Book Review: Almost Heaven by Chris Fabry

This book is inspiring, in spite of sadness, with a beautiful harmonious message.
Almost Heaven by Chris Fabry

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. (September 7, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1414319576
• ISBN-13: 978-1414319575

    Genre:  Inspirational
    My Rating: 4.75 of 5.0

Product Description 

Billy Allman is a hillbilly genius. People in Dogwood, West Virginia, say he was born with a second helping of brains and a gift for playing the mandolin but was cut short on social skills. Though he’d gladly give you the shirt off his back, they were right. Billy longs to use his life as an ode to God, a lyrical, beautiful bluegrass song played with a finely tuned heart. So with spare parts from a lifetime of collecting, he builds a radio station in his own home. People in town laugh. But Billy carries a brutal secret that keeps him from significance and purpose. Things always seem to go wrong for him. However small his life seems, from a different perspective Billy’s song reaches far beyond the hills and hollers he calls home. Malachi is an angel sent to observe Billy. Though it is not his dream assignment, Malachi follows the man and begins to see the bigger picture of how each painful step Billy takes is a note added to a beautiful symphony that will forever change the lives of those who hear it.

Review:  This is an inspirational story and a bit different for me as it is more drama than I usually read.  The writing style is smooth and flows nicely.  Initially the spiritual aspects of the story reminded me of some of C.S. Lewis’ works like The Screwtape Letters.  Then, when a chapter was presented by Billy’s guardian angel, I was reminded of Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness.

The story is told primarily from the view point of the protagonist, Billy Allman.  However there are some chapters from the view of his guardian angel, Malachai, and I really like this as I love to think that angels are watching over us and fighting demons for us even when we may be unaware of the heavenly battle.

Billy is a simple boy born in the hills of West Virginia to well-grounded Christian parents.  His father worked as a coal miner and played the mandolin as a hobby.  As a young boy Billy sat at his knee and learned to feel and love the country bluegrass music. Billy was a child whiz at taking apart electronics and putting them back together. He had a collection of old radios that he had built.  This was the beginning of Billy’s love for radios and his dream to have his own radio station playing blue grass gospel music and sharing Christian sermons and messages of encouragement.

Billy does not have an easy life and struggles alone for most of his childhood to mid-life.  He survives a flood as a child, and he knows it was by a miracle hand. Unfortunately he sees another neighbor family die and his father is severely injured.  Billy remains rather simple and alone as he grows older. He doesn’t accept help well so he misses some opportunities for help as he slowly puts together his small radio station.   It seems that Billy suffers one heartache after another but the wonderful thing is that he never questions God’s salvation and forgiving love.

It takes another tragedy and near death of a close friend to make Billy start to accept more interaction with others. This results in revealing long held secrets of pain from his past and he is finally able to release some of that pain. Billy relates life to music that swells from our soul and is rich from our experiences, both sorrows and joys.

Here is just one of the many phrases that I think are quite insightful and simply awesome:

Billy’s guardian angel was talking about seeing a bigger picture of life as an angel than humans can see. He observed:  “Humans struggle with the underside of the tapestry, unable to see the beauty in their situation, as they cannot know how the trouble of life fits with The Plan.” This book portrays Billy as a beautiful life committed to God even with the troubles he copes with.

Throughout the book there are simple Biblical statements expressed as well as complex spiritual wisdom. I encourage you to get this book to read for yourself or with a book group. I will be recommending it to my church ladies' book club.
Caution:  The book does address some abuse and rape issues but not with any explicit details.

xxx

I received this book for my honest review from Glass Road Public Relations.

As I was posting this review I pulled the information from Amazon and this book is currently a free Kindle read!!