"Between Wyomings: My God and an iPod on the Open Road" By Ken Mansfield

When I first chose this book, I thought, "This sounds very cool." What could be better than a book about Jesus, the open road and rock n'roll? The guy named his van 'Moses'. He has a wife who is willing to hit the open road with him with no destination. He was the executive in charge of the Beatles at Apple Records and worked with some of the coolest people in country and rock n'roll. What is there not to like? Here it is 2 months later and I still can't finish the book. I tried hard. I took it with me on long drives, on airplanes, on hikes. It seems unjust to write a review about a book I haven't finished, and I really do hate to write a negative review. I will take full responsibility and say that the problem is all on my side of the table.

There are some foods I won't eat. It has nothing to do with the taste or even the appearance, but it has everything to do with texture. Soft apples, kiwi fruit, mealy vegetables like overcooked carrots, soft meat...the more I describe it the worse I feel. There is a medical term for this kind of reaction. I get the same reaction when I get chalk on my fingers and then rub them together. It is like all the hair on the back of my neck gets rubbed the wrong way.

I describe this because this is what I felt as I read this book. I can't place my finger on it, exactly. "Between Wyomings" is well-written. It is clear that Mansfield is a man of deep faith and his history in the rock n'roll industry is well known and fascinating.

I am also aware that this is a memoir and memoirs are intentionally self-focused, but I couldn't help wondering when his wife was going to show up. When she did, it was a merely as a foil for his own feelings. The self-reflection never seemed to go deep for me and the self-analysis never seemed to reach outside of itself to something beyond. The spiritual reflection always seemed to come back to Rev. Mansfield. Now, I know many people enjoy this sort of book and sometimes I do too, but "Between Wyomings" rubbed my spiritual, literary and mental fur the wrong direction.

I wish I could say what it was specifically. Maybe it was a hidden expectation that a road book about Jesus would reflect the wildness of Jesus on the open road. Maybe it was a writing style that used the word "I" far more times than necessary. Maybe it was a desire to read a Jack Kerouac kind of Christian story, which this is promoted as by inference if not directly. Maybe it was the presentation of the past as if it had just happened, but was really about 40 years ago. Since I can't say it specifically, I will take responsibility for my reaction to the book and say it was all me, not the writer. I really wanted to like "Between Wyomings" and I will definitely make it a point to try to read something else by Ken Mansfield.