Book Review: “Rules for a Knight” by Ethan Hawke
How did I get this book?
It was the same fateful day that I picked up “Breaking History” by Jared Kushner and “Hostages No More” by Betsy DeVos. Gen and I were browsing Barnes & Noble before Christmas and thanks to some gifts had some money to splurge on a couple of titles. This book caught my attention.
What’s it about?
This is a very long letter from a knight in the Middle Ages back to his children on the eve of a battle that he’s pretty sure he’s going to lose his life in. In the editor’s note in the beginning of the book, it says that this letter was found in the attic of their home and translated and pieced back to together.
The letter is divided into sections on various themes that this father wanted to instruct his children in. They are: Solitude, Humility, Gratitude, Pride, Cooperation, Friendship, Forgiveness, Honesty, Courage, Grace, Patience, Justice, Generosity, Discipline, Dedication, Speech, Faith, Equality, Love, and Death. The book closes with a poem entitled: “The Ballad of the Forty-Four Pointed Red Deer.”
What did I think?
This book and it’s introduction really piqued my interest. I was eager to dig into it. When I got to the 6th or 7th section, I started to doubt it’s authenticity. It didn’t seem to purport values that would be known in the 1400’s. I was reading post-modern thought, relativism, humanism and secularism.
So, I did a little internet sleuthing and discovered a new word, “anachronistic.” Which means essentially a displacement of time. Ideas and values from one time placed in or on a different time. That’s what was going on here.
The last section of the book called “Special Thanks to Other Knights” gave it all away by including Muhammad Ali, Emily Dickinson, Peter Drucker, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Vince Lombardi, George Lucas and so forth.
I was so disappointed. I didn’t finish it. I wasn’t looking for a retelling and reinforcing of the current culture. I seriously thought about returning the book for a refund.
Parting Thoughts…
Mr. Hawke (yes, the actor), is clearly on to something. We as a culture are longing for ideas and values from a bygone era. We are pretty sure as a culture we took a wrong turn somewhere and need to do some backtracking into something that’s much more solid, noble, meaningful, significant, brave, wise and good. That’s why the title is click-bait for books. It’s too bad that the book didn’t answer that longing.
Of course, that’s found only in a robust Christian faith. That’s where we left the path.