The Salvation of American Icon

I grew up in a home that loved old movies. Apart from The Dirty Dozen, these weren’t generally the shoot-em-ups that I prefer nowadays, but rather Marx Brothers and Cary Grant hits. One of our favorites, however, was The Great Escape, and I can still recall my mother fawning a bit over Steve McQueen’s character, the pleasantly rebellious brains with his baseball glove and, eventually, his self-stunted motorcycle jump. Though I knew very little else of the man other than that he was a professional racer as well as an actor, that singular memory and the promise that this man ultimately trusted in Christ piqued my interested when I saw this book, and I was wonderfully surprised that ChristianAudio was offering it as it’s free book of the month.

Greg Laurie‘s approach in this biography is unique, as he attempts to mirror McQueen’s troubled upbringing to his own. I’d never heard of Laurie (though I’ve not got a sense of his Harvest ministry in CA now), so from the outset, the promise of a dual-bio about two men who’d never met made a little leery. That just didn’t sound interesting to me. Somehow it works, because Laurie’s intent isn’t so much to write about himself as it is it show that the similarities we have with others could be bridges of communication (if that person were actually alive and in our presence), if not merely of understanding. That Laurie understands the difficult life that McQueen endured does in fact make him a viable biographer. Then, because in his research, he also knows the right questions to ask and, in turn, can read the shades of meaning in the answers he receives.

I was a little confused by the car ride throughout the book. I know from the introduction that he’s fictionalizing his travels for the sake of continuity, but he writes in such detail about the food he eats, the sites he visits, and the sleep he loses that it’s almost a distracting technique. I kept wondering if he really was meeting these people and, if not, ether their words were accurately recorded or not. Even after finishing the book, I still don’t know.

This biography isn’t an encouraging one, if one’s looking for the secrets of social fame and success. It is however an honest dissection of the false prize that celebrity status truly is. It’s been repeated so often that it’s almost a cliche, but the more wealth and fame a person achieves, the less fulfilling it all becomes. I really appreciated Laurie’s comparison to King Solomon and his Ecclesiastes, for “Vanity of vanities” everything promise of this life comes up empty.

I was also greatly encouraged by the strong Gospel themes shared throughout the book. I’ve read other “road-trip” books by supposed Christians like The Great Wall of China and the Salton Sea by Russel Rathbun, also a pastor, and those works pale in comparison to this. Greg Laurie had a singular goal of sharing the good news of the redemption of Hollywood’s most macho icon, and he did so with Christ-exalting clarity. The Gospel was clearly presented at the end of the book, and I just about cheered when I heard it.

I look forward to finding some of these old McQueen hits mentioned in this book, just to get a look at a man my generation barely knows, but whom I’m going to meet someday in Heaven. I look forward to telling him how I learned all about his life and conversion from an audio book I listened to, mostly, while commuting to an from work on the seat of my red motorcycle. No big jumps for me on the bike, but quite a boost for me spiritually.

©2018 E.T.