Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship

By Gregory Boyle

Simon & Schuster     2017

210 pages     Spiritual

Father Gregory Boyle is a Jesuit priest and the founder of Homeboy Industries, a nonprofit organization in Los Angeles that works with gang members. It is the largest gang-intervention program in the world. His first book, Tattoos on the Heart, described the development of the organization, and this book, Barking to the Choir, fervently describes what Boyle has learned about faith, compassion, and the enduring power of radical kinship.

The key word to the entire book is “Kinship.” We learn early in the book that we are all kin; that even though our life experiences can be very different, at our core, we are very much the same. He says, “The moment one says, ‘This is what it was like for me’, a rebirth occurs. Locating our wounds leads us to the gracious place of fragility; the contact point with another human being. When we share these shards of excavation with each other, we move into the intimacy of mutual healing. Awe softens us for the tender glance of God, then enables us to glance in just the same way.”

Another important word is humor. Boyle tells story after story of people collapsing in laughter—sharing something silly, something stupid, or something ironic—while at the same time building community, building kinship. I was really struck by the glorious good humor by which Boyle faces the challenges of Homeboy Industries and the people who come to him wanting to make changes in their lives. He helps them facilitate change, but at the same time, he has to manage a very large operation with myriad numbers of volunteers as well as hundreds of participants. He has also had to bury over 200 participants who have died because of gang violence.

One thing he cannot tolerate is judgment. He says, “We must try and learn to drop the burden of our own judgment, reconciling that what the mind wants to separate, the heart should bring together. . . judgment, after all, takes up the room you need for loving.” He has been known to ask volunteers to leave if he sees them being too judgmental or exhibiting too much moral indignation.

Barking to the Choir is a great book for a church book club. It is easy to read, and full of relatable stories, quotable thoughts, and meaningful summaries to keep everyone talking. Additionally, I found that it followed very nicely two other books I have recently read, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas and The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton.

Here is the website for Homeboy Industries and a link to a delightful article about a speaking engagement of Father Gregory Boyle’s in the Los Angeles Times when Barking to the Choir was released.

The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life

by Anu Partanen

Harper     2016

432 pages     Nonfiction

Americans have long heard about the superiority of the Nordic form of Socialism, and more recently we have heard about the Finnish schools and the superiority of their education system. Frankly, this is not news to me. I have been hearing about it for years from my Norwegian sister-in-law, Arna. For all the years she has been married to my brother, she has bragged about how much better the Norwegian theory of everything is compared to the American theory of anything. And then, lo and behold, a book by virtually the same name, The Nordic Theory of Everything by Anu Partanen appeared on my Kindle from the publisher. Would I review it? Of course, I thought. Now I can finally figure out what Arna was talking about. Well, it has taken me several months to get through the book, which I read in fits and starts, but I can now assure you that for the most part, Arna is right. The Nordic way is the best way for many of life's situations.

Partanen is a journalist who came to the United States when she married an American. She begins by discussing all the things that most confused her when she arrived in the United States, including the things she took for granted in Finland, her home country. (The same social conditions she speaks of regarding Finland apply to the other Nordic countries as well). For example, she had a difficult time figuring out co-pays for health insurance. No such thing in Finland. Taxes were also a problem, including the complicated nature of the forms and deductions. One of the things that most surprised her was parental leave and childcare—something that is taken for granted in the Nordic countries.

The central thesis of the book is contained in the prologue: "What could a bunch of tiny, cold, insignificant countries, where everybody looks the same, acts the same, and thinks a good time is a plate of pickled herring have to offer the diverse and dynamic United States?"

The Nordic Theory of Everything addresses four major concepts that Partanen finds difficult to understand in the United States: healthcare, the educational system, the family unit, and governmental participation in everyday life. I found the entire idea of family leave and childcare to be the most fascinating, particularly because we in the United States are embroiled in a huge debate regarding these issues. Partanen calls this the "Nordic theory of love." She says that "authentic love and friendship are possible only between individuals who are independent and equal." Most Nordic countries are quite egalitarian when it comes to new parents. Both parents are allowed leave when there is a new child in the family, and the parents return to their jobs exactly where they left off. Although companies in the United States are getting better about family leave, there tend to be many more constraints on the leave than in the Nordic countries.

And then there is education—free education for all through university. My nephew Will, born and raised in the United States, is a Norwegian citizen because of his mother. He is attending graduate school in Norway tuition free. University education for all is a concept that is also being debated in the United States, and Partanen has a lot to say on this matter as well. All of her informative book is well-researched but also shows a great deal of common sense. She believes that the Nordic model for the role of government in the lives of a country's citizens is not inhibiting, but frees the citizen for social mobility, entrepreneurship, and effective citizenry. Ultimately, she believes that America's social systems are out dated and old fashioned, but in the closing chapter of the book, she maintains that the United States can fix many of our social concerns and constraints and reinvigorate our society if we follow the Nordic model.

So—I was discussing the book with my nephew, Will, who is finishing his fifth year living in Norway with all his education free. He espoused everything that Partanen says in her book. When I asked what he felt were the weaknesses in the system, he suggested that the Nordic countries are quite insular and unwilling to accept people unlike themselves. "Are they racist?" I asked. "Yes," he replied, "I would have to say that there is a streak of racism in the culture." My conclusion is that no culture is without its problems, but Partanen offers a "careful and judicious" case for some remodeling that should be happening in the American theory of everything.

A review in the New York Times.

A review in the Seattle Times.

Anu Partanen website. 

Flight Behavior

by Barbara Kingsolver

Harper Perennial     2012

433 pages     Fiction

Dellarobia Turnbow is the young mother of two preschool children living in a small house on the family farm in Appalachia. "...being a stay-at-home mom was the loneliest kind of lonely, in which she was always and never by herself." As Flight Behavior opens, she is on the way up the mountain to a small cabin to meet a man with whom she has been having a flirtation. She is on the cusp of throwing her life and marriage away when she has a Moses-like burning bush experience. Thoroughly freaked-out by the message she believes has come from God, she turns around and goes back down to her mundane life filled with guilt and promises to do better. 

She later discovers that her burning bush is in actuality a gathering of millions of monarch butterflies, and the discovery changes her life. The discovery of the monarch butterflies creates a media and scientific frenzy. The monarchs are not supposed to be there, but their winter habitat in Mexico has been destroyed. A biologist named Ovid Byron arrives from New Mexico to study the monarchs, and he brings along with him equipment, student assistants, and later, a job for Dellarobia.

Flight Behavior explores the relationships between Dellarobia  and her family, friends, and community. The book, however, is only in part about Dellarobia (I just love saying that name!). It is in large part an exploration of the relationship between the monarch butterflies up there on the mountain and the effects of global warming that brought them there in the first place. Kingsolver is not subtle in her feelings about global warming, nor is she subtle in the way she expresses those feelings. In some ways, this is a polemic about global warming in the guise of a novel. But, the book is redeemed by a cast of characters that is incredibly appealing. You learn a lot of science in amidst the family drama, and believe me there is plenty of drama. These are complex, fully developed characters for the most part, although some of the minor characters are caricatures. 

Kingsolver chooses to write novels that are not just a good read, but she wants to make a point regarding social justice. In an interview with Diane Rehm, she says: "That was my plan because novelists really aren't writing about climate change. Well, it's pretty rare for novelists to write about science, in general, so because I was trained as a scientist, I really like to write about science and about the methods of science. And part of the difficulty of this conversation, non-conversation, that as a nation we're having or not having about climate change, is that it's hard for people even always to understand the language of science." So, she has a message about global warming for the non-scientist, using Dellarobia as the foil. Dellarobia is a sponge for knowledge, and over the course of this scientific journey, Kingsolver dispenses her scientific knowledge, and Dellarobia, as well as her son, Preston, soak it up. In the end, it is the science of the monarch butterflies and global warming that causes Dellarobia to make major changes in her life.

Kingsolver's social justice point of view is obvious in two definitive scenes: the first involving an environmentalist who sets up shop on the mountain to tell the locals about how to behave responsibly about the environment. One of his solutions is to fly less, but of course none of the people in Dellarobia's family have ever been on a plane. The other scene is the shopping trip Dellarobia and her husband take to the dollar store to buy Christmas gifts for their children, and all they can afford is cheap, foreign made junk, and she despairs the idea that another generation of children are bound by poverty. 

One of the things that Kingsolver really understands is the relationship of religion to the lives of Appalachian people. Chapter 3 is a description of a southern church that I found to be worth the price of the book. Dellarobia was "what Hester (her mother-in-law) called a 911 Christian; in the event of an emergency, call the Lord." She goes to church because it is conventional; in her world view, everything is open to question, but that is not the style of the southern church. She has been kicked out of the Wednesday evening Bible study because she asked too many questions and made too many unorthodox observations.

The comment made by Ovid, the biologist, is Kingsolver's message. When he is describing to Dellarobia the diminishing coral reefs and dying insects, he laments: "What was the use of saving a world that has no soul left in it." 

My book club had a lively discussion about the book, probably evenly divided between those who loved it and those who thought it was only marginally successful. Frankly, I am in the marginally successful camp. I found the science part of the novel cumbersome and didactic. The ending, no matter how symbolic and breathtaking, was a bit cheesy. (Dare I say that about such a famous novelist.) 

On the plus side, Kingsolver is a compelling writer, and I found myself underlining some marvelous statements on nearly every page. She understands human nature extremely well, which makes Flight Behavior worth reading, even if it has less than glorious moments.

Kingsolver is committed to social justice, and her books reflect her views. Apparently, she has even established an award called the PEN/Bellweather Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. 

A review that finds Flight Behavior to be marvelous: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/books/review/flight-behavior-by-barbara-kingsolver.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

A review that finds Flight Behavior to be problematic: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2012/11/barbara_kingsolver_s_flight_behavior_reviewed.html

Interview from the Diane Rehm Show:  http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-11-08/barbara-kingsolver-flight-behavior/transcript

Barbara Kingsolver's website: http://www.kingsolver.com/