New Town: A Fable…Unless You Believe

by Harry Blamires

When Bernard Dayman falls asleep, the nurse thinks he has died. Bernard thinks so too, until he opens his eyes and finds himself waiting for a bus on a street he had never traveled before. Is this heaven? No, it's the decaying city of Old Town. As Bernard begins to explore his new surroundings crumbling beneath him, he soon realizes that he cannot stay. After learning about the homes in New Town, Bernard becomes determined to get there . . . and along the way discovers a thing or two about the Christian walk. In the footsteps and style made popular by his college professor and friend, C. S. Lewis, Blamires has created an entirely original and inventive story about living the Christian life. Masterful story-telling and vivid metaphors make this an entertaining read for fiction enthusiasts everywhere.

Genres: Christianity, Fantasy, Christian Fiction, Fiction, Christian

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Harry Blamires is an Anglican theologian, literary critic, and novelist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_B...


Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Dan Glover · Rating 2 out of 5]

Years ago I read Blamires' book, The Post Christian Mind and appreciated it. That combined with the fact that he was a student and friend of C.S. Lewis gave me (moderately) high hopes for this book. Unfortunately it was a let down. The only reason I gave this book 2 stars was that it was relatively well written for what it was: an allegorical-dream narrative. As for the actual point of the book, I thought it deserved a single star.

The mechanism of this story is not unlike Lewis's protagonist slipping in the bath and banging his head and dreaming of purgatory in The Great Divorce. Some have criticized New Town for weak character development, etc. The same could be said for Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress or Lewis's Pilgrim's Regress or Great Divorce, but those are very specific types of stories and not meant to be a deep dive into the personal psyche and character of the main actors. This type of story is not congruent with lots of detail. Rather, these all use allegory (Progress & Regress) or metaphor (Great Divorce) to communicate a different angle through which to view an aspect of reality. They have more in common with myths or fables than with a full fledged and detailed novel and therefore deep characters that we grow to identify with should not really be an expected feature.

Overall, I found this to be a very wooden, clunky, point-by-point type of allegory where much of the imagery used for the Christian church and its practices as well as its ministers and members gives a wrong or at least one-sided and imbalanced impression. Christian evangelists are real estate agents in this story, trying to get people to invest all their time, effort and focus on getting on the waiting list for a brand new luxury home with all the comforts and options in New Town (heaven) rather than wasting time on their rotting and rusting present dwellings and lives in Old Hertham (this earthly life). While this imagery might have made a good 5 page fable or parable to teach Jesus' point of not storing up treasure on earth but rather in heaven, it translates poorly into a book of around 150 pages because the overwhelming sense you are left with is that the central point of the whole Christian faith is waiting for heaven. When the story focusses in so deeply on this one particular aspect of biblical truth, it presents an imbalanced and incomplete picture of reality by not including many other parallel truths that Scripture teaches about this life (eg. that we can do things in this life that is symbolically building with gold, silver and precious stones; that our main focus in this life and the next is glorifying God). Christian witness to the lost world plays little role in the lives of the New Town "waiters" (the description of those who are on the waiting list). Whether intentionally or not the theology of Christians and the church presented in this story is one of being so heavenly minded they are no earthly good.

I think the overall theological driver of this book is a wrong view (albeit a common one) of the kingdom of heaven. Rather than a view of the consummation of the kingdom of heaven being where "heaven" comes down and God renews the earth, making a new heavens and a new earth, and God makes his dwelling with man, this view is one of the continual deterioration of this earth and hence the utter futility of any care, concern or effort spent on anything in this life. The ethic we are encouraged to embrace is one of doing as little as absolutely necessary in this life to limp along and expending most of our energy waiting for the next life. This is a "man the life boats" theology, rather than a "invade the land" theology. But this world is good, albeit fallen, and we are still called to stewardship and care and dominion in this life as well as to a vocation of occupation and conquering the world with the gospel message. God gives us meaningful vocations in this life and to only view them as a necessary evil while we wait for the communal life in a luxury gated community of the world to come rather than a means of whole-hearted obedience, service, joy and worship in this life is to belittle God's creation, the extent of his redemptive work in the world and his expansive grace in the midst of this life. The gospel doesn't merely give us hope for the future and promised rewards for when this life is over. It redeems our vocations and our contexts and relationships in his life and it transforms us and our present day life here and now. The kingdom of heaven (the reign of Christ) breaks in to and permeates this world rather than being a wholly future hope.

If this story were clearly just focused on communicating one message - that we ought not store up treasures on earth - then the imagery would be appropriate. However, since it seems rather to be attempting to give a symbolic point-by-point correlation to a holistic vision of the Christian life, it presents a very imbalanced and therefore errant view of the relationship between the Christian understanding of this life and the life to come.

[T E · Rating 2 out of 5]

Have tried many times over the years but Could nevec finish. Its allegorical-style is heavy-handed. I can’t but help see this as a more obvious and simplistic version of C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce. Its main novelty is shifting on thr mortal life, stripping away all the distractions that tempt us to lose focus of the spiritual and ultimate reality. This might give the materialist’s (or those merely indifferent) pause for reflection.

[Ian Minielly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a good book. It would not be one I will ever recommend to anyone else, but it was worth the time I devoted to it. I thought the authors style was clever and I am interested in reading something else he has written, just to see if I get it better. Perhaps it is his Englishness that differentiates him from American authors I spend most of my time reading.

[Alison · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this was going to be interesting, but it didn't hold my attention and I gave up 100 pages in. Disappointing.

[Aimee · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a quirky book and although I liked some of the imagery I found the story line to be very slow.

[Deb · Rating 2 out of 5]

Plot Summary: What happens, When & Where, Central Characters, Major Conflicts[return]A man--Bernard--falls asleep (or does he die?) while under the care of a nurse. He awakens in a strange town called Old Hertham. There he encounters people familiar to him--but who have died. One is a sort of real estate agent to urges him to get on the waiting list for a home in New Town--because Old Hertham is build on faulty soil that is eroding and every home in it is condemned and not to be rebuilt. But to get a house in New Town Bernard needs references and forms and to wait. So in the meantime he stays with Eve--a former girlfriend--and her daughter Marie. There he learns not everyone is keen on the idea of New Town--some oppose it and wish to fight for the preservation of the homes in Old Hertham.[return][return][return][return][return][return][return]Style Characterisics: Pacing, clarity, structure, narrative devices, etc.[return]This is definitely an allegory. Told in a dry, English, "old-fashioned" style. The plot is not very compelling. Bernard is kind of a bland character, as is the story. [return][return][return]How Good is it?[return]Blah

[Abigail Hartman · Rating 3 out of 5]

"New Town" is definitely an allegory, based (if it can be said to be based on any one verse) on John 14:2. "In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would not have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." When Bernard Dayman "dies," he wakes to find himself in a decrepit, irreparable city called Old Town. He joins the queue of people seeking homes in New Town, which stands on the other side of a divide; but even if his name is added to the List, he must still wait with thousands of other people until a home becomes available.

The allegory in most places is clear, and yet it calls for deeper thought. How many of us think often of the place where Christ is and where we are going? How many of us think that our true homes lie, not here in the decayed earth, but in the new earth? I don't. And so this book, small as it may be, and not perhaps as well written as Blamires' "The Devil's Hunting Grounds" trilogy, is a worthy read for calling our minds to our true home.

[Jalen Huckabay]

I wouldn't suggest this book. I started reading it, and was hoping it got better, it didn't. I just finished it because I didn't have much left.

[Stephanie Wells · Rating 4 out of 5]

British authors really make me smile :D

[Jessica Geist · Rating 1 out of 5]

The allegory felt too contrived to be convincing.

[Jt]

a great read

[Jesse · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was truly a disappointment. It has been unfairly compared to some of my favorite authors, and it does not stand up well to these people, namely C.S Lewis and G.K Chesterton