Review of The Loser Letters

I recently finished reading The Loser Letters by Mary Eberstadt. This was the book my new book club had chosen to read in May. Originally we were supposed to be out of town for the discussion, but circumstances kept us in town, though we still did not attend the book discussion. I'm kind of sorry I didn't make the discussion, because it would have been interesting to hear my friends' thoughts on this book.

I had heard this book discussed on the Catholic Radio station I listen to and it was discussed with so much enthusiasm I was really looking forward to reading it. I also knew to expect a surprise at the end.

Overall the book was interesting. I had a hard time with the very colloquial language of the 20-something set. I guess I'm older than I thought. It was not unintelligible, but all the abbreviations and such that I'm used to seeing on Facebook updates and on instant message conversations was a little weird to have in normal text. I got used to it after a while, but I certainly hope young adults aren't actually writing like this on a regular basis. Though I will say, by using the kind of language it did, the personality of the main character certainly came out quite strong.

The main character of the book is writing a series of letters to the main atheists of the day trying to explain her conversion to their side and what they are doing wrong, which if they could fix would convert more Christians to their side. I actually found the arguments for what the atheists were doing wrong quite good for why Christianity is the better option and makes the most sense. It was kind of a strange way to make those arguments, but it worked in its own weird way.

I won't ruin the ending, because it really is quite unexpected. Definitely worth the read to see how it finally wraps up. Though I will admit that I was a bit confused by the ending and needed to talk it out with my hubby to fully grasp it. Either I'm just a bit more dense than I thought (honor student status was many, many years ago now!!) or I just wasn't fully thinking while I was reading.

Overall, the book is worth reading. It wasn't my favorite book and I expected it to be better than it was due to the hype I was hearing about it, but I did like it. I would recommend it and it is a fairly quick and easy book to read. My guess is that teens and possibly 20-somethings would especially "get it" and enjoy it the most.