Man Learns to Love Again Does Not Equal Christian Fiction

The Fiction Story

First I want to tell you why I choose this book. I saw a Facebook post from the author, Charles Martin. It was a response to a reader who did not like the Christian aspect of Martin’s books. In a very kind way Charles Martin told him that he writes for an audience of one and that is Jesus. I suppose that sounds trite, but I liked to hear it and so I decided to pick up one of his books. The comment and response were in context to a book called Wrapped in Rain, but based on the book description I chose to read The Mountain Between Us.

You’ll need to read three chapters to get to the promised catalyst mentioned in the description, but honestly it did not seem buried. If anything it builds good anticipation. From the catalyst, the first person narration alternates between a survival story and flashbacks that come to us in bits and pieces as main character, Ben Payne records the memories for us on a digital recorder.

The survival scenes are what drive the story forward while the back story slowly fills in the true meaning of the book. The two different streams have great contrast in mood and feel. Those who like plot driven stories will prefer the wilderness story-stream while those who crave dramatic, even romantic stories will favor the back-story-stream. Warning! This book may cause rapid page-flipping, and or reoccurring eye-rolling. For those reasons, an array of readers will find themselves both engrossed and slightly bothered.

There is a surprise ending. No, I am not going to spoil it. Although you may guess what it is, Martin does an excellent job at misleading your notions and surprising you anyway. It would be fair for the Christian reader to anticipate a powerful Christian message is involved. Unfortunately it does not come, at least not in any particular Christian form.

The Christian Story

You may have noticed that I decided to change the title of these book reviews from Fiction Story/ Gospel Story to Fiction Story/ Christian Story. The truth is, most Christian books I find are not gospel orientated, but rather up-hold a Christian value or two, and then, often nothing that cannot, and is not found in your typical “secular” books; for example, love, trust, forgiveness. Makes sense I suppose, otherwise they would call it Gospel-Fiction.

The Mountain Between Us is no different. In all honesty, it did not need a Christian fiction label. A reader unfamiliar with Charles Martin and his genre platform would not think The Mountain Between Us was Christian Fiction; they would not even find there to be Christian undertones. I cannot say the same about all of Martin’s work, I haven’t read them, and remember that dissatisfied reader?

The best answer available to the Christian Story in The Mountain Between us is: Man learns to love again, thanks in total to a month-long, life-threatening circumstance and the woman he got to know along the way- the engaged woman, and later, the married women whom he fell in love with. This book would be worth recommending as a non-christian book despite it's overly corny parts, but without a strong, clear Christian theme, which is what these blogs are looking for after all, I do not recommend it. Remember Christ, the author of salvation and the reader of our hearts. Try This Recommended Read

The Gifted by Terri Blackstock