Naw Man, It Ain't Pretty

“As far as I could see, the Delta was a collage of earth tones—a vast tangle of waterways—a patchwork quilt of rice paddies, and jungle.”

- Tommy, the Saving of a U.S. Navy Seal

I took a class once, not much more palatable than taking a pill, catalogued as Review of Contemporary Christian Literature, featuring Faulkner, O'Connor, Joyce and others. I never could figure out what was "Christian" about any of those writers, in the Lifeway Christian Bookstore sense of the word, that is. Flannery O’Connor and her blatant pro-Catholic supremism, Flaky Faulkner and his Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi...what's up with that?

The professor would ask every day in my class, “Should Christian literature be ‘pretty?’ Should all the words, and story and characters be nice?” I finished reading Tommy, the saving of a Navy Seal over the last few weeks, savoring this first person memoir of the experiences of ayoung boy who one day becomes a Navy Seal. Loved it. Yet it should be titled, The Nine Lives of Tommy Bracken, due to the harrowing tales of narrow escapes riddled throughout the book.

Bracken lays it all out on the line, well, most of it, and bears out the life of a boy turned man who does indeed seem to have nine lives. He gives us all the details of his life, waiting until the final chapters to bring his conversion story to a brief yet powerful climax, ending one facet of his life to begin a new one, sans Seals work and party animal lifestyle.

Tommy is not some ethereal writer like Faulkner—he puts his feelings up front and in your face.Most of the book is not pretty. But it is indeed a Christian book, with the author’s intention of revealing his innermost desire to find meaning in his life. This is real writing, and I wish there were 100 more books just like it, written by folks baring their soul and life experiences to a world looking for answers.

In a recent interview with Sebastian Junger, who purposely sets himself up in war zones inAfghanistan and other locales, he remarked, “The Iowa Writer’s Workshop [of which O’Connor hails from] is not turning out guys who are going to Liberia. They stay in the U.S. and write short stories, which is cool, you know, but doesn’t interest me.”

In comparison, Tommy Bracken is not a writer by trade, but a missionary to China for the past 27 years, who spilled his guts in the writing of his first book. I wish that he had found a meaner editor to hone it down into a tight, concise story of his experience. Many times I wasn't sure why he was telling me about a particular anecdote, didn't quite get what it was tying to, but in all, it led to this: he had a tremendous zeal for life and the Seals, but was looking for something real in his life and found: Jesus.

Am I inspired? Yes. Is the book an example of pretty Christian writing where all the salty details are edited out? No. Would I recommend this book to anyone to read? Yes, I would like to give a copy of his book to everyone I know. Would I fling my copy of the book out the window like I did Faulkner’s Sanctuary after reading it? Absolutely not.

I hope and pray that Rev. Tommy Bracken’s memoir will inspire many more Apostolic writers to bring their story to life, leaving it raw, yet well edited, but not pretty…unsanitized. And do order your copy of Tommy, the Saving of a U.S. Navy Seal today athttp://www.tommybracken.com/ . It's long, fascinating, has a great ending, and is definitely notpretty. But it gives account of a lonely boy who becomes a successful Navy Seal, serving in theVietnam era, to serve his four years with outstanding effort and accomplishments. And he didn't get killed.