Earnest but substandard—a directional book that could use more direction.
Lefebvre (The Heart’s Mind, 2018) attempts to guide readers to spiritual maturity through a series of familiar steps.
Lefebvre recalls a time when he was simply a fan of God rather than a follower: “I had salvation through Christ but he wasn’t the Lord of my life.” That all changed after a life-altering event (though he fails to detail what that was), and now he seeks to help others achieve a similar transformation. His advice isn’t specific or organized enough to be deemed a “program,” as he calls it, but it still follows an outline with easy-to-remember topics. Using an image of a compass to direct readers to spiritual wellness, his counsel is to read God’s word, pray, listen for God’s voice, and obey his will. Love occupies the compass’s center because it’s central to Christian living. These principles are certainly not novel in Christian literature, but they are still vital, and Lefebvre effectively emphasizes the idea of them building on one another: “If you read but don’t pray then you will not receive what you need? If you do not listen then how will you be instrumental in God’s plan?” While expounding on the material, the author toggles between his own thoughts and block-quoted Bible verses in a disjointed way, unlike other Christian commentaries that fluidly weave them together. His writing also seems to meander, and it’s not clear what the takeaways are for each section. Lefebvre somewhat makes up for these shortcomings with an excellent second half of the book, which presents a 52-week “spiritual devotional challenge” to encourage reflection and application. These challenges are consistently formatted with a title, inspirational poem/prayer, thought-provoking message, clear invitation to act, relevant scriptural passage, and blank space for a response. Throughout, the author’s enthusiasm and devotion energize the text. With greater editorial finesse—both to fix numerous mechanical errors and optimize its flow—the book has potential.
Earnest but substandard—a directional book that could use more direction.Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-973652-74-8
Page Count: 132
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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