by John Wallace ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 5, 2011
An uplifting story of love set within a framework of Christian sensibilities, but will prove too light for those who desire...
In this Christian love story, good and bad angels vie for the souls of four lonely adults and one lonely child as unexpected circumstances bring them together to form new bonds of friendship and family.
Wallace sets his tale of love-starved adults in idyllic Hillsdale, Va., the kind of quaint, historically preserved town that seems perfect on the outside while loneliness, heartache and confusion lurk within. The same can be said for the four main characters; on the outside, middle-aged bachelors and longtime friends Martin and Jed are accomplished, well-rounded individuals who just happen to have never met suitable women with whom to spend their lives. Likewise with Mary Jane and Helen, two career women from Arlington who seem to have it all—good jobs, comfortable homes, family and friends. But when Mary Jane and Helen come to Hillsdale for a weekend visit, they find themselves falling for the town’s most eligible bachelors and soon discover, as do Martin and Jed, that without love their lives remain ineffably incomplete. But no one in this book struggles alone. Each character is attended to by a collection of good and bad angels with ulterior motives. The Devil’s angels play on the dark side of human nature, encouraging feelings of despair and fear, while God’s messengers assist with reminders not to capitulate to the negative thoughts that roam the byways of their minds. Since this is a Christian novel, it’s virtually a foregone conclusion that love will win the day. As such, Wallace’s tale is a charming, innocuous story, but doesn’t challenge one to think seriously about God’s role in individual lives; a world where God’s timing coincides perfectly with human needs and desires doesn’t create much need for further investigation.
An uplifting story of love set within a framework of Christian sensibilities, but will prove too light for those who desire more substantial intellectual fare.Pub Date: May 5, 2011
ISBN: 978-1460992418
Page Count: 200
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 6, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by C.S. Lewis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1942
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
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by Heather Morris ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 4, 2018
The writing is merely serviceable, and one can’t help but wish the author had found a way to present her material as...
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An unlikely love story set amid the horrors of a Nazi death camp.
Based on real people and events, this debut novel follows Lale Sokolov, a young Slovakian Jew sent to Auschwitz in 1942. There, he assumes the heinous task of tattooing incoming Jewish prisoners with the dehumanizing numbers their SS captors use to identify them. When the Tätowierer, as he is called, meets fellow prisoner Gita Furman, 17, he is immediately smitten. Eventually, the attraction becomes mutual. Lale proves himself an operator, at once cagey and courageous: As the Tätowierer, he is granted special privileges and manages to smuggle food to starving prisoners. Through female prisoners who catalog the belongings confiscated from fellow inmates, Lale gains access to jewels, which he trades to a pair of local villagers for chocolate, medicine, and other items. Meanwhile, despite overwhelming odds, Lale and Gita are able to meet privately from time to time and become lovers. In 1944, just ahead of the arrival of Russian troops, Lale and Gita separately leave the concentration camp and experience harrowingly close calls. Suffice it to say they both survive. To her credit, the author doesn’t flinch from describing the depravity of the SS in Auschwitz and the unimaginable suffering of their victims—no gauzy evasions here, as in Boy in the Striped Pajamas. She also manages to raise, if not really explore, some trickier issues—the guilt of those Jews, like the tattooist, who survived by doing the Nazis’ bidding, in a sense betraying their fellow Jews; and the complicity of those non-Jews, like the Slovaks in Lale’s hometown, who failed to come to the aid of their beleaguered countrymen.
The writing is merely serviceable, and one can’t help but wish the author had found a way to present her material as nonfiction. Still, this is a powerful, gut-wrenching tale that is hard to shake off.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-279715-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
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