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The One Way Out

Name: The One Way Out
Author: H. Earle Watson
ISBN: 978-1-4908-7849-2

by H. Earle Watson ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 20, 2015

Impressive familial saga set against the throes of Jamaican history.

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Watson uses one family to chart the history of Jamaica to the present and beyond.

The history of Jamaica plays out in the background of this generational account of the Johnson family. The novel follows the Johnson clan from slavery to political prominence through the ups and downs of the island’s shifting society. Their saga mirrors the tensions—between the subsistence and ambition, rebellion and assimilation—that characterized the development of Jamaica as a self-articulating society. From the upheaval and fragility of the 19th century to the corporate structures and class aspirations of the 20th to the political machinations of the early 21st (including a glimpse into the future 2030s), the Johnsons attempt to succeed in a system that, while dynamic, continues to bear striking similarities to the original plantation model. There are still haves and have-nots, gatekeepers and collaborators, utopian dreams and brutal realities. As said by narrator and Johnson descendant Brianna Bedward, who’s introduced in the novel’s framing device: “To the extent that the fortunes of the Johnson family ran parallel to those of the island of Jamaica, this is also a story about Jamaica, and inasmuch as Jamaica is a part of the world, it is a story about the world.” Watson admirably weaves the Johnsons’ personal narratives into the larger happenings of Jamaican life, and the cameos by historical figures and institutions make the novel seem an authentic part of the island’s biography. The chapters sometimes drag as less-important decades are accounted for and various offspring emerge and are dispatched, but the overall arc of the family is satisfying in the way a single protagonist’s might be. The future-set sections are perhaps overly optimistic (though fun), and didacticism is always apparent: e.g., “The culture of the slave society promoted promiscuity” since slave owners and masters “hoped that in this way the women might have more children and every child born in slavery became the asset of his mother’s owner.” Yet the story is engrossing enough that its flaws are largely forgivable.

Impressive familial saga set against the throes of Jamaican history.

Pub Date: July 20, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-4908-7849-2

Page Count: 260

Publisher: Westbow Press

Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2015

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

RELIGIOUS FICTION

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THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS

by C.S. Lewis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1942

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These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942

ISBN: 0060652934

Page Count: 53

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943

Categories:

RELIGIOUS FICTION

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by C.S. Lewis

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by C.S. Lewis

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THE CHOSEN

by Chaim Potok ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 28, 1967

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This first novel, ostensibly about the friendship between two boys, Reuven and Danny, from the time when they are fourteen on opposing yeshiva ball clubs, is actually a gently didactic differentiation between two aspects of the Jewish faith, the Hasidic and the Orthodox. Primarily the Hasidic, the little known mystics with their beards, earlocks and stringently reclusive way of life. According to Reuven's father who is a Zionist, an activist, they are fanatics; according to Danny's, other Jews are apostates and Zionists "goyim." The schisms here are reflected through discussions, between fathers and sons, and through the separation imposed on the two boys for two years which still does not affect their lasting friendship or enduring hopes: Danny goes on to become a psychiatrist refusing his inherited position of "tzaddik"; Reuven a rabbi.... The explanation, in fact exegesis, of Jewish culture and learning, of the special dedication of the Hasidic with its emphasis on mind and soul, is done in sufficiently facile form to engage one's interest and sentiment. The publishers however see a much wider audience for The Chosen. If they "rub their tzitzis for good luck,"—perhaps—although we doubt it.