I was a little bit suspicious of whether a 'celebrity' vicar writing a book as a spin off of a TV programme would be able to offer anything of spiritual depth and integrity - but in this book Peter Owen Jones manages both depth and integrity in spades.
The book is made up of Letters written to those very close to Peter and those (I assume) he has never meet, to those still living and to those who have departed this life. This format allows you to have very intimate insight into Peter's life, his relationships, and his loves and loses, without it becoming voyeuristic. His articulation of his angst around identity and relationships holds up a powerful mirror to the experience of some many of us in our so called 'post-modern' age.
I have been reading this book over the last couple of month a letter or two at a time - and this is the approach that I would recommend. The letters have an intensity which means that they are best encountered like this - as I think that if you sat and read the book cover to cover you would be overwhelmed and it was therefore lose its impact.
The book is also in its own way highly political - in the sense that the criticism of our individualistic and materialistic society is a call for radical change. If we are to overcome these faults, that Peter finds within himself as much as anyone else, then we will be living very different lives and the seemly essential glue of unending consumption would be removed from society. But maybe it is worth the risk of finding out if everything would really fall apart without it.
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