Thrilling for fans of the series.
The Rev. Curtis Black extended-family saga returns with Black’s son Dillon at the helm of a new megachurch in Mitchell, Illinois.
Dillon may have a congregation of more than 1,000 souls at New Faith Christian Center, but he lacks something every minister ought to have: a true calling from God. Knowing quite well that he’s a pastor called to the pulpit only by his own greed and his desire to avenge his father’s refusal to acknowledge him as a child, Dillon nonetheless prays daily, although his hopes for a true calling are buried underneath several other pleas for fame and fortune. When Raven, Dillon’s beautiful wife—whom Rev. Curtis has spurned for embezzling funds from his own church—decides she has also been called to the pulpit, the wheels of jealousy and vengeance begin to turn. Dillon doesn’t want to share his pulpit with anyone and certainly not with his wife. Nor does he want to give up the attentions of either his wife or his mistress, Porsha. Meanwhile, Dillon’s sister Alicia is finally happily married to Levi, the man whose love not only drove her to infidelity, but also drove her and her previous husband, Phillip, to a fatal altercation over a gun. Phillip’s death haunts Alicia, and she’s begun to hear disturbing voices urging her toward suicide. Will Alicia’s troubles and Dillon’s plans for retribution finally bring down the Black family? With so many novels and novellas in the franchise, Roby (Best Friends Forever, 2016, etc.) must deal with a lot of back stories, which slows down the pace; in several scenes, Alicia and Dillon spend more time ruminating about their pasts than acting in the present. Fortunately, all the breathless exposition often works well to establish Dillon as a heartless villain/protagonist.
Thrilling for fans of the series.Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4555-5959-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.
Hunter’s debut novel tracks the experiences of her family members during the Holocaust.
Sol and Nechuma Kurc, wealthy, cultured Jews in Radom, Poland, are successful shop owners; they and their grown children live a comfortable lifestyle. But that lifestyle is no protection against the onslaught of the Holocaust, which eventually scatters the members of the Kurc family among several continents. Genek, the oldest son, is exiled with his wife to a Siberian gulag. Halina, youngest of all the children, works to protect her family alongside her resistance-fighter husband. Addy, middle child, a composer and engineer before the war breaks out, leaves Europe on one of the last passenger ships, ending up thousands of miles away. Then, too, there are Mila and Felicia, Jakob and Bella, each with their own share of struggles—pain endured, horrors witnessed. Hunter conducted extensive research after learning that her grandfather (Addy in the book) survived the Holocaust. The research shows: her novel is thorough and precise in its details. It’s less precise in its language, however, which frequently relies on cliché. “You’ll get only one shot at this,” Halina thinks, enacting a plan to save her husband. “Don’t botch it.” Later, Genek, confronting a routine bit of paperwork, must decide whether or not to hide his Jewishness. “That form is a deal breaker,” he tells himself. “It’s life and death.” And: “They are low, it seems, on good fortune. And something tells him they’ll need it.” Worse than these stale phrases, though, are the moments when Hunter’s writing is entirely inadequate for the subject matter at hand. Genek, describing the gulag, calls the nearest town “a total shitscape.” This is a low point for Hunter’s writing; elsewhere in the novel, it’s stronger. Still, the characters remain flat and unknowable, while the novel itself is predictable. At this point, more than half a century’s worth of fiction and film has been inspired by the Holocaust—a weighty and imposing tradition. Hunter, it seems, hasn’t been able to break free from her dependence on it.
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-56308-9
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
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