My first inclination was just to say "wow" and leave it at that, but, of course, I couldn't do it. I don't read biography as a rule, but a friend rather tentatively recommended this. I had the impression that she was somewhat surprised by the impression that the book had made on her, so I got it and started reading. One might assume from the fact that it has taken me twelve days to finish it that it was rather tough going and I kept being distracted. In my case, that usually means that I have three or four other books that I have started in the meantime. Not really. It has been a pretty busy two weeks and it is much longer than my usual murder mystery, but the biggest "slow down" was that I kept going back and reading passages over - and over - not because they were difficult to understand, but because the events and personalities described seemed to demand it.
I am impressed by the way that the writer kept himself out of the way in the writing. I found very little direct "editorializing" and concluded that the writer might say that the story and the man spoke for themselves. It certainly seemed so to me. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a familiar name to me; when my friend couldn't come up with it and started trying to describe who he was, I came up with the name easily - now I am amazed by how little I actually knew.
As often happens, I am now inclined to run out and buy Bonhoeffer's book and give it a try, but I'm not sure I'm actually ready to try a serious work on theology - translated from the German. Better go back to reading tripe for a while first. I wouldn't want to step too far out of my comfort zone - which I'm sure Bonhoeffer would characterize as cowardice.
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