Among the many books I've read and enjoyed, "Mister God this is Anna" stands out from the pack. I think I've read it more times than any other book except the Bible. But though I've written a number of book reviews, I've never reviewed "Anna". Why? Because it's not easy to do justice to a story that tears at your heart-strings and grabs attention page after page. As Vernon Sproxton, who wrote the book's original Introduction said, this is an "Ah" book.
"Mister God..." was first published in 1974, and the events it relates occurred some forty years earlier in the East End of London - a very different district than anywhere in modern Britain. London east of the Aldgate pump was a down-at-heel, brick-and-smoke, urban jungle lit by gaslight and inhabited by a proud, poor underclass. The events in this story happened before politicians dreamt up the Welfare State.
Anna was precocious by any standards - so much so that people have asked, "is the story true?" Vernon Sproxton never met Anna, but he met the author, and had no doubt that Fynn was truthful. But Anna's intense and childlike faith met with Fynn's reflective and enquiring mind to convey something beyond the simple word "truth". This kind of truth lights up the world and makes it hopeful. Anna's story is one where "incredible" doesn't mean untrue, but wondrous.
Nineteen-year-old Fynn met four-year-old Anna on the streets late one night and discovered that she'd "runned away". He took her home to his Mum who, when she tried to wash the child, gasped at the sight of her bruises. This runaway child had been abused by her parents, but somehow developed a sharp, enquiring intellect and an acute spiritual awareness. Any attempt to return her to her former home was out of the question. Anna stayed, and the surprises began.
"Ain't you gonna say your prayers?" asked Anna as Fynn put her to bed on that first night.
He knelt beside her, and marvelled as "She went on with such a familiar way of talking to Mister God that I had the creepy feeling
that if I dared look behind me, he would be standing there" Anna's relationship with Mister God was close, vital and spontaneous,
but not unquestioning. Anna constantly asked questions, and her questions were penetrating. There's an intoxicating novelty about
Anna's spirituality. Don't come to this story seeking correct theology or religious orthodoxy. Come to observe fresh ways of seeing
God and challenging approaches to expressing faith. Anna had an antipathy to formal religion, but huge love for and appreciation of
Mister God.
After one of Anna's question and answer sessions, Fynn summarised what he'd learned like this: "Humanity has an infinite number of points
of view. God has an infinite number of viewing points. That means that - God is everywhere."
He was proud to receive Anna's approval for that. He was catching up!
"People thought that Mister God was very big and that's where they made a big mistake, obviously Mister God could be any size he wanted to be."
Fynn writes without literary pretension. He doesn't use cultured phraseology, but his descriptions are vivid and his narrative is alive with action. He draws us into his memories so that we see them as if we're watching them happen. Children are full of curiosity. They love to gain knowledge. But knowledge discovered is more exciting than knowledge taught. In that respect, Anna was a normal child. Where she went beyond the normal was the way she patiently worked from discovered knowledge to enlightened wisdom. That's special.
Anna took inspiration from stars, flowers, and broken metal railings, she was fascinated by numbers, words, and names, she experimented with lights, shadows, mirrors, and radios. She loved life and threw herself into learning and games. And, for her, every element pointed towards Mister God.
The author mused over his experiences with Anna for years before bringing the story together.
He noted his recollections on scraps of paper and multiple notebooks, no doubt reflecting on the strangeness of the child tornado
that had breezed through his life in those years before the war.
"Anna was not only deeply in love with Mister God; she was proud of him.... Whatever feelings people have had
about Mister God over the many centuries, I'm sure of one thing, nobody has ever liked Mister God more than Anna."
Through that experience he learned a very important faith lesson:
"The soul is imprisoned, protected, nothing can get in to hurt it, but then nothing can get out either.
Being 'saved' is nothing to do with being 'safe'. Being 'saved' is seeing yourself clearly."
"Mister God..." is not a Christian book but neither is the Bible (think about it).
It is, however, a deeply spiritual book that brings readers to confront their relationship with God - and themselves.
Don't seek doctrine in Anna's story; read it to smile, to marvel, to laugh, to be moved. I've read it many times before
so, as I read it again, I knew that the story would touch my emotions. I smiled, I chuckled, and I felt tears in my eyes.
"Anna" is inspirational.
