52 Books in 52 Weeks, it's called. The challenge is simple: read a book every week for a year.
35. Millroy the magician.
I’ve now read this twice: once back in ‘94 or ‘95 and again in 2009. It’s amazing what 15 years of perspective and 11+ years of following Jesus will do to your understanding of a novel. I remember it mostly for the magic (and the anal fixation), and the transfer of power that closes the novel. But it’s a wild analogue of the story of Christ, with overtones of patriotism, cultishness, an uncomfortable love story and a surreal ‘Last Supper.’ Millroy transforms himself from a loser, “lost in his fat,” to a magician/guru with almost godlike powers and a message for America about eating only foods mentioned in the Bible and taking your time in the restroom. There are echoes of the gospel — particularly God’s desperate, almost hungry love for his creation, and his willingness to lay down his divinity in order to woo her — but mostly this is a flight of fancy with little in it to edify.
