Facile redemption aplenty.
A rote addition to the glut of inspirational allegories promising quick fixes for ontological angst through prayer.
The authors, co-founders of Sacred Center New York (“one of the fastest-growing spiritual churches in America,” according to the book’s publicity material), bring us Joseph Hutchinson, a farmer circa 1883 who has always wanted to be a carpenter. Joseph has inherited the family farm and the family curse—all of his male ancestors going back generations have died in their 20s. Joseph expects to suffer the same fate, but finds respite in the farmhouse attic, which exudes a comforting aura. When wife Miriam dies after caring for the daughter of his neighbor (and former crush) Grace, Joseph is left with two small children, a debt-ridden farm and crushing guilt—just before Miriam’s death, he had unwisely dissed a vision of the Angel of Death, who only wanted to give him a mysterious chest. Joseph uncovers a mildewed chest in the attic, containing a notebook left by Joseph’s ancestor Malachi in 1780, which transcribed Grandma Mary’s three secrets of prayer—unfair to divulge here, but suffice it to say that when it comes to prayer, it’s all about you. Joseph replicates the chest according to his vision, and Grace provides the gold lock. The characters write prayers on slips of paper and deposit them in a slot at the top of the chest, which cannot thereafter be opened—kind of like an IRA, only forever. Their prayers are answered: The mean bank president, Charlie, who threatens Joseph with foreclosure, gives him lucrative carpentry contracts. When Charlie’s carriage accidentally runs down an orphaned immigrant Jewish girl, Sarah, Charlie adopts her. Sarah rallies everyone to host a Christmas party, where the town children will receive toys designed by Grace and carved by Joseph. There’s artistic fulfillment and business opportunities for all (except doomed Sarah) and even a fourth secret—whose revelation will have to await the inevitable sequel(s).
Facile redemption aplenty.Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-385-52023-2
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2007
None of the characters shine enough to inspire or enlighten readers.
A tale of several generations of women cursed to love men who love other women.
As the book opens, Gabriela Siton relates the story of her mother Luna’s death, and in describing her final year, Yishai-Levi, a journalist and nonfiction author, captures the family dynamic and lays out the drama—Luna doesn’t get along with Gabriela; she’s unhappy with her husband, David; she didn’t get along with her mother, Rosa; and all this has left Gabriela at loose ends. Gabriela seeks answers from her Aunt Allegra in Tel Aviv, trying to understand the family “curse,” and then the book shifts mostly to Rosa’s and Luna’s viewpoints. It abruptly shifts back in the end to Gabriela’s, skipping over years, when earlier, the narrative plodded slowly through days. There are so many characters that we only get a brief look at some of them, and so many disappointments and heartbreaks that they begin to lose their impact. Ordinary lives can be made beautiful, but when they belong to characters who are either unsympathetic or rudimentary, they are rendered ineffective. The characters’ faith, which influences so many of the important decisions in their lives, mostly comes across as routine, habit, or even superstition. Some of the characters become involved in the struggle for modern Israel, and their political fervor is similarly underdeveloped.
None of the characters shine enough to inspire or enlighten readers.Pub Date: April 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-250-07816-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
A satisfyingly streamlined World War II thriller.
During the Nazi occupation of Paris, an architect devises ingenious hiding places for Jews.
In architect Belfoure’s fiction debut, the architectural and historical details are closely rendered, while the characters are mostly sketchy stereotypes. Depraved Gestapo colonel Schlegal and his torturer lackeys and thuggish henchmen see their main goal as tracking down every last Jew in Paris who has not already been deported to a concentration camp. Meanwhile, Lucien, an opportunistic architect whose opportunities have evaporated since 1940, when the Germans marched into Paris, is desperate for a job—so desperate that when industrialist Manet calls upon him to devise a hiding place for a wealthy Jewish friend, he accepts, since Manet can also offer him a commission to design a factory. While performing his factory assignment (the facility will turn out armaments for the Reich), Lucien meets kindred spirit Herzog, a Wehrmacht officer with a keen appreciation of architectural engineering, who views capturing Jews as an ill-advised distraction from winning the war for Germany. The friendship makes Lucien’s collaboration with the German war effort almost palatable—the money isn’t that good. Bigger payouts come as Manet persuades a reluctant Lucien to keep designing hideouts. His inventive cubbyholes—a seamless door in an ornamental column, a staircase section with an undetectable opening, even a kitchen floor drain—all help Jews evade the ever-tightening net of Schlegal and his crew. However, the pressure on Lucien is mounting. A seemingly foolproof fireplace contained a disastrous fatal flaw. His closest associates—apprentice Alain and mistress Adele—prove to have connections to the Gestapo, and, at Manet’s urging, Lucien has adopted a Jewish orphan, Pierre. The Resistance has taken him for short drives to warn him about the postwar consequences of collaboration, and his wife, Celeste, has left in disgust. Belfoure wastes no time prettying up his strictly workmanlike prose. As the tension increases, the most salient virtue of this effort—the expertly structured plot—emerges.
A satisfyingly streamlined World War II thriller.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-8431-1
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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