Heartfelt first novel, originally self-published: about as subtle as a brick, but with gospel-tinged enthusiasm that’s...
Count your blessings and pass the butterbeans.
Young attorney Marley Shepherd is going places. Didn’t she just get engaged to the perfect man? Gerrard swears he loves her, and that’s enough for Marley. Pam, her mama, and Marley’s grandmother, Ma Grand, are happy for her but soon begin an I-told-you-so quarrel about the man Pam married. No use talking about a slickster like Silas, says Ma Grand, who points out that she saw right through him from the first. Pam is outraged, but Marley makes peace . . . and later, quizzes her grandmother about several generations of family. Ma Grand says that she was a hard-working mother who cooked, cleaned, and did everything she could for her children and her husband, like her mother before her; but Marley knows that Pam was never sure she was loved. While she ponders the implication of this revelation, she finds out that Pam has breast cancer and is facing a mastectomy. There’s more bad news when Marley catches Gerrard with another woman and calls off the engagement. Gerrard protests, but there’s no way that she’ll allow that cheating, low-down, triflin’ dog back in her life. Her friend Sheila, who kept the faith throughout an often difficult marriage, reminds her that “without God we are absolutely nothing, and the only way to lead a peaceful and enjoyable life with an imperfect person is to keep God in the center of it.” Disillusioned and deeply hurt, Marley isn’t so sure about that or anything else. Then Sheila’s husband introduces her to his brother Lazarus, who coaches disadvantaged children. They date and share home cooking and good times (but not sex) and soon fall in love. Marley knows Lazarus is the right man for her when he explains how his family’s unshakable belief in the goodness of God kept them going despite humiliating poverty and painful setbacks.
Heartfelt first novel, originally self-published: about as subtle as a brick, but with gospel-tinged enthusiasm that’s contagious.Pub Date: April 15, 2003
ISBN: 0-8129-6656-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2003
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
Hoffman (The Red Garden, 2011, etc.) births literature from tragedy: the destruction of Jerusalem's Temple, the siege of Masada and the loss of Zion.
This is a feminist tale, a story of strong, intelligent women wedded to destiny by love and sacrifice. Told in four parts, the first comes from Yael, daughter of Yosef bar Elhanan, a Sicarii Zealot assassin, rejected by her father because of her mother's death in childbirth. It is 70 CE, and the Temple is destroyed. Yael, her father, and another Sicarii assassin, Jachim ben Simon, and his family flee Jerusalem. Hoffman's research renders the ancient world real as the group treks into Judea's desert, where they encounter Essenes, search for sustenance and burn under the sun. There too Jachim and Yael begin a tragic love affair. At Masada, Yael is sent to work in the dovecote, gathering eggs and fertilizer. She meets Shirah, her daughters, and Revka, who narrates part two. Revka's husband was killed when Romans sacked their village. Later, her daughter was murdered. At Masada, caring for grandsons turned mute by tragedy, Revka worries over her scholarly son-in-law, Yoav, now consumed by vengeance. Aziza, daughter of Shirah, carries the story onward. Born out of wedlock, Aziza grew up in Moab, among the people of the blue tunic. Her passion and curse is that she was raised as a warrior by her foster father. In part four, Shirah tells of her Alexandrian youth, the cherished daughter of a consort of the high priests. Shirah is a keshaphim, a woman of amulets, spells and medicine, and a woman connected to Shechinah, the feminine aspect of God. The women are irretrievably bound to Eleazar ben Ya'ir, Masada's charismatic leader; Amram, Yael's brother; and Yoav, Aziza's companion and protector in battle. The plot is intriguingly complex, with only a single element unresolved. An enthralling tale rendered with consummate literary skill.
Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4516-1747-4
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
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