This is not the compare and contrast biography that it appears to be. It is a well written religious novel based on real people and events. I was unaware that it was part of a movie tie in. The key story is interesting and would have been inspirational if told as a straight bio. The friendship between Graham and Templeton would have been good enough with no embellishments. ( )

Billy Graham remains one of the most iconic figures of our age: a man who has loved & devotedly followed Jesus Christ and worked his entire life to make Him known, while keeping his integrity & humility intact. Any book that shared his early life & crisis of faith would be a worthwhile read.

Or so I thought, until I read the book Billy: The Untold Story of a Young Billy Graham and the Test of Faith that Almost Changed Everything.

The entire book is framed around an entirely fictional interview of Charles Templeton, an early friend of Billy Graham who turned away from Christianity. Why such a literary device for either this book or the original movie? If the writer’s purpose was to simply communicate moral truth via drama, then use historical fiction (Mel Gibson’s The Patriot is an obvious example). But if he wanted to let people know what great things God has done in a real person’s life, why mix truth with fantasy? I don’t know.

And if you are going to chronicle a person’s life, by all means do not suddenly put in a sudden imaginary conversation among angels and description of titanic spiritual warfare including Satan personally targeting young Billy’s soul which is pure fantasy speculation. Awful. I sincerely hope that Reverend Graham never reads this book; I am convinced he would be deeply hurt.

My advice: if you really want to learn about this man of God, skip this book and instead read Graham’s own excellent autobiography Just As I Am. ( )