Follow Up on BoneMan’s Daughters

by Jason Joyner | Apr 28, 2009 | Blog, BoneMan's Daughters, christian fiction, Ted Dekker, writing craft

I reviewed BoneMan’s Daughters almost 2 weeks ago, but there is still a lot of buzz about it. I read an article on CNN.com today with a catchy headline: ‘BoneMan’ creator grew up with cannibals. Hard to top that, methinks.

Here’s the article about Ted and his place in (or out) of Christian fiction. There are some memorable quotes by an editor, Henry Carrigan, that I want to share as well:

“Good writing is lacking in a lot of Christian fiction. It’s pedantic, the prose is awful, the writing is static and it’s difficult to believe the characters,” Carrigan says.

Though Christian publishers pushed hard to get their authors on mainstream shelves, what eventually did often was shelved away from fiction under a subsection called “inspirational fiction.” “Even though they made the crossover, they didn’t make the crossover. They were ghettoized,” Carrigan says.

Dekker has succeeded, Carrigan says, because “he knows how to write.” Describing Dekker’s style as ” ‘CSI’ meets God and Satan,” the editor observes, “He knows how to use the formula when he uses a formula. He can suck people in. That’s why he’s been so successful.”

So what does this say about Dekker and Christian fiction in general? Thoughts?
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