Guest Author - Diana Pederson

James Scott Bell. Glimpses of Paradise. Bethany House Publishers. 2005.

Zee Miller and Doyle Lawrence are two very headstrong high schoolers living in Zenith, Nebraska. Neither young person wants to follow the path laid down for them by their fathers. Zee is the daughter of a conservative minister. She is expected to live by a very strict code of behavior based on negatives: No dancing, no movies; no seeing inappropriate boys. Doyle is expected to follow in his lawyer father’s footsteps by attending Yale to acquire his law degree. World War I intervenes. Doyle winds up in the trenches in France. Zee makes her way to Hollywood to pursue her goal of being an actor.

Prohibition is put into effect shortly after the men return to the United States. Both young people wind up in Los Angeles. Hollywood is a very liberal place – far different from the rural area these people grew up in. Thugs, ruthlessness, and general criminal behavior prevail in Hollywood as would be actors or actresses struggle to beat out the competition for roles in the movies.

Glimpses of Paradise follows these main characters through their intellectual, social, and spiritual struggles as they adapt to life. During this struggle, both characters are exposed to R. A. Torrey, a minister of the Church of the Open Door, a leading evangelist of the 1920s. The reader will see that God is working even in the midst of the debauchery that is Hollywood. This still holds true today.

This book is available through your local Christian bookstore or at amazon.com. It will serve as a reminder that God works in all circumstances in his efforts to reconcile the world to his Son, Jesus Christ. No one has sunk too low to come to Him, even when they are on the bottom rung of the society ladder.