Books - The Dutchman & Telling Secrets

The Dutchman by Maan Meyers

This novel takes place at the point in time where the Dutch East Indies town of New Amsterdam is being taken over at the point of a gun by the British (three British warships and several thousand soldiers) to be renamed New York. The historical component is interesting because while I knew New York had been Dutch New Amsterdam and became English / American, I never thought about how that transition took place.

The book is a 'who dun it' with a cast that includes a politically correct combination of Dutch (who love beer above life itself), English (mostly honorable enemies), Jews (persecuted and persecuting), blacks (free and slave), Native Americans (good and not so good), emancipated and un-emancipated women, a prostitute (English Spy) and an assortment of other characters.

The main character is the city’s Stout (Sheriff) who has been drunk for several years after the death of his wife and most of their children. In the process of solving several murders, (first ever in the history of the colony) sobers up, falls in love, and goes through a slow and painful character transformation.

My description of the book may sound a bit hokey, but is an interesting light read never-the-less.

Telling Secrets by Buechner and True Faced by Thrall, McNichol and Lynch

Telling Secrets has is full of great quotes. The theme goes something like this. If we don’t tell our secrets; we can never become fully human, never grow past our hurts and failures. We will never be fully able to communicate with other people or God. True Faced proposes that from Adam on, we have put on masks so as to hide our real selves. Until we take our masks off we can never access the grace of God and will always be stuck on a treadmill of performance – never quite meeting expectations, never quite pleasing God. What God wants is for us to take off our masks, tell our secrets and let people and God know and love us as we are. More significantly, until we take off the mask, we will be limited in what God can do in our lives and will always remain frustrated.