A debut collection of mild-mannered, sermon-like tales covering a year in the life of a Presbyterian minister in a small Minnesota town—by a native of Minneapolis and pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Northport, New York. Alter-ego Reverend David Battles arrived in the tiny town of North Haven fresh from seminary school and on his way to grander pulpits, but he and his family have discovered in their four years of small-town life that instead of outgrowing this backwater they've become attached to its every quirk and comfort—and have themselves become a local institution along the way. Tending to a flock of elderly sticks-in-the-mud (including Alvina Johnson, whose iron hand has directed the children's Christmas pageant for 46 years), middle-aged dreamers (like Lamont Wilcox, who's devoted his life to building a boat, though he lives 140 miles from any body of water), and passionate young folk (including Carmen Krepke, a young motorcycle mama who believes she saw Christ on a Harley), Battles presides over Grand Kick-Off Dinners, youthful weddings, and dubious baptisms with restful equanimity, all the while searching for the moral to every little tale. All of which makes for a pleasant enough (if highly homogenized) view-from-the-pulpit of human nature, even if Lindvall's tightly structured and predictable tales echo all too clearly the sermons from which they originally sprang. Prairie Home Companion without the sharp edges—but a good substitute for going to church on Sunday.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-385-41640-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1991
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
Hoffman (The Red Garden, 2011, etc.) births literature from tragedy: the destruction of Jerusalem's Temple, the siege of Masada and the loss of Zion.
This is a feminist tale, a story of strong, intelligent women wedded to destiny by love and sacrifice. Told in four parts, the first comes from Yael, daughter of Yosef bar Elhanan, a Sicarii Zealot assassin, rejected by her father because of her mother's death in childbirth. It is 70 CE, and the Temple is destroyed. Yael, her father, and another Sicarii assassin, Jachim ben Simon, and his family flee Jerusalem. Hoffman's research renders the ancient world real as the group treks into Judea's desert, where they encounter Essenes, search for sustenance and burn under the sun. There too Jachim and Yael begin a tragic love affair. At Masada, Yael is sent to work in the dovecote, gathering eggs and fertilizer. She meets Shirah, her daughters, and Revka, who narrates part two. Revka's husband was killed when Romans sacked their village. Later, her daughter was murdered. At Masada, caring for grandsons turned mute by tragedy, Revka worries over her scholarly son-in-law, Yoav, now consumed by vengeance. Aziza, daughter of Shirah, carries the story onward. Born out of wedlock, Aziza grew up in Moab, among the people of the blue tunic. Her passion and curse is that she was raised as a warrior by her foster father. In part four, Shirah tells of her Alexandrian youth, the cherished daughter of a consort of the high priests. Shirah is a keshaphim, a woman of amulets, spells and medicine, and a woman connected to Shechinah, the feminine aspect of God. The women are irretrievably bound to Eleazar ben Ya'ir, Masada's charismatic leader; Amram, Yael's brother; and Yoav, Aziza's companion and protector in battle. The plot is intriguingly complex, with only a single element unresolved. An enthralling tale rendered with consummate literary skill.
Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4516-1747-4
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
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