Simplicity by Mark Salomon
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Book Reviews of Simplicity
Book Review: Unbelievable Insight
Summary: 4 Stars
I couldn't put this book down once I received it. The stories that Mark tells give a much deeper understanding to the lyrics you find in all the Stavesacre songs. There were many times that I went back and listened to songs that I originally thought were just "stories" only to find that these were Mark's struggles.
I met Mark once in 1997 and I definitely knew he was an intense person. Reading this book will give you insight into that intensity, faith and drive that flows out of every song. As a fan, reading this was like one "aha!" moment after another...
Book Review: Insightful behind-the-scenes look at music.
Summary: 3 Stars
I am a huge Stavesacre fan, but I have to give my honest opinion. I have never read a more poorly-written (published) book. It's perfectly written for a blog or something, but I couldn't believe I was reading this in a book. (Sorry Mark!) His thoughts were so random and many times difficult to follow. So many rabbit trails and too-long sentences. An editor would have been nice, but that's okay.
On the other hand, I really enjoyed it. A music fan always wants to know about what they like. So it was great hearing all those stories, thoughts, opinions, etc. Mark makes good points that many Christians ought to take a look at.
As a side note, I was struck by the lack of love/respect/appreciation Mark shows for his fans. I can see he genuinely cares for people in general, but to me it seemed like in nearly every context where a fan is mentioned, it is derogatory. He doesn't want to talk to them. Granted, he has some bad experiences with certain fans, but I found that I wanted him to somewhere lose a little of that cynical attitude toward his fans.
So anyways I do recommend reading this book.
Book Review: Never Follows Through
Summary: 2 Stars
Salomon's book begins with a penetrating and attention-grabbing story from behind the scenes of the Christian music industry when his band failed to meet the expectations of an overbearing pastor at a concert at his church who chases Salomon down in his side-job at a coffee house across the state. The story should leave any Christian breathless as well as nauseated. Salomon promises to lead the reader through a journey alongside him as he shares with us his journey in the Christian music industry towards a more complete ("simple") faith in God. Unfortunately, for me (and my wife as we read this book together), he never really follows through on that promise, and the rest of the book was downhill from there, and extremely disappointing.
I found the book to be poorly written with too many random and disconnected thoughts, too many pointless stories and anecdotes, too many awkward sentences, and a tinge too much narcissism on behalf of the author (there were several places where he "takes the high ground" by not mentioning details - when I didn't really care to have the details). He spends a good portion of time insisting that he doesn't want to get bogged down in biography, but I still felt that was exactly what he does. This isn't totally bad, I suppose, because when he leaves his biographical sections, he seems clueless of where to go or what to say. He spends a lot of time discussing the mundane from his life in the band, and, in reality, the writing feels mundane.
I really wanted this book to be good and was excited about reading it. I appreciate Salomon's willingness to work on the project, I just didn't feel that he did as much as he thinks he did. I appreciated the opening story and an anecdote here and there, but all in all, I found this book to be a rambling, random, self-indulgent work that I will probably not recommend to anyone else. I am sorry for the negative review because I believe that what the author sets out to do in it is noble . . . I just don't think he accomplishes what he set out to do. In many accounts, the great irony is that he critiques "Christian" labeled commercialism for its poor quality as cultural contributions . . . and that, in my opinion, is exactly what this book ends up being. And I have read other books from the Relevant Books publisher that haven't been nearly as disappointing.
Book Review: Ok, but certainly not great.
Summary: 2 Stars
As a huge fan of The Crucified (Mark's first main band)- especially The Pillars of Humanity, I really wanted to enjoy reading this book. There were a number of times that I was truly gripped and I found myself wanting to read more, but the overall 'attitude' and cynicism always finally made me put the book down. I don't believe that there was one mention of Crucified that was not in a negative/ dismissive context, yet even all of the 'failings' of Stavesacre (Mark's current band) are written in a positive light - or Mark would finally reveal that 'it wasn't their fault anyway'. An example of this is the 'crazed pastor' of the conservative church at the start of the book. I found myself asking 'If he didn't want to preach at a church, why would you take the gig there in the first place?'
I just found the writing on the whole to be quite tackless and extremely biased even though there were some interesting stories.
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