Tag: Church Culture

Title: That Printer of Udell’s: A Story of the Middle West

First Published in 1903

Author: Harold Bell Wright

Edition: Free version with blue/gray cover on IBooks App

Pages: 362

IBooks

English

This book is also known by the title: The Least of These My Brothers

I have a few slight spoilers. 

I first heard about TPOU on BBN radio station. A lady narrates a Christian Classic book for about half an hour each day. I walked by the radio a few years ago, and I heard her narrating this book. It seemed interesting; I knew that I wanted to read it some day.

The author is very descriptive, writes good dialogue, and adds some touches of wit and dry humor into narration and characters. It’s a Christian novel, but it does not come off as preachy. It moralizes when needed and the doctrine of Christ completes the novel. The year is not stated but I’m pretty sure it’s the early 20th century going by the descriptions of the places that the book depicts. The main thrust of the book takes place over about a three year period. The setting is mainly Boyd City but also different midwestern states in the USA.

The main theme of the novel is Christianity and the Church’ s place in society, social justice, and the hearts of people. The main character who has had some rough times in his life, stumbles into town out of work but willing to work. He has a hard time finding employment; he is shown a lot of contempt by people although he wants to work! They judge him and make narrow minded comments. He seeks help from church but he is met with cold indifference and/or criticism. Eventually, he does find a job, and the plot takes off from there.

The book exposes a lot of the hypocrisy and folly of humans, whether they be infidels or church folk. The book also expresses the wisdom and virtue that humans, whether believer or none, can have as well. You have the characters that want to see the church doing more to help the fellow man before they will follow Christ. You have the characters who don’t want to be affiliated with church at all, and just want to drink or gamble. You have the characters who go to church because they are rich and well known and it’s the thing for aristocrats to do. You have the characters who earnestly follow Christ and are trying to get the church more involved in helping the downtrodden.

Throughout the novel, there is a dichotomy between Cultural/Nominal Christianity and Real/Active Christianity. The main character realizes that there are devout, real Christians and eventually becomes a Christian after seeing the positive in church people. Jerusalem Church’s young people along with Dick (Richard), the main character, actively seek societal reform in the name of Christ. The guy who hired him in the beginning, Udell, an infidel pragmatist, eventually becomes a Christian after witnessing such strong acts of love and social justice from the church.

Clara is George Udell’s love interest. They are engaged after Udell eventually becomes a Christian. Udell is the only one that hires Richard. Clara’s mother seems very contemptuous and critical towards everything, even her daughter being so involved in her youth group. It would have been great if the mother would have become a Christian by the end of the book. Amy is a society girl with class obsessed parents and brother. Her father especially mirrors the Pharaoh from Exodus in the Bible a bit too closely. His pride, criticism, and arrogance eventually drives Amy from the house. Amy is down on her luck and met with contempt in another city (similar to what happened with Dick). It’s soooo sad that the only person who shows her kindness is a brothel mother! Amy goes through a bit of a transformation as well as she begins to feel more useful, and she sees the emptiness of just being a society girl. Sadly, her father and brother never seem to change, Her brother is so contemptuous and dies a miserable death at the end.

There are other characters like Cameron the good hearted preacher whom the church elite is annoyed with for wanting to be so involved with the poor. His death was not something that I saw coming. I disliked that so much. Something else I disliked was how the black men were portrayed in this novel. I really wish that Wright would have just left out the black people from this novel if he was going to rely on one dimensional straw man caricatures. He mentioned there being Negroes in the city as part of the description. That’s fine, but the two characters he made a part of the story were like dense slapstick thugs. It didn’t fit in with a novel about helping people. Wright doesn’t use the notorious N word  in his narration. However,  some characters near the end use it in their dialogue, but they aren’t super likeable or sketched out characters anyway. None of the main characters that you are supposed to like use it. I know this is a novel from 1903; what should you expect right? So, I wonder what BBN did when they got to these parts. I only heard some of the book on the radio that day.

Overall, this book was a good read with intriguing drama. I like how the youth are portrayed as a driving force behind the church’s action. It’s nice to read a book like this with all the millennial bashing going on nowadays.

Dates Read: February 15 to February 22 2019

Another book similar to this that I would recommend is In HIs Steps by Charles M. Sheldon