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THE DAUGHTER OF JAIRUS by Paul Fox

THE DAUGHTER OF JAIRUS

By

Pub Date: Feb. 7th, 1950
Publisher: Little, Brown

The style and artistry evident in this book is a relief from the sentimentality and fuzzy historical sense which mark the majority of religious historical novels, although again this book cannot surmount the almost impossible difficulty of representing the personality of Christ. This is the story of the daughter of the wealthy Jairus who was awakened from what was apparently a death coma by Christ. Naomi, willful and possessed by a desire for freedom she could not yet channel, leaves the home of her wealthy, proud father, Jairus, is stung by a deadly scorpion and crawls home near to death. It is then that Jairus, crazed with fear, seeks the healer, Jesus, after other efforts to revive the girl had failed. After this incident, Jesus is forgotten by all but Naomi, who yearns to see and speak with this man again, which she does twice. It is not until his death, however, that she absorbs the lesson of love, and torn with grief, sets out for Jerusalem. Against the story of Naomi is set the sour despair of Judas, whose self-torture in the form of easy sophistry was his own destruction. The story is blessedly free of self-conscious period detail; the speech is clean-cut and neutral in the historical setting; although as in most books of this type, the author has one eye on the pulpit. Better than average.