Where the Light Fell | by Philip Yancey

I found the autobiography by Philip Yancey, entitled, Where the Light Fell surreal, sad, and familiar.

The surreal included his unusual acquaintances and family members, his mother’s nasty mouth, and his brother’s acid trips.

Sadness is plentiful throughout. It begins with Philip’s father dying when he was one; continuing with his strict, fundamental, bigoted upbringing, and his battleground family life.

The familiar are the Vietnam War, the hippie culture and the sixties. (I am a few years younger than Yancey.) I also related to his personality and how he dealt with family conflict. He withdrew.  

Another book review claimed Yancey’s memoirs are like Hillbilly Elegy. The common things are only three:  Yancey was from the south, dirt poor, and a success in life.  

The rag to riches story is played down. On purpose I suspect. If I didn’t know Philip Yancey, from his many books, I may have missed this point.

The ending is anti-climatic. Yancey writes about his amends tour and an accident that puts him on his back just as his father and brother experienced. He leaves the Triumphant Christian Life out. On purpose I expect. This is something his mother would have stressed.

It is remarkable and commendable that Yancey continues to lovingly support his mother and his brother and has been married to Janet for 50 years. Not to mention the Christian classics he has written. Considering the unstable life he came from Where the Light Fell speaks to what God can do in a spiritually transformed life.  

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Lena Rae
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