“Sun House” by David James Duncan

The joke at our house is that Ed wants to be avid fly fisher David James Duncan, and I want to marry magnificent writer David James Duncan, so it all works out. We loved THE RIVER WHY and THE BROTHERS K and MY STORY AS TOLD BY WATER and GOD LAUGHS AND PLAYS and RIVER TEETH, so when SUN HOUSE, DJD’s first book in thirty-one years, appeared, we were chomping at the bit to read it.

SUN HOUSE is the story of a dozen young folks on different and fascinating spiritual journeys who wind up deeply connected in a Montana valley. Their experiences are conveyed via a variety of philosophical and theological approaches, and there is seldom a paragraph that’s not layered with meaning. Thoughts and expositions of Buddhism, revolutionary Christianity, Vedic wisdom, and agnostic philosophy are intertwined throughout the book in ways that exemplify the characters who study and quote and practice them.

The focus on these intellectual frameworks does not make SUN HOUSE “dry.” The characters, all bigtime spiritual seekers, are intensely, painfully, and humorously human. The relationships are deep and complex and beautifully depicted. Sex is variously ecstatic, agonizing, and hilarious. Mahatma Gandhi gets attention as do Emmylou Harris, Catherine of Siena, Frank Zappa, Willie Nelson, and so many more familiar teachers and poets. All this is narrated by “The Holy Goat”, an enigmatic reporter, who has a fascinating voice all his own.

Ed and I read SUN HOUSE at the same time. We read it for a long time—it’s 765 pages. We cracked up at some of the same things and, more than once, read a passage to the other, saying, “Can you even believe this? Who is this man? Who thinks like this?” We gifted a writer friend with SUN HOUSE for her birthday, and she told us she’s been highlighting passages and sending them to friends she knows will love them.

I kinda hated for the book to end. Then the ending puzzled me and left me hanging. Ed and I talked about it, I revisited it, found personal meaning in it, and “got it” in a satisfying way.

SUN HOUSE so moved and inspired me. I still think about it, and, when I find myself referring to God as “Ocean” now, it fits just fine.

Do read SUN HOUSE. It’s amazing.

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