Requires further argument and explication to convince the reader.
An alternative reading of various New Testament stories about Jesus.
Through a close reading of New Testament Scripture, debut author Nicolo espouses a revolutionary interpretation of various passages regarding Jesus’ interactions with others. The author suggests that several passages mask scenes of conflict through the language of healing and teaching. In Nicolo’s reading, Jesus is an itinerate preacher who runs for his life, gets into intense physical altercations, and survives multiple ambushes and angry mobs. For example, in the story about the miraculous catch of fish, Jesus gets into a boat not to better address the crowd but in order to flee a hostile mob. The catch of fish is in fact made up of people wading out to attack him, caught up in a net. Elsewhere, the tale of a paralytic let down through a roof for healing is reinterpreted as a “Trojan horse” brought by a “commando unit” intent upon harming Jesus. Healings are reinterpreted as physical altercations, such as when Jesus heals a leper in the Gospel of Mark: “Jesus then fought back physically, not only to defend himself but also to subdue the man while telling him, ‘Be made clean.’ ” Nicolo brings forth an intriguing new analysis that may be based in some truth, since Jesus did in fact face many detractors throughout his ministry. Nicolo doesn’t provide a context for why these stories would be retold in such a different way. Unfortunately for the reader, he does not introduce his theory but instead jumps right into textual analysis. Similarly, there is no conclusion to explain his thesis. Given the substance of his argument, he leaves the reader with an impression that this interpretation is little more than a fanciful reading.
Requires further argument and explication to convince the reader.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dog Ear
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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