Danny Gospel

by David Athey

A riveting quest for true love, capturing the journey of a wounded soul toward hope restored. Perfect for readers of Charles Martin or Dale Cramer. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0764204440
• ISBN13: 9780764204449
• Release Date: May 2008
• Publisher: Bethany House Publishers
• Length: 269 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Danny Gospel

Wow, great read. Not the usual trite and didactic Christian fiction writing-this novel carries some weight. I laughed and cried as I took the journey with Danny Gospel-penetrating the heart to where God's forgiveness resides. A bit of a Job theme, but one can trace many biblical parallels.

A Holy Fool

"We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are honourable, but we without honour." 1 Corinthians 4:10 In few novels does a character come so close to an incarnation of the words "fool for Christ" as does Daniel David McGillicuddy, the hero of David Athey's debut novel "Danny Gospel." Danny has lost everything, his family, his home, his bride, his sanity, and his respectability. He has been stripped of everything except his faith, which feeds both his innate kindliness and his joy, a joy which the world cannot give or take away. He is a bit like the "Holy Fools" of the Russian Orthodox tradition, a living contradiction to the world, and the often unwitting vehicle for salvific graces. Constantly seeking the elusive state he calls "normal and happy," it becomes quickly obvious to the reader that while Danny may have moments of happiness in his life he will never be "normal." The Gospel-singing Iowa farm family in which he was raised, although idealized by memory and bitter loss, was anything but normal. One tragic accident causes "the Gospel family" to unravel, leading to death and dispersal. Danny is left alone, except for a few faithful friends; his guilt over the original fatal mishap contributes to his trauma. For Danny is truly emotionally troubled; the story is told from his point of view and it is not always clear when he is hallucinating and when he is lucid. It is difficult not to become mesmerized by the peculiar twists of Danny's thought processes. His tendency to pursue every dream and impulse leads him upon an odyssey across America. His adventures at last bring him full circle, to the moment when being "normal and happy" are once again within his grasp. However, Danny is uniquely marked by the cross. He longs for the days when his family proclaimed the Gospel through their music. Danny is called to share the Gospel on a deeper level, the level of abasement, of humiliation, of being a stranger and pilgrim on the earth. Lyrically written, "Danny Gospel" vivifies the scents and sounds of Iowa farms and towns, with characters who are distinctly Midwestern and prosaically salt-of-the-earth. Danny shines among them like a prophet of old, pointing the way to another and better world, saving his life by losing it.

Moving Work

I have read alot of books, but very few of them have had the power to move me to laughter and to tears. Danny Gospel had the power to do both and for me, that adds it into a category that includes only "The Brothers K" and "Les Miserables." This is an immensely powerful book, with page after page of beautiful prose and a wonderful story that kept me glued an entire weekend. I second the reviews listed above. Buy this book. You won't regret it.

Faith, Love & Reality

When I first read Danny Gospel by David Athey, I jumped right in and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a ride of theme park proportions with something unexpected at every turn. Although I saw it as lighthearted and humorous, I knew there was something more to it. On second reading I saw the dark side. The humor I saw on first reading was often of the "if I don't laugh, I'll cry" variety. Danny is a lost individual. It's understandable. He lost most of his family and he lost his family farm. He even lost his real name in a sense, since he's still known as Danny Gospel because his family was a gospel singing group, although he no longer sings. There are other losses and the losses of 9/11, though not personal, are perhaps just too much for Danny. Danny just wants a normal, happy life and, probably without realizing it, he starts out on a journey to find it. He doesn't know where he is or where he's going and he didn't know what to do about it until, in October of 2001, an average, lovely woman appears in his bedroom and kisses him. He still doesn't really know what he should do, only that he has to do something. Danny Gospel is written in first person, so we get Danny's slightly skewed view of things. There were points in this story when I wondered what was "real" and what was Danny's imagination. It's deftly written so that we are never quite sure. I found nothing in the book predictable, and yet it all makes sense and follows logically, taking into account Danny's state of mind. I thouroughly enjoyed reading this book from beginning to end.

Utter Magnificence

This is not like any "christian fiction" that you have ever read. That is a good thing. It is a novel that desserves serious attention, and one that you can read multiple times, still getting more and more out of it. I'm still working through it (i.e., thinking about it). But I think that I can say this: Danny Gospel is the story of a person desparate to find answers in a nonsensical world in which his experience doesn't match his faith, and his faith doesn't match his experience. But he doesn't want to give up either. The plot, then, is to follow Danny as he hopes to bump into the truth. Get ready to have your mind and heart challenged (and your hopes raised). You'll fall in love with the characters, and try, with them, to make sense of strange chronology, flashbacks, memories, fears and hopes. As Athey writes, you will find yourself trying to figure out the total picture with Danny. Think about the symbolism. Think about the literary figures your college professor talked about (you'll wish you had been taking notes) And the writing...is utterly beautiful. While athey makes a great intellectual novel, he also has created a thing of immense beauty. It is pure pleasure to read. Put the other book down - that one where you know what will happen in the end before you finished the first page. Pick up Danny Gospel.