Despite its impressive philosophical ambition, this novel is as convoluted as it is implausible.
A dramatization of the ethical and religious implications of in vitro fertilization.
The Rev. Cletus Nicholas McCarthy is an ardent opponent of IVF. He considers it a violation of Catholic doctrine, as it sunders the connection between sex and procreation and undermines the dignity of human life. When two married parishioners, Edidiong and Ima Eshiet, decide to conceive a child using IVF, Father McCarthy suspends their access to the sacraments. Outraged, they sue McCarthy for various transgressions, including discrimination because they’re black Nigerians. Eventually, during the trial, it’s disclosed that Father McCarthy, who always believed he was adopted, was actually birthed via IVF, making him the first Catholic priest so conceived. Pope Benedict XVI now must make a decision—not only regarding Father McCarthy’s fate, but also regarding the future doctrine of the church. Meanwhile, Barbara Sander’s daughter, Crystal, also conceived by IVF, desperately wants to know who her biological father is, and she determines that Dr. Josef Horacek was the sperm donor. Horacek was once Barbara’s colleague; she was in love with him, and he used his sperm for her procedure without her knowledge. To further complicate the tangled plot, Crystal is friends with Edo-Mma—the Eshiets’s daughter—and Horacek is Edidiong’s old college friend. And the character connections don’t stop there. Debut author Ayang has produced a high-reaching, philosophically charged novel that covers not only the bioethical issues involving IVF, but also the modern condition of the Catholic Church. However, the plot is laborious and tortuous—both challenging to follow and needlessly drawn out. Furthermore, the prose is often awkward and leaden, particularly during mechanically delivered exchanges of dialogue: “We are simply a puzzled mother and daughter seeking the truth,” Barbara says to Horacek at one point, for example, “and our appetite for food and drink will only be whetted by a true answer to quest.”
Despite its impressive philosophical ambition, this novel is as convoluted as it is implausible.Pub Date: May 23, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4897-1185-4
Page Count: 326
Publisher: LifeRichPublishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2017
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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