I met Bruce Main in a low-cost housing project in Southwest Philadelphia. I was the college kid way over my head, having just taken over an utterly disorganized, fully underfunded summer ministry program. He was the college kid who knew what we needed to do and made sure we did it without making me feel bad. I loved him for it.

By the end of that summer, I would have read anything Bruce Main recommended to me, and what he recommended was a long out of print, paperback novel called Mr Blue. The title character, he told me, was unforgettably wonderful.

I tell you all this because truly Mr Blue gave me my first great vision of the good life, and because that this little treasure is recently back in print. It is easy enough to find, I expect, but here is one place: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0829421319/104-6732933-2409526?v=glance&n=283155

Twenty years later, Bruce is still one of my closest friends, still runs the best urban youth ministry I know, www.urbanpromiseusa.org in Camden NJ, and still knows a great book when he reads it.

I met Bruce Main in a low-cost housing project in Southwest Philadelphia. I was the college kid way over my head, having just taken over an utterly disorganized, fully underfunded summer ministry program. He was the college kid who knew what we needed to do and made sure we did it without making me feel bad. I loved him for it.

By the end of that summer, I would have read anything Bruce Main recommended to me, and what he recommended was a long out of print, paperback novel called Mr Blue. The title character, he told me, was unforgettably wonderful.

I tell you all this because truly Mr Blue gave me my first great vision of the good life, and because that this little treasure is recently back in print. It is easy enough to find, I expect, but here is one place: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0829421319/104-6732933-2409526?v=glance&n=283155

Twenty years later, Bruce is still one of my closest friends, still runs the best urban youth ministry I know, www.urbanpromiseusa.org in Camden NJ, and still knows a great book when he reads it.