The Shack

The Shack is a book that I am totally intruiged by (thanks to Lori, who actually read it and told me about it). I haven't read it yet (because I am deep into book two of the Twilight series and can't stop now), but I think the idea is so fascinating. Let me summarize for you.

The book is a true story, although its kept in the fiction section. You'll get that in a minute. The story is about a man who takes his three kids camping. Two kids are in a canoe and it tips over. He runs into the lake to help his son whose lifejacket is caught on the canoe keeping him under water. While he does that, his 8 year old daughter stays on land at a picnic table coloring. A serial killer kidnaps her and they find her bloodied clothing in a run down shack. She is presumed dead, but her body is never found. Tragic, yes?

Three years later, he receives a letter in the mail (on a day where the mail doesn't go out ) and it says to meet him at that shack and its signed God. He is torn about what to do. Sick joke? Serial killer trying to lure him there to kill him, too? But, in the end he goes. He walks into the shack, sees the blood stains from his daughter and leaves. Walks out and says to himself, this is crap and I am going home. Suddenly the entire area changes to a beautiful place. God opens the door and requests that he comes in. God, in the story, is played by a maternal black woman who cooks all the time. Love that! Jesus is there (a carptenter) and the Holy Ghost (and ethereal, light-bathed glow that he cannot look at directly). He spends the weekend with the holy trinity and converses with them. Basically, he asks all the questions that everyone would like to ask, predominantly... why do bad things happen to good people or innocent children? God answers him, although somewhat vaguely, because the point is that mortal humans don't have the capacity to understand God in all her wonder. He even gets to see his little girl playing with Jesus and in the end, God asks if he wants to go with her or go home. He finally decides to return home to his living family. When he leaves, he gets in a horrible car accident and slips into a coma. Turns out, the crash happened Friday night. Not Sunday when he left the cabin.

So, the question of the book is this... did it really happen? Did he spend a weekend talking to God? Or, was it all a hallucination from the coma? I really hope its the first one. What do you think?