Book Review: Good Catastrophe - Highly Recommend

Benjamin Windle's outstanding book, Good Catastrophe, met me in my deepest need. It offers a dynamite blast of hope. If ever I needed hope, it is now. The author references J. R. R. Tolkien's concept of "eucatastrophe," first introduced in Tolkien's essay, "On Fairy-Stories." This word means "good catastrophe." In literature, it is a turning point that takes an expected terrible outcome and, instead, brings triumph out of tragedy.

As soon as I finished this book, I began recommending it to friends and family. I'm not the only one facing significant odds, carrying tremendous burdens, and expecting impending doom. The author notes that life's challenges "trespass into our homes, they blindside us in our relationships, they hijack our health, and they rob us of our finances." But what if those very catastrophes take us to a grander future than we expected?

May and June were brutal! The circumstances in my life demand something to ease the pain. The hope Windle is talking about is not cliché or photogenic hope. Hope has tide-turning power! He says, "It's more than a feeling... it's a worldview.... At the point of deepest pain is the start of the greatest good... [because] pain provokes an accelerated growth response.... What we initially consider as inconveniences or hardships can later be celebrated as tools that developed us." Windle offers relatable examples. In one, he speaks of Stephen Curry, a basketball player known for tremendous accuracy. Curry learned to play on an uneven and rutted court. Those obstacles taught him to strive for greater accuracy so he wouldn't be constantly chasing the ball. In another, the author highlights a musician forced to play a concert on a broken piano. The maestro, maneuvering around non-functioning keys, ended up creating a new and magnificent sound.

This is a simple, yet powerful, book I will come back to again. I know my need for hope will not diminish. Windle's look at the hard life of Job sings of the hope that springs up amid draught and loss. He references the image of the tree in Job 14. Verses 7-9 say, "For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant." (KJV) Trees can sense the mere scent of water. Let the hope of Christ be like that faint scent of renewing water in your life. If you are demoralized by your trials, if life seems more than you can bear, this book provides a dose of hope that your catastrophe will bring good.