"Blue Like Jazz" has received a lot of attention fairly steadily since it's publishing in 2003. It's STILL (as of this writing) #104 on Amazon.com's Top Books (volume sold) list. Has there been a lot of mainstream media attention? Not that I've seen. It's largely been a grass-roots, word of mouth scenario where folks just talk about this book.
What do they say? Well, you're not likely to find a lot of consensus. By many, it could be considered somewhat "offensive". At minimum, it's a little irreverent. Others see a long-needed shove at the "institution of religion".
It would be easy to stereotype about how certain groups might react to this book. It would be easy to dismiss it as counter-culture, Emerging Church, or other non-sense. It would be simplistic to say that it's written just for the "shock value" to the existing Church.
To some degree, it is all of those things. Miller has a conversational writing style that I enjoyed. Certainly, some of the stories he includes are a little nonsensical. There is an "anti-establishment" air about the stories he tells. If you compare the situations he describes with what some state as the reasons for the "Emerging Church", they sound similar...to a point.
The key difference is that Miller gets to the core of what Christianity is in real-life while removing the shells and husks that man has constructed around Religion. He seems to want to say that there's a difference between being a Christian and just being religious (which, he's correct) and shows struggles in how to live out that difference.
Personally, I liked it. It is somewhere between the Emerging Church and fundamentalism in that it rejects much of the traditions/rules/legalism, but doesn't stray into the "whatever works for you", ecumenicalism junk.
Ultimately, it's a picture of growth towards becoming a Christian into becoming a "mature" Christian and the questions that we all deal and wrestle with.
I will say, however, that this book is NOT about Christian growth, evangelism, or how to fix the Church. I think its value comes from the need for Christians, especially those of us who were blessed by God to have been raised being taught about Him, to remember that not everyone thinks like you do. You may have been baptized at 5. You may have memorized your catechisms before you were 8. You may have felt called to full-time ministry or to be an overseas missionary by 10. But there are many in this world who didn't know God until they were a teenager. There are many in this world who come to know God as established, routined, in-a-rut, baggage-carrying adults.
Over all, I like the book, but I struggle to fully appreciate where Miller is coming from since I didn't grow up and live my life like he did. Praise God, I was saved very young. But I think that mystery is exactly why I like it. More people are in Miller's shoes than mine and those are the people I'm called to reach for Christ.
Later.