The Art of Belonging was the third of Hugh Mackay's books that I have read.
The Art of Belonging has a focus on people's lives within community. It is a celebration of all things good about community. It also considers some of the traps of living in tightly knitted urban areas.
The book is a mix of fact (statistics) and fictionalised account. The fictionalised account identifies the people of a town and their relationships; the town is called Southwood.
I found the mix of fact and fiction quite annoying at times. Pastor Jim was a particularly annoying character. Pastor Jim almost seemed to have a quality about him that you'd expect of a character in the long-running cartoon; The Simpsons. That Pastor Jim's wife left him to hook-up with a church musician was a tad too ordinary.
The best chapter is the one pertaining to electronic community. I admire Mackay for recognising that the world of social media is one that is yet to mature. It is a world for which we have all grasped the benefits without understanding the costs. I particularly like this quote - it seems reflective of the whole of the chapter on electronic community:
This book was among the collection at an aged care facility in Sydney's West. It was a rarity in a library that was dominated by books of Fredrick Forsyth, John Grisham, and Bryce Courtenay. A thrift shop sticker suggested that it last traded at the princely sum of AUD2.
Shalom,
[251 words] #book #reading #read #readAustralian
The Art of Belonging has a focus on people's lives within community. It is a celebration of all things good about community. It also considers some of the traps of living in tightly knitted urban areas.
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| Image credit: from publisher's website |
The book is a mix of fact (statistics) and fictionalised account. The fictionalised account identifies the people of a town and their relationships; the town is called Southwood.
I found the mix of fact and fiction quite annoying at times. Pastor Jim was a particularly annoying character. Pastor Jim almost seemed to have a quality about him that you'd expect of a character in the long-running cartoon; The Simpsons. That Pastor Jim's wife left him to hook-up with a church musician was a tad too ordinary.
The best chapter is the one pertaining to electronic community. I admire Mackay for recognising that the world of social media is one that is yet to mature. It is a world for which we have all grasped the benefits without understanding the costs. I particularly like this quote - it seems reflective of the whole of the chapter on electronic community:
"You have five hundred Facebook 'friends'?
That simply means you've
redefined 'friend'
to make it something like 'a contact I exchange data
with'"
page 190
This book was among the collection at an aged care facility in Sydney's West. It was a rarity in a library that was dominated by books of Fredrick Forsyth, John Grisham, and Bryce Courtenay. A thrift shop sticker suggested that it last traded at the princely sum of AUD2.
Shalom,
Ozhamada
The book’s full title is: The Art of Belonging; Mackay, Hugh; 2014, Macmillan Education Australia. Paperback,
288 pages
[251 words] #book #reading #read #readAustralian
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