A black comedy about religion and the afterlife, written like a blockbuster action film.
In Taylor’s debut novel, a down-to-earth guy is swept up in a berserk afterlife adventure.
The author first introduces the recently deceased 43-year-old Walter Matthews as he waits in line to meet with a bearded desk clerk, St. Peter. His surroundings, however, differ from the traditional idea of the Pearly Gates. Instead of one St. Peter, there are endless rows of desk-clerk St. Peters, and infinite lines of souls waiting for judgment. From this unorthodox depiction of purgatory, Taylor launches into a highly idiosyncratic imagining of the afterlife: Heaven is a sort of whimsical business headquarters, in which angels are stereotypical, seductive secretaries; God is the “Designer and CEO of All Creation” and Jesus is the vice president. As Wally confers with his designated Peter, Lucifer, a goony, self-amused villain, steals a jar from the desk containing “the Saints.” Wally, the sole witness of the crime, is immediately involved in a mission to recover the kidnapped saints. The wacky adventure snowballs out of control, though, after God is kidnapped and Wally must assist a heavenly team to recover him. Following the plot requires readers to have plenty of imaginative flexibility, but Taylor’s concept of heaven and beyond is certainly original. However, the novel isn’t recommended for the seriously religious; God, for example, is portrayed as a boisterous, mischievous creative director, and Jesus as a tattooed, chain-smoking wayward son. However, in much the same vein as the Comedy Central series South Park, no group is spared from satirical depiction. The afterlife’s atheists spend their days convincing themselves that they’re just imagining it, and even Gandhi is shown to be self-serving. Taylor also attempts to depict atrocious historical villains, such as Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden, as Lucifer’s comical, and even lamentably pathetic, cronies; however, their crude depictions don’t quite follow through with a clever punch line.
A black comedy about religion and the afterlife, written like a blockbuster action film.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-646-92526-4
Page Count: 291
Publisher: C. Taylor Books
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.
Hunter’s debut novel tracks the experiences of her family members during the Holocaust.
Sol and Nechuma Kurc, wealthy, cultured Jews in Radom, Poland, are successful shop owners; they and their grown children live a comfortable lifestyle. But that lifestyle is no protection against the onslaught of the Holocaust, which eventually scatters the members of the Kurc family among several continents. Genek, the oldest son, is exiled with his wife to a Siberian gulag. Halina, youngest of all the children, works to protect her family alongside her resistance-fighter husband. Addy, middle child, a composer and engineer before the war breaks out, leaves Europe on one of the last passenger ships, ending up thousands of miles away. Then, too, there are Mila and Felicia, Jakob and Bella, each with their own share of struggles—pain endured, horrors witnessed. Hunter conducted extensive research after learning that her grandfather (Addy in the book) survived the Holocaust. The research shows: her novel is thorough and precise in its details. It’s less precise in its language, however, which frequently relies on cliché. “You’ll get only one shot at this,” Halina thinks, enacting a plan to save her husband. “Don’t botch it.” Later, Genek, confronting a routine bit of paperwork, must decide whether or not to hide his Jewishness. “That form is a deal breaker,” he tells himself. “It’s life and death.” And: “They are low, it seems, on good fortune. And something tells him they’ll need it.” Worse than these stale phrases, though, are the moments when Hunter’s writing is entirely inadequate for the subject matter at hand. Genek, describing the gulag, calls the nearest town “a total shitscape.” This is a low point for Hunter’s writing; elsewhere in the novel, it’s stronger. Still, the characters remain flat and unknowable, while the novel itself is predictable. At this point, more than half a century’s worth of fiction and film has been inspired by the Holocaust—a weighty and imposing tradition. Hunter, it seems, hasn’t been able to break free from her dependence on it.
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-56308-9
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
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