An intriguing idea that collapses under the weight of its own conceit.
In this postmodern novel, Josepher (The Complete and Extraordinary History of the October Surprise, 2009, etc.) imagines a pair of books—one a modern work on Eli Wiesel, the other an ancient work on Jesus—that could reshape the world’s conception of Judaism.
Brian Josepher (who shares a name with the novelist) sits in an apartment in Ashkelon, Israel, explaining the curious research projects that have defined the last few years of his life. His previous book, a bestselling and controversial unauthorized biography of Elie Wiesel, cast doubt on many of the Nobel laureate’s claims. Brian has since received death threats from a Jewish protectionist group called the Sicarii, such as “For those who worship in the Synagogue of Satan, justice comes.” He flees to Israel, where he researches Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian of Christianity’s early years. Brian comes across Josephus’ long-lost work Against Mark: On the Antiquity of the Jew Called Jesus. Published anonymously in 70 C.E., the book survived the destruction of the temple and was buried for almost 2,000 years. In it, Josephus purports to tell “the true history of this Jesus, and of those known as the apostles,” and it’s sure to prove even more divisive than Brian’s previous work. Presented as a work of literary criticism, author Josepher’s ambitious work cleverly manages to encompass biblical historicity, the Holocaust, and the conspiracies that plague both of these subjects, and it walks a fine line between satire and sincere engagement. Unfortunately, its ideas are far more interesting in theory than in execution. The vast majority of the book consists of discussion of minute discrepancies in the life and work of Wiesel, made all the more tedious by the fact that readers will be unsure how much, if any, of it is true. The promised Da Vinci Code–like Josephus storyline, when it arrives, is underwhelming.
An intriguing idea that collapses under the weight of its own conceit.Pub Date: April 1, 2019
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 790
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
A tour de force.
In 1974, a troubled Vietnam vet inherits a house from a fallen comrade and moves his family to Alaska.
After years as a prisoner of war, Ernt Allbright returned home to his wife, Cora, and daughter, Leni, a violent, difficult, restless man. The family moved so frequently that 13-year-old Leni went to five schools in four years. But when they move to Alaska, still very wild and sparsely populated, Ernt finds a landscape as raw as he is. As Leni soon realizes, “Everyone up here had two stories: the life before and the life now. If you wanted to pray to a weirdo god or live in a school bus or marry a goose, no one in Alaska was going to say crap to you.” There are many great things about this book—one of them is its constant stream of memorably formulated insights about Alaska. Another key example is delivered by Large Marge, a former prosecutor in Washington, D.C., who now runs the general store for the community of around 30 brave souls who live in Kaneq year-round. As she cautions the Allbrights, “Alaska herself can be Sleeping Beauty one minute and a bitch with a sawed-off shotgun the next. There’s a saying: Up here you can make one mistake. The second one will kill you.” Hannah’s (The Nightingale, 2015, etc.) follow-up to her series of blockbuster bestsellers will thrill her fans with its combination of Greek tragedy, Romeo and Juliet–like coming-of-age story, and domestic potboiler. She re-creates in magical detail the lives of Alaska's homesteaders in both of the state's seasons (they really only have two) and is just as specific and authentic in her depiction of the spiritual wounds of post-Vietnam America.
A tour de force.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-312-57723-0
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2017
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