Most of the reviews for The Note have been gracious–obviously, the story touches a strong chord in people who are longing to reconcile with someone, particularly with their fathers. This Amazon review is typical of what I’ve heard:
“Angela Hunt has written an excellent book. It will make you really think about what you are reading. To see how Peyton MacGruder grows in her writing, her outlook on life and her relationships with other people is remarkable and very emotional. If this book doesn’t draw you closer to Jesus, there isn’t much that will. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and would recommend it to other people.”
On the other hand, I have also received a couple of letters saying that the book doesn’t deserve to be called “Christian fiction.” No, not because it’s an allegory, but because the antagonist is a bit of a hussy. One woman told me she allowed her fourteen-year-old daughter to read it without previewing it; afterward she was horrified by the book.
I wrote her back and said that she had every right to guard what her daughter read, however, THE NOTE is not a children’s book. (Yet the notion that a Christian novel must be appropriate for a child disturbs me somewhat. What does that imply about a mature Christian’s intellectual level? Are we not allowed to tackle topics beyond a typical ten-year-old’s experience? Even more shudder-inducing is the supposition that Christian fiction could not possibly contain subjects designed to challenge the reader.)
Second, Julie St. Clair is not a Christian character, therefore she doesn’t act like one. And in no way does the story glorify Julie’s actions. (I’ve noticed that Julie’s character has morphed into a male in the movie version. This is a good thing, as it eliminates the “tart factor.” The author who plays the TV reporter is also cute. 🙂
I would keep Julie as she is, though, because in the novel she’s a foil to Peyton’s character and it helps that she’s female.
Shortly after the book’s release, I was approached by Journey Productions, a small film company that optioned the novel. Five years later, here we are with a finished film. I had little to do with the struggle (and wouldn’t know how to begin to make a movie), but my hat’s off to the folks who made it happen. I’m grateful to them and to God, and I pray that the story’s message will come through loud and clear.
Tomorrow: questions and answers, so be sure to leave your questions in the comments box.
Update: The St. Pete Times has published an article on the upcoming movie. You can read it here!
~~Angie
What did T have to be forgiven for? It seemed to me that she was being forgiven for searching for people from her past (don’t want to give the plot away) and that not only stopped me cold in my tracks, but seems unlikely, given what I know of the author. Did I misinterpret something?
Susan
I know he is your friend but did you catch this from him..
Romney’s Big Speech
DECEMBER 05, 2007
GLENN BECK PROGRAM
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
GLENN: We need to learn from each other. I’m not here to defend my faith. I’m not hear to defend Romney’s faith. I’m not here to defend your faith or tear it apart or anything else. A person’s relationship with their God is a deeply personal thing and we need to respect that. We need to respect that in every man, woman and child. We need to respect that in every man that wants to be President. I’m glad Mitt Romney believes in God, but I don’t care. So does Mike Huckabee. He’s a Baptist. I like that in him. I don’t have to become a Baptist if he becomes President, do we? Is he going to make us all become Baptists? Is Mitt Romney going to make us all become Mormon? No. Good! I don’t care.
And you know what? Are you going to vote for Mike Huckabee because he’s a Baptist? That would be pretty stupid of you, wouldn’t it? That would be pretty small minded? Are you going to vote against Mitt Romney because he’s a Mormon? Wouldn’t that be pretty small minded? It would be just as small minded for you to not vote for Mitt Romney because he’s Mormon as it would be for me to vote for him because he’s Mormon.
Now the Kennedy comparison. I don’t know, you know, I don’t know how the media’s going to spin this, but Jack Kennedy, I think people remember this Jack Kennedy speech for — well, it’s kind of like the whole Kennedy thing. You are remembering them for, you know, a lot more than he was, a lot more than this speech was. In a nutshell all that JFK said, that he wasn’t the Catholic candidate for President; he was the Democratic candidate who also happened to be Catholic. Amen, brother. He didn’t go into details. He just said, this is who I am and I’m proud of it. And if I were advising Mitt Romney, I would tell him to say the same thing, not even read the speech. “You know, here’s what Jack Kennedy said” and then go up and deliver it.
Critics and detractors of Romney would love to have you believe that because he’s a Mormon, he’s too weird and spooky to be President and if you believe that, well, you know what, no speech he’s going to get is going to change your mind. I get e-mails all the time, avalanches of e-mail: “I’ve listened to you for years, you are one of the smartest most loved guys. I agree with you on everything. But what, are you completely stupid for the Mormon thing? Oh, my gosh, you’ve got to run.” Do you think the most important thing in my life I didn’t investigate? Do you think you actually know something I haven’t heard before? Do you think you know something that I haven’t investigated myself? Do you think that you’ve got, like the — “Oh, no, you’ve been duped!” Really? A guy who the last thing I wanted to be was a Mormon? Really? I was looking for escape hatches. I was looking for anything. I would have given my right arm for it not to be — for me to have not found it true. But you know what? I did. You may not. God bless ya. That’s great. That’s what makes America so great.
How can it be, how can it be that we can be so different? Well, it’s pretty easy. God made us all different, and we all find different things. It is in the honest seeking of answers. Unfortunately with everybody’s religion, too many people’s religion, you get a pack of lies. Isn’t the fact that you agree with me on a lot of stuff enough proof that I’m not a weirdo cult member? A recent poll from CNN found that 77% of Americans found Romney’s faith wouldn’t affect their decision to vote for him. And you know what? I’m proud of us. That doesn’t mean you vote for him. That means you have some perspective.
You know, just before he died, I talked to Reverend Jerry Falwell. I had a chance to interview him and ask him. He was a nice man. I think I only spoke to him twice, but he really was a kind and gentle man, and I talked to him on the air and I talked to him off the air about Mormons because I specifically asked him on the air, “What do you think? How important is a candidate’s faith?” You know what he said? He said to me on the air, “Glenn, we’re electing President, not a Sunday schoolteacher.” That’s Jerry Falwell. When I asked him off the air about the whole Mormon thing, he said, “I don’t agree with the theology but every Mormon I’ve ever met is a good guy.” Isn’t that what it should be? The world is in terrible shape these days. The next election may be the most important election of my lifetime and that’s only because we’re getting in more and more trouble. Every four years we’re worse off.
I may say this, that this is the most important election of our lifetime because we haven’t corrected the mistakes of the last election and they’re bigger. And you know what? In four years I’ll probably say to you — I hope I don’t but I’ll probably say, this is it, man, this is the most important election of our lifetime. This isn’t a popularity contest. You should vote for the man you feel it going to do the best job, has the best solutions to get this great country back on track. Good heavens. Shucks! We’re America. We’re the United States of America and somehow or another we have allowed ourselves once again to be convinced that we can’t fix the problems! We can fix the problems! But not by being small minded.
If I do decide to vote for Mitt Romney, and I don’t know if I’m going to. I haven’t made up my mind. I’d like to take a little piece of Mitt Romney, a little piece of Giuliani, a little piece of Mike Huckabee and stitch them all together. A big piece of Duncan Hunter, a piece of Tancredo and, yes, even a little piece of Ron Paul. I’d like to be Dr. Frankenstein, stitch my candidate together and say, it’s alive! But because I can’t do that, and most likely I’d be arrested and it couldn’t get any worse — well, I guess it could. It could be raining. I’ll just have to decide who I’m going to vote for. But I can tell you what. Whatever candidate is I end up backing, it won’t be because he’s a Mormon and it won’t be because he’s not a Baptist, and I hope people in my audience feel the same way. I want to know a guy’s character. I want to know a guy’s values. I want to know how smart he is. I want to know how nimble he is and being able to speak the truth and crush lies. If Mitt Romney gets my vote, it’s because I find him to be smart, thoughtful, clearheaded thinker on the issues that matter to me. I don’t care if Mitt Romney is a Mormon or not a Mormon, and I plan on telling him that, you know, the next great world meeting where we plot the domination of the Earth and preselect the next winner of American Idol, in the basement of our churches. Shhh.
So glad you mentioned the article – I read the on-line Times almost every day – especially the local news section. Yesterday my Wednesday morning Bible Study group met here at my house. When I did get a chance to go online, I really did a quick look at some headlines and would have missed it. So now I have sent the link to a whole bunch of friends & hope they will watch. Of course I had to memtion that FBCIR is our former church (and the one we still consider our “home” church.)I’m really looking forward to watching it now that I feel connected to both book & movie. I’m from NC and still have lots of family there.
NEWS FLASH 🙂 🙂
Just got an e-mail from my friend in Idaho. Says it’s being advertised there a lot and she had already planned to watch it.