Blue Like Jazz (by Donald Miller)

(Amazon UK link)

It was over twelve years ago that I read ‘Blue like Jazz’ by Donald Miller, and liked it very much. So it was more than time to re-read. I hadn’t remembered anything about it, other than that it was a fairly informal book written from an American Christian perspective.

The informal style is what struck me immediately when I started reading again. It’s unusually written, almost as if spoken rather than written language, yet somehow it works. There’s less punctuation than I’d like, and sentences that are longer or shorter than usual - but once I got over the slight jar to my mind, I found it a very readable book.

The informality makes it feel almost as if the author is chatting to the readers, and that seems to be his intention. He’s telling his story, in essence, and it’s full of not just anecdotes but personal reflections. He watches TV shows, meets books, goes on journeys with several different friends - and learns new things, which he describes, along with his doubts, worries and concerns that logic is sometimes missing.

The author came from a poor family with separated parents, so as he says, his image of God wasn’t very flattering, reflecting his own somewhat unreliable father. He grew up in a fairly wealthy church, one that was quite inclusive and strict, and which demonised anyone who was different. That included anyone who voted Democrat. At the time I first read this, I was probably amused at the idea of Christians being so strongly right-wing and intolerant, but in recent years I’ve realised that, sadly, this is true in some parts of the United States. And probably elsewhere, too.

Don Miller, however, realised quickly that those who are different are not necessarily sinners, and that all the political parties have their good and bad points. He describes a period when he lived with hippies who weren’t believers at all, but who offered far more compassion and acceptance than any churches he had been to. It’s sad, shocking even, but also encouraging that he was able to see this and yet not give up on God.

There are sections about admitting faults and sins - confession, as the jargon word has it - sometimes to other people as well as to Goe, and acknowledging that sometimes we are wrong. Yet it all happens without any hint of preaching or condemnation. The author makes it clear that we’re all part of the human race, we all make mistakes, and nobody has the entire truth at their disposal.

The subtitle to the book is ‘nonreligious thoughts on Christian spirituality’, and that’s a good description. Inevitably God is mentioned, but as a part of the author’s life, someone he is slowly trying to get to know and - as far as is possible - begin to understand. He talks about his own rather sporadic and random reading of parts of the Bible, and the effect it had on him when he started to read the gospels straight through.

I was particularly struck by the final sections, on loving other people, and what that really means, and then on loving oneself. That’s perhaps the hardest thing to do - and Don Miller’s writing feels very vulnerable and honest as he recounts romantic relationships and other ways in which, despite being quite self-centred, he finds it very difficult to accept love from other people.

Miller is clearly an Introvert - I loved his analogy of being an electric screwdriver, needing twenty hours to recharge for ten minutes’ activity. Hyperbole, perhaps, but I can relate strongly. As I can to much of the writing, despite my culture and circumstances being entirely different.

I don’t always love books when I re-read them after a gap of over a decade, but I thought ‘Blue like Jazz’ was excellent, and would highly recommend it to anybody.

Review copyright 2021 Sue's Book Reviews