Merrill's 'The Evolution of Thomas Hall' a good read

Several weeks ago I spent a few long hours waiting for a delayed plane to arrive at the airport. Normally I wouldn't mind the wait as usually I have a good book to read, but the one I had, "The Shack," turned almost nonsensical for me.

Oh how I wished I had brought the hard cover book I was reading, Kieth Merrill's "The Evolution of Thomas Hall," but left it for that paperback. Now there is a book on spiritual discovery that totally eclipsed my airport book.

Kieth sent it to me and when I opened the package that arrived on my doorstep my first thought was, "Oh dear, he is my friend. What if it isn't good?" But as usual he never ceases to amaze me with his talents. When you know someone from the time they are a little kid till forever it is always surprising that the teasing youngster can turn out to be such a capable grown-up.

I do know his wife Dagny had her hand in it with support and suggestions and just being the kind of wife a right-brained person needs.

His cousin is Marilyn Green Faulkner, author of "Back to the Best Books," an excellent guide for reading the classics. She surely gave him some good advice.

Now he can add novelist to his many credits of Academy Award winner, producer of films like "Legacy" and "The Testaments," member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science, Directors Guild of America, distinguished alumnus of BYU and, oh yeah, his most important "production" — he is the father of eight.

It is front and center in your local Deseret Book store but also can be purchased at Amazon.com and Borders.

Kieth throws out little bits of wisdom learned from his craft. One of my favorites was, "People are programmed with a sense of how long certain intervals should last. The interval between a traffic light turning green and the driver in the car behind basting his horn is less than three nanoseconds. In a movie, the interval of darkness between a fade to black and new image is practically embedded in our DNA. If the interval exceeds expectation by even a few seconds, people crane their necks to see if there is anyone in the projection booth."

Never thought about that having a name before.

In the book the protagonist, Thomas Hall, is very happy with his life, or so he thinks, until he is met headlong with the need to find out just what he believes and if he wants to even care.