A robust, captivating account of the life of Jesus in Roman-occupied Palestine.
Lamensdorf (The Mexican Gardener, 2013, etc.) imagines the life of Jesus in this revisionist historical novel.
There have been so many takes on the life of Jesus that even those books that seek to be controversial are hard-pressed to come up with new angles. The Jesus of Lamensdorf’s novel is not the figure from Christian Sunday schools. His ministry was inspired in part by the murder of his wife and children—and yet he falls well within the recognizable parameters of a historical Jesus figure. Lamensdorf places Jesus (or Joshua, as he is called by his fellow Jews) at the center of a political struggle in which the Roman occupation of the Jews’ homeland has created a situation of antagonism, violence, and rebellion. Young Joshua is of humble origins, and through his character, the author attempts to demonstrate how a love of God and people can brush up against the deadly threshing machine of an empire. From the stony hills of Galilee to the teeming streets of Jerusalem, the novel explores just what it means to be a Messiah, a miracle worker, and to save humanity from its own sins. “He knew they loved him, these people of Israel,” the author writes of Joshua, “and he loved them, too, every one of them. And he would save them, of that he was certain.” Lamensdorf is a talented writer, and the ambitiously detailed Galilee of the novel is highly immersive. The book’s heavily researched milieu possesses the heft of authority that fans of historical fiction crave. An unnecessary framing narrative set in modern times delays the real story, but once the reader gets to Nazareth in 5 B.C.E., the plot begins to gallop. The author is more interested in providing the political context for Jesus’ movement—where Romans are the clear villains—than he is in changing religious opinions. There are many books about Jesus, but this one is more compelling than most.
A robust, captivating account of the life of Jesus in Roman-occupied Palestine.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9852381-0-0
Page Count: 718
Publisher: SeaScape Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 23, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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