NOAH'S WIFE

Name: NOAH'S WIFE
Author: Lindsay Starck
ISBN: 978-0-399-15923-7

by Lindsay Starck ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 26, 2016

Forget the ark, forget the patriarch. It’s the women who tend to triumph in this modern take on an Old Testament parable.

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There’s an endless amount of rain, animals from a once-renowned and now ruined zoo, various boats, and a man of God named Noah. But this isn’t your average biblical flood scenario.

First of all, the setting for Starck’s debut is the United States, primarily a spot that was once a charming tourist destination in the hills but which, after the nonstop downpour, has become a moldering ghost town. Second, the era is modern, complete with TVs, trucks, and a visiting state weatherman who warns the townsfolk that no end to the rain is in sight and that they are doomed unless they evacuate within the next week. Charismatic, joyful, energetic minister Noah has arrived, along with his wife, after the previous minister’s death—was it suicide?—with a simple mission: to do some good. But can his faith triumph where another has succumbed? Starck’s unusual, often charmingly phrased fable is constructed around the responses of a band of individuals to life’s unpredictable challenges. The townsfolk who stay on—loyal zookeeper Adam, sincere Italian storekeeper Mauro, indomitable diner-owner Mrs. McGinn—show their mettle as the fabric of their lives and homes crumbles away, even billeting the zoo animals after their quarters are inundated. There’s comedy in the penguins lodging in Mrs. McGinn’s walk-in freezer and tragedy as Noah falters in the face of the onslaught. But Starck’s story has largely upbeat messages to deliver: the animals point out a path to safety; the community comes together; true hearts are conjoined; and Mrs. Noah rallies the rescue forces. Variously romantic, symbolic, philosophical, feminist, and fanciful, this is an atmospheric tale that meanders to a sweetly rousing conclusion.

Forget the ark, forget the patriarch. It’s the women who tend to triumph in this modern take on an Old Testament parable.

Pub Date: Jan. 26, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-399-15923-7

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2015

Categories:

LITERARY FICTION | RELIGIOUS FICTION | HISTORICAL FICTION

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THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS

by C.S. Lewis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1942

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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

Categories:

RELIGIOUS FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
ALL MY ROAD BEFORE ME
by C.S. Lewis

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PRESENT CONCERNS
by C.S. Lewis

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BOXEN
by C.S. Lewis

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ANIMAL FARM

A FAIRY STORY

by George Orwell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 26, 1946

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A modern day fable, with modern implications in a deceiving simplicity, by the author of Dickens. Dali and Others (Reynal & Hitchcock, p. 138), whose critical brilliance is well adapted to this type of satire. This tells of the revolt on a farm, against humans, when the pigs take over the intellectual superiority, training the horses, cows, sheep, etc., into acknowledging their greatness. The first hints come with the reading out of a pig who instigated the building of a windmill, so that the electric power would be theirs, the idea taken over by Napoleon who becomes topman with no maybes about it. Napoleon trains the young puppies to be his guards, dickers with humans, gradually instigates a reign of terror, and breaks the final commandment against any animal walking on two legs. The old faithful followers find themselves no better off for food and work than they were when man ruled them, learn their final disgrace when they see Napoleon and Squealer carousing with their enemies... A basic statement of the evils of dictatorship in that it not only corrupts the leaders, but deadens the intelligence and awareness of those led so that tyranny is inevitable. Mr. Orwell's animals exist in their own right, with a narrative as individual as it is apt in political parody.