Hey, I knew that guy!

So far, summer reading in NH has included Magnificat, back-issues of National Review, and Gut Check, by Tarek Saab, of The Apprentice fame. The subtitle is "Confronting love, work, and manhood in your twenties"--and that pretty much does no justice whatsoever to Saab's message. This is less a self-help book for young men than a Confessions.

Saab tells his story of conversion from the ego-centric hedonism of his college years (though I'm afraid his exploits are tame compared to most) to a muscular understanding of what it takes to be a man for God in our current American culture. The story is also the spring-board for reflections on the particular pressures our culture places on young men in the workplace and the perpetual-adolescence malaise in social settings.

Saab's thoughtfulness and the breadth of his sources of inspiration (he quotes Pope Pius XII, St. Paul, St. Augustine, Fulton Sheen, C.S. Lewis, and G.K. Chesterton, to name a few) are truly impressive, but most of all his deep humility. His peace and joy have been hard-won.

The book is well-worth a read (and well-worth buying a few copies for dissemination among your male friends!). And, hey! I knew that guy at CUA briefly and superficially through Campus Ministry--it's glorious to read that he has become, indeed, a better human being than I! Onward to Christ, Tarek, alleluia.