A Mystery worth looking for + More reflections on books perhaps?

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

Friends,
I used to read a great many mystery stories. This was during
my years as a missionary in Japan chiefly, and because somehow
the english language bookstores carried them in large numbers.
Some have Christian significance in a clear and interesting way--
Agatha Christie's stories about Harley Quinn a sort
of supernatural detective related to matters of the heart
and of the Harelequinade...
Dorothy Sayers of course always has a Christian background
and theological reflection by her detectivePeter Wimsey.
G.K.Chesterton's Father Brown stories even more so...

In general if I may say so I would be interested on this forum
in reflections on books read as well as, I do not say in place
of, lists of books members have read, hope to read etc.
It would be interesting to discuss books from a Christian
point of view wouldn't it?

Anyway I used to read many mysteries but not often now...
However I read one in December which I commend to you as worth
seeking out. It is the first substantial story about a black
detective by a black writer, Rudolph Fisher's
The Conjure Man Dies. It is set in Harlem of Fisher's
time(1930) and includes a wonderful group of characters,all
black, ranging from the learned to colorful street people. He
has a fine ear for dialogue and sets up a situation which is
very intruiging of a murder from which the murdered person
apparently returns and yet wishes to have his 'murderer' found.

But let me put a page here for you which while not exactly
theological, nonetheless shows a sense of wonder at the small
worlds within worlds revealed by the microscope.( Read more... )

I am thinking that now with more money coming to Harlem and the
gentrification of the area, it may come to be less the brightly colored
world of Fisher and the Harlem Renaissance or later of Chester Himes'
Cotton comes to Harlem. The eccentricity fade into American gray...
Yet it is good to have money and I suppose even good to have a normal
job...there is always loss with gain isnt there?
Anyway...
So this bit of a book recommended and I am yours wishing
all good reading!
+Seraphim
.