Jeremy L. Berg

I’m taking some vacation and staycation days, so not writing, creating and posting much new content. But let me share three books I’ve been reading lately.

Van Gogh: The Life by  Steven Naifeh  & Gregory White Smith

Publisher’s description:

Working with the full cooperation of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Naifeh and Smith have accessed a wealth of previously untapped materials. While drawing liberally from the artist’s famously eloquent letters, they have also delved into hundreds of unpublished family correspondences, illuminating with poignancy the wanderings of Van Gogh’s troubled, restless soul. Naifeh and Smith bring a crucial understanding to the larger-than-life mythology of this great artist—his early struggles to find his place in the world; his intense relationship with his brother Theo; his impetus for turning to brush and canvas; and his move to Provence, where in a brief burst of incandescent productivity he painted some of the best-loved works in Western art.

The authors also shed new light on many unexplored aspects of Van Gogh’s inner world: his deep immersion in literature and art; his erratic and tumultuous romantic life; and his bouts of depression and mental illness. Naifeh and Smith have re-created Van Gogh’s life with an astounding vividness and psychological acuity that bring a completely new and sympathetic understanding to this unique artistic genius whose signature images of sunflowers and starry nights have won a permanent place in the human imagination.

My two-cents:

This is a devastating portrayal of a tortured artist’s soul who never found a home in this world, in his family, or in his own skin. His genius was overshadowed by his stubbornness. His vision was clouded by his constant inner battles with mental health. One moment you ache for him and are cheering him on. The next moment you want to wring his neck. He was a man of deep illusions and delusions (in the literal sense); the thoughts and visions in his mind and imagination were often at odds with the reality around him. I’m only 600 pages into this 1,000 page tome, but I don’t expect a happy ending, even while I expect his later art will at least give the world more color and beauty.

---

Blood in the Tracks: The Minnesota Musicians behind Dylan’s Masterpiece by Paul Metsa & Rick Shefchik

Publisher’s description:

The story of the Minneapolis musicians who were unexpectedly summoned to re-record half of the songs on Bob Dylan’s most acclaimed album

When Bob Dylan recorded Blood on the Tracks in New York in September 1974, it was a great album. But it was not the album now ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the ten best of all time. “When something’s not right, it’s wrong,” as Dylan puts it in “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go”—and something about that original recording led him to a studio in his native Minnesota to re-record five songs, including “Idiot Wind” and “Tangled Up in Blue.” Six Minnesota musicians participated in that two-night recording session at Sound 80, bringing their unique sound to some of Dylan’s best-known songs—only to have their names left off the album and their contribution unacknowledged for more than forty years. This book tells the story of those two nights in Minneapolis, introduces the musicians who gave the album so much of its ultimate form and sound, and describes their decades-long fight for recognition. 

Blood in the Tracks takes readers behind the scenes with these “mystery” Minnesota musicians: twenty-one-year-old mandolin virtuoso Peter Ostroushko; drummer Bill Berg and bass player Billy Peterson, the house rhythm section at Sound 80; progressive rock keyboardist Gregg Inhofer; guitarist Chris Weber, who owned The Podium guitar shop in Dinkytown; and Kevin Odegard, whose own career as a singer-songwriter had paralleled Dylan’s until he had to take a job as a railroad brakeman to make ends meet. Through in-depth interviews and assiduous research, Paul Metsa and Rick Shefchik trace the twists of fate that brought these musicians together and then set them on different paths in its wake: their musical experiences leading up to the December 1974 recording session, the divergent careers that followed, and the painstaking work required to finally obtain the official credit that they were due. 

My two-cents:

This was a delightful read for me in this moment, as I am appreciating (and even experiencing) the joy and grind of being a no-name gigging musician. Great to hear the stories of musicians who were raised on farms in rural Minnesota, and other local color and connections. I was on the edge of my seat reading the chapters detailing those two evening recording sessions downtown Minneapolis, and the surprise and delight of the musicians who were summoned that night not knowing they would be cutting a record with one of the most famous and mysterious musicians in the world. My reading of this book was accompanied by some deep dive listening to the original Blood on the Tracks album, but even more so the More Blood, More Tracks bootleg recordings released in 2018. Pure road trip delight.

---

The Scandal of the Kingdom: How the Parables of Jesus Revolutionize Life with God by Dallas Willard

Publisher’s description:

A major new work by Dallas Willard, the highly anticipated follow-up to his seminal work The Divine Conspiracy. In this groundbreaking book based on teachings he delivered to a church community, Willard delves into the transformative power of Jesus’s parables, revealing how they show us how to live right now in the kingdom of God.

Drawing from his extensive teachings on spiritual formation, Willard illuminates the timeless wisdom contained within each parable, revealing their profound relevance to contemporary life. With clarity and depth, he guides readers through the subversive messages embedded within these seemingly simple stories, urging us to break free from the grip of worldly values and embrace the radical teachings of Jesus.

The Scandal of the Kingdom is not just a book–it’s a call to action. Willard challenges readers to move beyond passive acceptance of comfortable dogmas and instead to actively engage with the values of the kingdom of God. He reminds us that the kingdom is not some distant future destination but a present reality, beckoning us, as the parables of Jesus did, to live with a new purpose and intentionality in the here and now.

My two-cents:

This book is pure gift. Dallas Willard died 12 years ago, and so to discover this brand new book on the parables of Jesus was an unexpected delight. I’m listening to the audio book on my morning walks, and the narrator was no doubt chosen because he has the same low, southern drawl as Dallas. It’s almost like listening to Dallas speak and teach me one-on-one from beyond the grave. It’s also encouraging to see a generation of younger pastors and church leaders such as John Mark Comer hitching themselves to the wise and godly voice of Dallas in this moment where so many churches have lost sight of Jesus and his ethical teachings.