Why Do I Relate More to Psychological Killers Than Troubled Families?

This summer, for my book club, I read three novels about families:  Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan is about three generations of troubled women who spend their summers at the family beach house.  Flight Patterns by Karen White is about a troubled family in Georgia with lots of secrets.  Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng is about two troubled families in Shaker Heights.

Also this summer (as you know) I read several books by Stephen King.  While each of the "family" books had something to offer, I enjoyed King far more.  I just finished Finders Keepers. It was written in 2015, after his best seller Mr. Mercedes (which I loved.)

One of the cool things about King's novels is that they intertwine.  Early in Finders Keepers a Mercedes crashes into folks lined up for a job fair.  Wow, that's "Mr. Mercedes" driving that car.  And King's characters, like Mr. Mercedes's Hodges and Jerome,  are not confined to one book.  They show up to save the day in Finders Keepers as well.

Good.  I wasn't finished with them.

Finders Keepers deals with how reading great novels can change us forever, in both good and bad ways.  Stephen King is all about good and evil.  And about how some of us who see ourselves as good can do evil things.

And that's exactly what the two excellent theology books I've read this summer deal with as well.


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