An elegant, tenderly written story of love and loss.
In Hughes’ (Mindful of Him, 2014) latest novel, a young preacher discovers on his wedding night that he’s married a woman with a serious mental illness—one that will devastate both their lives.
Newlyweds Mack Baldwin and Rebecca Allen, both 22, are spending their first night as man and wife when she explains that she strongly believes that sex is sinful. Later, after Rebecca’s behavior grows increasingly erratic, she’s diagnosed with schizophrenia and institutionalized; at one point, she believes that “someone had wired her womb to a hot line in the Kremlin.” Hughes is a terrific storyteller and an even better crafter of characters. In Mack, he’s performed the near miracle of portraying a preacher who’s not preachy; he comes off as more of a saint than a sinner, yet he’s fully human and experiences a realistic gamut of emotions in trying circumstances. Loyal to his wife and his Lord, he wrestles with issues of duty, grief and faith. When he has a moral lapse after years of absolute devotion to Rebecca, who contracts Alzheimer’s later in life, it’s impossible to judge him harshly, even though he berates himself. Hughes’ plot entails more than just the sad, unconsummated relationship between Rebecca and Mack, however; Mack’s life is also revealed through his relationships with friends, parishioners, his in-laws and nature. The older, wiser characters who counsel Mack are a joy to read about. They encourage him to pursue hobbies such as fishing and hiking, and Hughes’ descriptions of the outdoors are often lovely, as in this Gulf Coast scene: “Nowhere was the passing of day into the night more beautiful nor more sweetly sad than when it sank into the ocean—so different than on land.” Hughes sometimes switches points of view from third person to first, and occasionally writes dialogue in a way that makes it unclear who’s speaking; tighter editing would have corrected these distractions and kept readers focused on the novel’s big question: Will Mack get another chance at a happy life?
An elegant, tenderly written story of love and loss.Pub Date: May 23, 2014
ISBN: 9781496172488
Page Count: 418
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 8, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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.
Pub Date: April 28, 1967
ISBN: 0449911543
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1967
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