Where the Light Fell - by Philip Yancey: Book Review

Title: Where the Light Fell

Author: Philip Yancey

Pages: 320
Publisher: Convergent Books
Publishing Date: October 5th 2021
Genre: Memoir, Christian
Format: Kindle
Rating: 5* 

It's been a while since I last read a memoir. The plan was to read this one in the morning, a bit at a time, knowing non-fiction books are not  prefered genre. To my surprise, I read this one in two days. It's a wonderfully done memoir, it's honest and open, without focusing on unnecessary details. It's the first book signed by Yancey I've ever read, and although he writes Christian life books, which is not something I gravitate towards, now I want to read more from him.

The book is structured in five parts and covers his early childhood, his boyhood, the teenage years, and up to his young adult years, with a short part at the end focusing on his adult years. It's the story of his fundamentalist upbringing, he and his brother, Marshall, being raised by a young widowed mother, in the South of United States. Every child raised in the American Bible belt or raised in a conservative church environment will recognise parts of Yancey's story. However, his is an extreme, yet, as he mentioned a few times throughout the book, not as bad as others had it.

The tone he uses is not full of regret, resentment, pain, or anger. It's the story of a man who, through grace, learned to accept his background. The first part of the books reads fast, as if you're reading a gripping novel. In the second part, he talks about his questions and struggles to understand and make sense of God. I'm glad to see a man who found God through personal inquiry, personal wrestling with Him, and personal faith. He mentions that the main themes of his book are suffering and grace. It's the same two themes he deals with in this book, too. It's not a theological book by any means, which was a relief, because who wants to read theology in a memoir, anyway? It was fun to see all the books he read in order to discover more of what other though, so that he could reach the point of thinking for himself.

Because it's a memoir, the ending is not a beautifully tied happy end. The severed ties between his family members are still there, the past isn't erased, and the scarrs are still visible. However, it's God's grace that made him the man and author he is today. I'm glad he wrote this book, and I'm glad this is how I discovered his writing. I highly recommend this memoir to anyone who's interested in reading the stories of people coming from a fundamentalist background, or are fans of well-written memoirs.

I received this book from the publisher via Net Galley. All thoughts expressed here are my own.