Defiant Joy, by Kevin Belmonte, is an odd book. While it claims to be a biography, only about 20% is actually biographical. Now, being a great Chesterton fan, I had high hopes for this book. It started out well enough, but over the course of five chapters or so, it went from Chesterton's childhood to his adult life. At that point, the book became somewhat of a series of book reports, each chapter focusing in on a different novel or series of essays that Chesterton wrote, moving consecutively through his life.
While an interesting concept, the reader is left wondering what Chesterton himself was actually doing at these points in his life. We do manage to get glimpses every now and again: Chesterton struggling with finances here, or engaging in debate there. But by and large, we get...book reports. I would consider this book more of a loose introduction to Chesterton himself, and would classify it as more of a literary biography than a personal one. All these things taken together, and despite the desire to promote all things Chesterton, I reluctantly give this book a two out of five. However, the book did prompt me to pick up Maisie Ward's biography of Chesterton. My thanks to Thomas Nelson for this review copy.
