Crossroads by Wm. Paul Young

This is Young’s second book after his controversial and popular book   The Shack.  For the first few chapters I thought it was too much like the Shack to bother with reading.  And then somehow the story took hold in my mind and I had a hard time putting the book down.

Anthony Spencer is a self-made millionaire, twice divorced and twice married to the same woman.  He’s vindictive, selfish and lousy at relationships.    And he’s in a coma.   While in the coma he “wakes up” in another time and place.   The first person he meets is Jack and they have a conversation about God and belief and unbelief.  This is where the story mirrors the Shack.   But as the story moves along Tony encounters the Holy Spirit portrayed as a First Nations woman.  As Tony begins to examine his choices throughout his life he comes face to face with the kind of person he was.   Finally he is told he is going on another journey.  I’m not going to describe this part.  Suffice it to stay that I’ve watched enough Star Trek not to be wierded out by entities inhabiting human beings.   I enjoy a good science fiction story.  It’s a little harder to follow in a spiritual sense but as the story continues I was able to ignore the way Tony was getting around and enjoyed the characters he was meeting.  Each person helps him with the decision he needs to make and along the way he, well you should really read the book if you want to know how it ends.

Young has found his writing style and it is improving in my opinion.  The characters are endearing; the conversation crisp and humorous and there are spiritual nuggets to glean and enjoy.  I doubt this will be as controversial as the first book was.    I wasn’t expecting to but in the end I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it if you can read it with an open mind and heart.