If Pacey Got Saved: A Review of Blue Like Jazz

A few months ago, I read Donald Miller's Searching for God Knows What. I thought it was a fairly strong book exploring what the Gospel did and did not mean. Thus, it was with great eagerness that I recently read Miller's earlier book Blue Like Jazz. Blue Like Jazz was certainly a book with great critical acclaim. It has been a huge seller, being particularly influential among young evangelicals. I really thought I was going to read a great book.

You might have gathered by now that I was disappointed. It is not that book is terrible. Miller is too good a writer for any book that he writes to be terrible. There is an appropriate mixture of humor and emotion. Miller's opening chapters establishing the sinfulness of all men and women are particularly strong. I will refer to them again. Yet, despite solid writing and great opening chapters, the book suffers several weaknesses.

The first weakness is the emotional tone. I find the whole book a little overwrought. I thought that painfully introspective people with GRE-level vocabulary only existed on Dawson's Creek. Apparently, I was wrong. There is also a colony of such people in Oregon. If Pacey had gotten saved, he would have written Blue Like Jazz. (Maybe Dawson would have turned it into a movie). There is a certain stage of life where running at a ragged emotional level is considered deep. I am 40. I am past that stage so much of the book's emotion is lost on me. I only find it wearying.

Also lost on me is the constant attempt to prove that Christianity is cool. I get it Miller. You drink. You smoke. You go on long drives alone with single women in your car. You're not a legalist. You have made Christianity cool. I am a square. I don't smoke. I don't drink. Is the attraction of Jesus that He lets you live your life like before? That's a cheap shot- I know. Actually, I think no less of Miller for having a beer or smoking a tobacco pipe. That is his right. But Paul says in Romans that Christians have to be careful about the gray areas. He says that we should keep our choices between us and the Lord so that we don't cause another brother or sister to stumble. Miller could have advertised the smoking and drinking less. There are other ways to advertise how great it is to know Christ. ( We won't even discuss some of the mildly off-color language).

The last criticism is a simple one. Miller barely mentions the Bible. This is a mistake. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Miller could have engaged in the same type of writing project without banishing the Scriptures to the sideline. Still, Miller is not, as some critics have claimed, unBiblical. The Bible may not be fore fronted but it is present in all that Miller writes. Miller may write that he does not know his Bible well. But in making this claim, Miller seems like a master poker player who understates his ability by saying that he has played once or twice. When reading Blue Like Jazz, don't mistake humility for ignorance. It is not that Miller doesn't reflect Biblical truth. It is just that he would have done well to give it a more central place.

In many ways, the criticisms here are unfair. Reading Searching for God Knows What first heightened my expectations. Blue Like Jazz is certainly worth a read. There are unsaved friends who I might give this book too. But first I have to make sure that they liked Dawson's Creek.