Letters from the Mountain
by Ben Palpant
I only give 5 stars to books I’ve finished that I immediately want to read-to-re-finish. These books attain to the Fives. Letters from the Mountain has attained.
This book is about writing. More, it’s about the writing life. More, it’s about giving what you have to others, including, when the gift is in the form of words. Who knows if the Lord wants you to have a lot of followers? We do know the Lord blesses seeds sown. So sow more.
Palpant names this generativity. I’m a sucker for neologisms, and generativity has been growing like a weed in the leaf-mold of my mind for the last few months. Generativity is generous, living, consistent but not like a machine, appreciating beauty without being a perfectionist. Generativity comes from being honest, humble, and even out of suffering. Generativity has a “multiplying effect on others,” it is contagious, and it is “impossible apart from God’s grace.”
The format of these Letters is that of a writing dad to his writing daughter. It has a personal feel, but it also is not private, certainly not girly. My point: dudes won’t lose their man card reading this.
If I had taken the time earlier I would have posted this review before hearing Ben speak in person at our recent Raggant Fiction Festival. And now that our Festival day is done, I only recommend the book more. (You can find his three talks here.)
The only thing that has kept me from restarting my reread of Mountains is that I’ve started reading his newest book, An Axe for the Frozen Sea. Those pages are interviews with poets, and they are no less provocative toward generativity.