(This post will be sticky for the rest of the day…new posts below.)
In his new (and first!) novel, Danny Gospel, David Athey has penned an evocative tale of a suffering pilgrim, a young man with a particular and in ways peculiar life, but one in which it is easy to find echoes of our own, because it embodies the tragedy and hope characteristic of any human being’s life on earth.
From the back cover copy:

As a boy he performed concerts singing old-time hymns with his family and got so famous he’s still known around Iowa as Danny Gospel. But since then, things haven’t worked out quite the way he planned. And now Danny prays for just one thing: a normal, happy life.
What he gets instead is a kiss.
He wakes one morning to a perfectly lovely woman dressed in white who leans down, kisses him on the lips…and then disappears. The next moment, Danny finds himself launched into a quest to find this woman he’s sure is his true love. He is an everyday hero on anything but an everyday journey—dreaming impossible dreams and, no matter how much he must suffer, pursuing romance and heavenly glory

It is not an easy book to synopsize. Something is clearly wrong with Danny Gospel, but we are not quite sure what – if there is just a great sadness or unease about him or if he is spiritually afflicted or mentally ill or all of the above.  He is, in short, a Holy Fool. He lives amid unanswered questions, unresolved situations and unreconciled relationships, is clearly seeking some sort of peace. The driving movement of the novel, I think, is the attention Danny Gospel pays, in his hyper-aware, oversensitive state – to what moves and lives around him. In other words, Danny Gospel lives looking for signs – and signs with a capitol “s” – somewhere there is peace, and the journey to that peace cannot be a total mystery. By looking, listening and being led, perhaps we can find it. We will find it.
Danny Gospel is bursting with interesting and eccentric characters in both the primary setting of Iowa and in Florida, the site of a brief sojourn. The novel was published by Bethany House, a traditionally evangelical publisher, but David is a Catholic and his novel is peppered with Catholic characters, settings and clearly emerges from a Catholic sacramental sensibility, as well as the Catholic understanding of suffering and holiness. It’s encouraging to see Bethany expanding its list in this way.
David’s a poet, and the book is strongest where those poetic gifts shine through – in lyrical and spiritually evocative moments like this, for example:
The gravel gleamed as if the Milky Way had spilled a million frozen stars. Directly in front of me a deer crossed over with a constellation on its head. And then a fox with a comet’s tail. The road was busy with brilliant animals moving from one field to another, avoiding the harvesters. All night long, I limped up and down the road with all of creation crossing my path and slipping away.
There’s much more where that came from.
Danny Gospel is enjoyable and moving – and I think anyone would find it so, but I want to recommend it especially for a particular type of reader. Don’t get me wrong – this isn’t the only type of reader who would enjoy this book. Not at all, but just consider this. If you’ve got a friend or acquaintance who thinks Joshua is the height of spiritually-weighted storytelling, give them Danny Gospel.  The general shape of the story will appeal to them from the outset, and once they get into it, their spirits might just be nudged in a more expansive, knowing and substantive direction.
And the rest of you too – and don’t blame me if you close the book at the end mumbling, “Durn you, David Athey…oh, and has anyone seen the Kleenex?”
 Scroll down for a  brief interview with David Athey
(By the way…David is lurking in these parts, so if you have any comments or questions for him, feel free to post them. )