Dryvetyme Onlyne

Jeff Jacobson
So I Go Now: Following After the Jesus of Our Day
Trafford Publishing
Rating: 7.4

It’s hard to resist a good story.

Whether you’re drawn in by the strong lead characters, the intricate plot twists, or the detailed description of the scenery, there are few things in this world as mentally, psychologically, or spiritually compelling as a well-written narrative. Stories can simply convey truths, spark interest, and stir emotions in a way that encyclopedias packed filled with facts and spreadsheets chock-full of statistics never could. Yes, those facts and statistics are backed up by quality research and in-depth analysis, but they are rarely as compelling as people and the stories behind those people. People just genuinely enjoy immersing themselves in a good story.

But even the best of biographies (you know, those history books actually about people) and those vaunted New York Times best-selling novels can become tired and stale if the main character is lame or the story-telling is too hagiographic or insipid. And we’ve all read those kinds of books, whether fiction or nonfiction — the main character can either do no wrong or they’re an obvious caricature of a bad boy (who’ll eventually be reformed by the right woman or series of events); the dialogue is stilted, stale, and/or contrived; and the circumstances and scenarios are just simply too saccharine or are farcical set-ups designed to move the plot in a quite obvious direction. No one wants to pick those books up; they don’t want to have their intelligence insulted. People prefer stories have some meat & pack a punch, tales that draw the reader into the action, characters who actually possess heart, brains, & soul. Is it really so much to ask from authors these days?

Well, if you’re tired of reading overly prescribed material, Jeff Jacobson feels your pain. If you’re ever in the Fort Wayne, IN area, feel free to ask him about his attempt to write a screenplay and how he wrote, edited, rewrote, added material, scratched scenes, rewrote, tweaked, pitched the concept to churches, and just kept getting turned down by the big church he attended. Or better yet, save the trip to Fort Wayne and purchase a copy of his recently released book So I Go Now and read the story for yourself. So I Go Now comes from Jeff’s long-running series of blogs where he describes the last few years of his life in an intimate & inviting manner. What sets it apart from other works of narrative fiction (McLaren’s New Kind of Christian trilogy, for example) is that it feels like you’re reading through the author’s personal journal, after finding it in the bottom of a desk drawer, where no one’s supposed to know it exists. Well, at least that’s how I felt when I started reading Jeff’s blog 16 or so months ago.

There is little sugarcoating in these pages — Jacobson is very candid & open about his thoughts, feelings, desires, hurts, pains, joys, successes, failures, and everything else in between. The main character’s primary foil throughout the book is the shaggy-haired, leather-clad, Harley-riding Jesus who appears when least expected. He sometimes shows up to love and provide comfort, and other times to intentionally unsettle the main character’s perspective on what he thinks is his life’s purpose: rebuilding & restoring an old movie theater turned porn theater so that he can minister to the refugee population of his city. These situations, which, in many ways, propel the storyline, rarely feel forced and are written in such a manner that it implicitly asks the readers to put themselves in the main character’s position to see how they might react to any given situation. The various settings the main character finds himself in contain many of the qualities inherent in the parables Jesus told his disciples in private & the throngs of people who came to hear Him speak — they draw the reader/listener in with quality word play, the encounters & situations are ones that most people can relate to, and there’s a penchant for turning the normal upside down to reveal something entirely different.

Nevertheless, where I feel many people might not enjoy this work is that it is the result of months of blogging; hence, there could be issues that arise for some readers in terms of Jacobson’s journal/diary style of writing. For example, each chapter is self-contained and doesn’t always move into the next chapter with ease, a tendency characteristic of the book’s blog origins. Also, the flow of the story is occasionally interrupted by personal meditations and observations, which, while they are enjoyable to read, they often provide a strange jolt to the larger, more compelling narrative. It often feels a bit too intimate, in that the points either hit too closely to home or they miss the mark because they’re so personal and specific to the author’s life. Oh, Jacobson does a good job with trying to convert his specific story into a more general tale in which everyone can find something. But there were also times when, as I was reading, I thought, “Jeff, that really was a poignant & touching story about your wife and kids, but I find it hard as a single guy to relate to that. Could you please get back to the larger story?” But then again, when you think back to the fact that So I Go Now is the result of months of autobiographical blogging, you find yourself not wanting Jacobson to filter himself just because he keeps talking about lessons he’s learned from his wife & kids, even if you don’t have your own to learn from.

In the end, So I Go Now is simply Jeff’s clarion call to himself and to anyone who reads his words to drop our best-laid plans & well-crafted visions of grandeur and make space for a wild salvation, a present & future we that we didn’t personally plan, and an unpredictable (to our human understanding) Jesus in our lives. What further sets this work apart from similar books is the author’s ability to weave a compelling tale and do so in bite-sized chunks, much like Jacobson’s oft-referenced musical hero, Bruce Springsteen. There are times when you long to jump into the conversation the main character is having on the pages (i.e. sing along) and other times when you’re content to sit back and let the story course through your soul (i.e. sit back and let the song wash over you). Knowing Jeff, he would blush and wave off any comparisons to The Boss, but, judging by the compendium of material he’s been gathering as he frequently blogs and restores The Rialto in Fort Wayne, IN, he’s well on his way to creating a quality literary catalog as dense, enjoyable, and accessible as Springsteen’s. So, maybe, with So I Go Now, Jacobson could give Fort Wayne the same notoriety as Springsteen did the Jersey shore and Don Miller has given to Portland, OR. Or maybe he could just continue writing, not worry about the accolades, and buy that Harley he talks about all the time in his book and blog posts…

To read more from Jeff Jacobson:
So I Go Now, Vol. 2
So I Go Now, Vol. 3

Purchase So I Go Now on Amazon.com!