Readers willing to endure choppy statements and a profusion of capital letters will come away with nuanced, occasionally...
Forss’ (The Way We Were, 2014) personal tome concerns aliens, God, and ideas for humanity.
After a lengthy introduction about the author’s intention to take the reader “on a logical journey back to Godhead,” the book begins in 1976 with the author living in New York City. He discovered that June 28 would be “the start of the most pivotal day of my life.” The city was alive for the upcoming bicentennial, and the author tried selling photographs to tourists. The task wasn’t going so well when he encountered a former hippie named Buffy, who had some years earlier related an experience involving aliens and their immense wisdom. Though Buffy claimed her experience was just a trip, the author felt differently; in order to adequately tell Buffy’s story, he had to “ask for it from God somehow, as a pure spiritual quest.” And so he did. Thus, thanks to the author’s efforts, the aliens revealed valuable information for humanity, such as the need to not subscribe to any particular religion as well as the fact that “THERE IS A RICH WORLD BEYOND THE ATOMS OF ALL LIVING CELLS.” But the alien adventure does not end there. Incorporating drawings, poems, black-and-white photographs, and an investigation into the thoughts of different individuals (e.g., a dying man), the recollected experience is expansive to say the least. From there, though, things get even stranger, particularly in thornier sections, as when the aliens explain that “SOME HOMOSEXUALITY IS SIMPLY NOTHING MORE THAN A SCRUMPTIOUSLY HORNY CALLING FOR SEX WITHOUT THE NEED FOR A PROUDLY DISPLAYED LOVER OR FAMILY COMMITMENT IDEAL.” Patient readers may nevertheless find moments of intrigue, like concepts presented by the aliens that are explored later in the author’s own words: “The Aliens say that the future and the past are places! This means that the past is very much alive in some area and so is the future!”
Readers willing to endure choppy statements and a profusion of capital letters will come away with nuanced, occasionally controversial, ideas about life and existence.Pub Date: April 7, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4257-3943-0
Page Count: 730
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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