice, and love are compelling to me for obvious reasons, its setting of a revolutionary period in 19th century France is intriguing, and, yes, the music is top-notch. It's also nearly 3 hours long...so who would have imagined they left so much on the cutting room floor?

That's right, before I say anything about this book's story or style, I have to acknowledge its size. My copy came in at 1263 pages, and that was with font I'd consider too small (I wound up reading it on Kindle rather than in my faux-leather physical copy, pictured above.) In principle, I don't like abridged literature, believing that if the author felt it was important enough to include and an editor and/or publisher agreed, then I as a reader should give them the benefit of the doubt. Les Misérables, in all its overwritten glory, admittedly made me reconsider that position, if not necessarily change my mind. This is a BIG book.

Thankfully, it's also a beautiful one. It tells the story of Jean Valjean, a convicted thief who is given a second chance at life thanks to the mercy of a kindly priest. Spared by this act of grace, Valjean then extends his own to Fantine, a woman whose life has taken such a steep downward turn that she has been forced into prostitution. Valjean adopts her innocent daughter Cosette, seeking to bring about some measure of redemption from his sins and Fantine's victimization. But as he does so, he must contend with four forces: Inspector Javert, that paragon of clear-eyed justice; Marius, Cosette's young suitor as she blossoms into adulthood; the vile Thénardier, who once housed the infant Cosette and now demands recompense; and the spectre of revolution in France.

Needless to say, there's a lot here in terms of plot, characterization, themes, and pages. But while staggering, it's never overwhelming and rarely boring (except for the novel's notorious Waterloo and sewer sections. If you know, you know.) Having also read Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, I can confidently say that Les Misérables is his masterpiece, offering an expansive story about how God's love manifests in human kindness to those the world doesn't believe deserve it. Did it need to be 1200+ pages? Nah, 800 or so would have done the trick. But for those willing to climb this mountain of a book, the view from the summit is worth the journey.

JACK KIRBY: THE EPIC LIFE OF THE KING OF COMICS by Tom Scioli
I AM STAN: A GRAPHIC BIOGRAPHY OF THE LEGENDARY STAN LEE by Tom Scioli

Alongside Lewis and Clark, Watson and Crick, and Lennon and McCartney, Jack Kirby and Stan Lee are an inseparable duo, whose work together changed their industry forever and whose work apart (some of which was actually quite good!) mostly pales in comparison. They are without a doubt the most important creators in comics history...and fans have spent 60+ years arguing who deserves more credit for their shared success.

In his graphic biographies of both creators, Tom Scioli (like most comics professionals) clearly chooses Jack Kirby. According to Scioli's well-researched account, Kirby is a blue-collar professional from an immigrant family who was repeatedly taken advantage of by his employers. Filled with ideas but devoid of business sense, Kirby was always a company man through and through right up until he'd been so worn down by his companies' demands that he was ready to quit.

Jack Kirby is not a hagiography, but it's clear that Scioli has tremendous admiration for his subject, and many of the sources cited in the bibliography are from Kirby-friendly publications. The art style is reminiscent of Ed Piskor (most famous for his Hip Hop Family Tree books), though it's marred slightly by the baffling choice to give Kirby (and only Kirby) an enlarged head and "anime eyes." It doesn't ruin the book or anything, it's just distracting, and something he doesn't repeat in the next book.

I Am Stan, though less critically beloved, might have actually been my favorite of the two books. At times it feels almost dreamlike, with its protagonist floating from life event to life event, as opposed to the more concrete Kirby biography. In Scioli's telling, Stan Lee is less a creator than a salesman, a would-be Great American Novelist who succeeded in comics through a combination of family connections, luck, bravado, and, yes, talent. It follows Stan's rise to the top of Marvel Comics, his fame as the face of that company, and his pitiable final years, when he was arguably subjected to elder abuse by his daughter and employees. It has been said that no one ever really knew Ronald Reagan, that he was a smiling cipher, and you get the same feeling after reading I Am Stan about Lee. Some readers will surely find that frustrating; I found it fascinating.

For comics fans, these are must-reads. For pop culture fans, I'd say the same. Whether you know it or not, Lee and Kirby are two of the most influential storytellers of the last century, and their own stories, told in the medium they shaped, are worth a read.

ESSENTIAL MS. MARVEL VOL. 1 by Chris Claremont, Gerry Conway, John Buscema, Jim Mooney, et al.

Many years before Carole Danvers was Captain Marvel, one of the most prominent faces of Marvel Comics, she was a failed experiment. In the 1970s, Marvel editors, who prided themselves on their progressive bona fides, realized that they didn't have any superheroes to meet second-wave feminism's moment. So they hastily introduced several new books starring female characters: She-Hulk, Spider-Woman, and, yes, Ms. Marvel.

Carole Danvers, first introduced as a supporting character in Captain Marvel, was now reimagined as the editor of the Daily Bugle's Woman Magazine and imbued with powers from the alien Kree, including a "seventh sense" that Stan Lee absolutely would have called "superpowered women's intuition" if he'd been writing it. It was...clumsy.

This Essential volume contains all 23 issues of that original series, before Ms. Marvel was invited to become an Avenger and her solo book was unceremoniously cancelled. Supporting characters are introduced and then forgotten. Her costume changes. Her origin, mysterious at first, is revealed. Nothing sticks.

When Marvel mercifully put this book down, it wasn't because it was too woke, but because it was Bronze Age schlock that never found an audience. It's not bad exactly, but it's utterly unmemorable. It would take another 35 years for writer Kelley Sue DeConnick to make Carole Danvers relevant again, this time as Captain Marvel. I'm glad Carole got a do-over...because her initial series is only worthy of reading for historical purposes.