Where the Light Fell

Philip Yancey is probably my favourite Christian author of today (C S Lewis comes higher, but is of course from an earlier generation). The style in his other books is always thought-provoking and inspiring, but this autobiography goes deeper. With disarming honesty, it covers his childhood and upbringing in a poor and dysfunctional family in Georgia, laying the foundation for his (earlier) books that focus on suffering and grace. By turns moving and shocking, the story is honestly and graphically told, covering racism, fundamentalist Christianity and familial disharmony. And his choice of words and phrases always delights.

I’ve known Phil Yancey as an author-friend for many years. But I’d never heard his personal story in such a poignant, powerful way as this memoir. Yancey grew up in the racist south, absorbing the common prejudices and racist attitudes that permeated the culture, even his religious teaching. But then he worked one summer with Dr. Cherry, a Black scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Says Philip: “Here was the smartest man I’d ever met, and it just blew away all the categories I’d been taught”—especially the lie that blacks are innately inferior. From that point on,… show more.