To Own a Dragon: Reflections On Growing Up Without A Father by Donald Miller, John MacMurray Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of To Own a Dragon: Reflections On Growing Up Without A Father
Book Review: 4 1/2 Stars...Very Good, but Could've Gone Deeper
Summary: 4 Stars
Donald Miller, with trademark warmth and honesty, serves up a wonderful book on the issue of fatherless children/adults and the struggles they face. The epidemic of broken homes is dealt with here in a loving, yet forthright manner. We all deal with the consequences, whether first or secondhand.
Written with a breezy style aimed for male readers, "To Own a Dragon" examines the effects that such a childhood had on Miller. I grew up with a loving, caring father--and yet he left our family when I was a teenager. This changed our family forever, leaving me with many of the struggles this book depicts.
Miller never seems to shy from the truth in the issues he addresses, but he does seem to pull back a bit in certain areas. For example, he glosses over the sexual effects, never even exploring the issue of homosexuality and its possible connections. I'm not saying he needed to address such things, but it would've given this book the punch it needed to do the greatest good. He is a writer with the ability to pull it off.
Despite this caveat, I cannot recommend this book highly enough. "To Own a Dragon" is a necessary prescription in the life of thousands of boys and men who face these questions. It's also a glimpse into the male heart and mind for those women who decide to dive into these pages.
Book Review: A good read even for non-Christian women with fathers
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a non-Christian woman with a father, and I picked this book up because I really enjoyed Blue Like Jazz and love Donald Miller's writing style. Miller writes from the heart, and so even though his childhood experience wasn't like my own, I felt a lot of connection with and interest in his story.
First, this is definitely a book aimed at Christians or those people who at the very least do not mind people talking about God and the nature of our relationship with God. Miller's particular journey led him to allow God to father him in a sense, and for him, letting go of some of the anger and resentment he felt for being fatherless involved thinking about the things which boys and men get from fathers and trying to allow God to provide for him in those ways.
Miller talks about his journey towards maturity and manhood and what those things mean to him. He tells us about the men in his life who have mentored him and talks about the lessons and gifts he has recieved from each experience with these mentors.
He keeps it very personal and doesn't try to tell everyone else what will work for them; this isn't a self-help book, rather a personal exploration of what manhood means to a Christian, and how he personally got through some of the minefields and tough times and grew into Godly manhood.
The way he kept it so personal made it a good read for anyone. Many of us have parents who didn't provide for our every emotional need or who sometimes had problems of their own, and Miller's experiences and insights are broadly interesting enough to make it a good read for anybody.
If you aren't a fatherless man, though, I'd recommend Blue Like Jazz as your introduction to Miller's work - read this one second.
Book Review: FATHERLESS GENERATION
Summary: 5 Stars
WONDERFUL BOOK...I BOUGHT FOR AND READ WITH MY GRANDSON. THIS BOOK SHOULD BE ADVERTISED AS "FOR MEN WHO GREW UP WITHOUT FATHERS AND THE WOMEN WHO LOVE THEM." I UNDERSTAND MUCH MORE ABOUT MY HUSBAND NOW THAN I HAVE READ THIS BOOK. WONDERFUL BOOK.Book Review: Much Needed Perspective
Summary: 5 Stars
Donald Miller's latest project will unfortunately hit home for a great number of people. Miller's writing isn't unfortunate, it's actually direct, poignant, and much needed. The unfortunate part is that there are countless people in our world who have either grown up without a father, or are in the process of braving their childhood alone. Miller opens his life for the reader and traces the uncertainty and anger that mark the life of many who have no father to anchor their lives. Miller's words are encouraging and never preachy. "To Own a Dragon" is a not only a great read for those working through issues relating to their fathers, but for those aspiring to be influential father themselves. Book Review: YOU CAN'T BEAT HONESTY
Summary: 5 Stars
Donald Miller "was not going to become a pawn of The Man." Find out why.
I really like Donald Miller. His newest book, *To Own a Dragon: Reflections of Growing Up Without a Father,* touched places in my own soul. I, too, had a father who left my life (through divorce) when I was 9 years old. (I've written some about it in my own book, *Jesus the Pastor: Leading Others in the Power and Character of Christ* [Zondervan].)
I am grateful for Miller's HONESTY about the internal damage a person experiences when father issues take a negative turn. Miller is thankful for John MacMurray as a mentor and I am thankful to Neal Parrish, my stepfather as a mentor.
I think Miller's simple dedication is profound: Dedicated to Men Who are Mentoring Younger Men. As Miller along with so many others who write about the masculine journey from boyhood to manhood point out, men must bring boys into manhood. Women cannot do it, even though, bless their hearts, they try. I liked Miller's analogy of the young elephants needing a mentor less they become wanton destroyers with all their muscle and energy.
Once again with good story-telling genius and subtle and not so subtle humor, Miller tackles one of the piles of USAmerican social wreckage: boys without fathers. I was pleased to see that Miller not only writes about this social blite, but has formed "The Belmont Foundation," a not for profit organization aimed to bring about redemptive change in boys' lives through the strategy of mentoring (visit www.belmontfoundation.org). The story about the conversation with frat boys at the University of Texas is vintage Donald Miller.
His friend, John MacMurray, does nature photgraphs for magazines like National Geographic. Miller, using words, is a skilled artist of the soul. He knows how to bring light into dark places.
Teaser: What makes a man, a man? Read and discover Miller's incredible insight.