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JUDAS IN JERUSALEM

Name: JUDAS IN JERUSALEM
Author: Joseph Lewis Heil
ISBN: 978-0-692-18589-6

by Joseph Lewis Heil ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2018

A creative historical dramatization that falls short of a nuanced portrait of its principal character.

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A writer offers a literary reimagining of Judas’ betrayal of Jesus in this novel.

Judas Iscariot couldn’t have come from more inauspicious beginnings. He endured abject poverty; his father was a violent drunk and his mother an opportunistic harlot. Judas flees Kerioth penniless with dreams of making it to Jerusalem and finding respectable work and even a wife. In the barren heat of the desert, he meets John the Baptist, who recommends that Judas locate Jesus, now an itinerant preacher with a following of disciples. Judas heeds his counsel, but not before purloining one of John’s water bags, justifying his theft by dint of need. Judas encounters Jesus and is delighted to be quickly made the “keeper of the purse,” replacing Matthew, the former tax collector. In addition, Jesus promises to teach Judas to read and write, a profoundly important aspiration for someone so taken with his own “imagined cleverness and ambition.” But Judas is never all that impressed with Jesus’ ministry and becomes frustrated with the deprivations to which he is daily subjected: “I’m sick of begging for Jesus and his lazy friends. Talk about leading astray. From now on, the money I earn, I keep for myself. He and his friends can beg for the rest of their lives without me.” Judas is eventually recruited by a powerful member of the Sanhedrin, Simon, who persuades him with a combination of financial reward and blackmail to turn on Jesus. Heil (The War Less Civil, 2012) inventively fills in the historical and scriptural blanks—not much is known about Judas, a rich fictional opportunity for a writer. In addition, the author intelligently conjures the dynamic of Jesus’ band of apostles and followers, not all of whom are as trusting of Judas as Jesus is. Martha, Lazarus’ sister, loathes him with surprisingly unrestrained rancor. But Heil’s depiction of Judas lacks psychological nuance—the man’s coarse self-interest and sensitivity to mortification are so acute, it’s hard to accept his remorse after betraying Jesus, let alone his experience of “spiritual despair and isolation.”

A creative historical dramatization that falls short of a nuanced portrait of its principal character.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-692-18589-6

Page Count: 184

Publisher: Lake Lore Press, LLC

Review Posted Online: April 29, 2019

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

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Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.

Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

Pub Date: March 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-345-46752-3

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.

"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.