Race with the Devil

I met Mr. Pearce at an OSMM Retreat and I enjoyed his talk on Tolkien and Catholicism so much that I decided to buy his book – Race with the Devil.  Now I am more impressed with the author than ever. Race with the Devil is an outstandingly honest account of his years as a racist through his conversion years into his current “rational-love” orientated life.  There are times when I wonder, much like everyone else, if people can ever really change.  Mr. Pearce answers this question unequivocally.  The metamorphosis from his youth to his adulthood is transformative not only for the author, but for the reader as well.  As a reader, I found myself totally disgusted by his early life, his family, and the culture that he lived in.  But before the end of the book, I found myself admitting the humanity of the situation, the honest truth that Mr. Pearce was reflecting in all our darker selves, and the yearnings we all have to be whole, good, and just. Over all, the book was a clarion call: “Awake!”  There is more that haunts us than we like to admit and in facing that, we can become transformed toward our better selves.