Foy
Books,  Reviews

Reviewing Foy: On the Road to Lost

foy
FOY:ON THE ROAD
TO LOST
by
GORDON ATKINSON
  Genre: Literary Fiction

Publisher: Material Media LLC
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Date of Publication: March 1, 2017
Number of Pages: 194

 

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Gordon Atkinson, of the popular blog RealLivePreacher, brings us Foy, a recently- divorced, recently-resigned pastor in the midst of redefining personal meaning. As Foy travels to New Orleans, hoping to find a new identity separate from the church, he keenly observes the everyday, rendering ordinary moments unexpectedly significant. Atkinson’s own background as a preacher and blogger inspires Foy’s confessional voice, the voice which characterizes this story about how our own experiences impact the universal search for meaning.

 

 ***

 

 

PRAISE FOR FOY: ON THE ROAD TO LOST:
“If the magnitude of difference between the stars and humankind is the purest of religions, reminding us of our insignificance (so thinks Foy), then that magnitude is collapsed in the hands of Atkinson, whose words elevate the most insignificant of objects, acts, and characters to startling heights. A key shifted on a desk, a communion cup offered to an old woman despite a philosophical mismatch, a baby’s bottle first ignored and then retrieved for a frazzled stranger on a bus. Each commands, each arrests, each persists. And we suddenly remember that what we create with mere words can be as lasting as the luminaries.”
— L.L. Barkat, author of Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing, twice named a best book of 2011
“Few writers can match Gordon Atkinson’s ability to tell stories about the sacred in our everyday lives. Foy is a work of power, beauty, and clarity–I saw myself and the world more clearly after reading it. I think you will too.”

— Greg Garrett, author of The Prodigal and Entertaining Judgment

“I really, really like Gordon Atkinson’s Foy. I like the character Foy himself. He’s Everyman and he’s me and he’s Gordon, all at the same time. Nice trick. I like Gordon’s writing — straightforward, but with a simple elegance. But what I really like is the no-holds-barred honesty. This feels real because it is real. Foy at his worst, Foy at his best, Foy at his most wonderful/awful. It’s an on-going series, just like life. I look forward to the next chapter.”
— Robert F. Darden, author of Nothing but Love in God’s Water, Volume II: Black Sacred Music from Sit-Ins to Resurrection City

I confess – I’m not sure where to start in talking about Foy by Gordon Atkinson. I sat down late the other evening, with the simple intent to read a few chapters and clear my head of the day’s worries. When I set down the book – HOURS later – my dog was reproachfully looking at me from the end of the ottoman, where she waited patiently to accompany me to bed, and my were knees cramped from holding my curled-up position far too long in my comfy chair.

Atkinson has put together a collection of short stories that, while they can stand up individually on their own, together begin to put together a vivid picture of the man called Foy Davis. There is no set arc to his story – some stories flash back to Foy’s childhood, others jump ahead to his time in New Orleans, to where he has sort of run away after leaving his position as a minister. Individually and together, they offer a complex and human look into a fascinating character.

Foy is the everyman, questioning his beliefs. Only – Foy is a preacher. Aren’t they supposed to be pretty secure in their faith? And there is the hook – it is the honesty, the real-ness of the character that settles into your bones.  This is the guy I want to sit down with over coffee (or a beer) and talk to about faith and life, because he makes you feel ok about your doubts.

But the book is more than that. There is a quiet presence in all his tales that really connected, a clarity in the writing, a total lack of pretense. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve every struggled so much in trying to capture in words the feel a book projects, or what exactly it was that resounded so much with me, but it did. Deeply.

Go. Read it for yourself.


New Novel by Gordon Atkinson Foy: On the Road to Lost, to be released March 1 from Material Media on Vimeo.

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Atkinson is the author of the books RealLivePreacher.com (Wm. B. Eerdmans), Turtles All the Way Down, and A Christmas Story You’ve Never Heard.  He was a contributor for the magazine Christian Century and founding editor for the High Calling website, which brought together hundreds of independent writers and featured their work.

His writing career started on Salon where he was among the most read bloggers on the site.  One of his essays was chosen to be included in The Best Christian Writing 2004 (Jossey-Bass) and his book RealLivePreacher.com won the Independent Publisher Book Award in the creative non-fiction category.

  —————————————
GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY! 

Grand Prize: Signed Copies of Foy: On the Road to Lost, Turtles All the Way Down, and A Christmas Story You Never Heard
2nd Prize: Signed Copy of Foy: On the Road to Lost

3rd Prize: Signed Copy of RealLivePreacher.com
(US ONLY)
March 1 – 15, 2017

CHECK OUT THE OTHER GREAT BLOGS ON THE TOUR:

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Video Guest Post 1
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3/3
Excerpt 1
3/4
Video Guest Post 2
3/5
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3/6
Author Interview 1
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3/8
Video Guest Post 3
3/9
Excerpt 2
3/10
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3/11
Video Guest Post 4
3/12
Author Interview 2
3/13
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3/14
Video Guest Post 5
3/15
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