An intriguing premise hindered by inaccessible writing.
Shaba’s mythical tale centers on the birth of a fated child to John and Lin, a young couple in the African nation of Kentu, and the subsequent attempts by a demonic religious sect to steal the child for its own purposes.
The supernatural plot blends an old-fashioned romance between the couple with familiar contemporary references, like BMW cars and the Richter scale. The opening pages reveal the novel’s overall drive: John and Lin, as well as other wealthy Christian families somehow connected to a benevolent “New World Order,” will battle demon worshippers intent on kidnapping newborn babies. However, readers are first shown the courtship involved in John and Lin’s “mythic love” and their elaborate “royal”-style wedding. Working against them is Mantula, one of the members of the devilish religious sect—they believe the baby to be the reincarnation of their founder—who aims to steal the baby so that she may become the sect’s first female leader. They send evil spirits to attack Kentu and the baby’s delivery location. Unfortunately, the tension within this plot structure is undermined by the author’s unclear, oddly formal writing style. Secondly, the frequent use of an omniscient narrator means readers are told John’s and Lin’s feelings rather than experiencing them in first person, resulting in a greater separation between characters and readers. For example, pregnant Lin is first described as “sturdy, keen, and hopeful to the very day she will put to bed as all expectant mothers always yearn for-for every expectant mother, the delivery day is special to them and for Lin, it wasn’t different. About nine months of a fetus inside the womb wasn’t a joke.” Even when John and Lin talk to each other during their dates, the same formal style is used: “It is my greatest pleasure to be with a lady of your type.”
An intriguing premise hindered by inaccessible writing.Pub Date: Dec. 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-1419644320
Page Count: 566
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
This first novel, ostensibly about the friendship between two boys, Reuven and Danny, from the time when they are fourteen on opposing yeshiva ball clubs, is actually a gently didactic differentiation between two aspects of the Jewish faith, the Hasidic and the Orthodox. Primarily the Hasidic, the little known mystics with their beards, earlocks and stringently reclusive way of life. According to Reuven's father who is a Zionist, an activist, they are fanatics; according to Danny's, other Jews are apostates and Zionists "goyim." The schisms here are reflected through discussions, between fathers and sons, and through the separation imposed on the two boys for two years which still does not affect their lasting friendship or enduring hopes: Danny goes on to become a psychiatrist refusing his inherited position of "tzaddik"; Reuven a rabbi.... The explanation, in fact exegesis, of Jewish culture and learning, of the special dedication of the Hasidic with its emphasis on mind and soul, is done in sufficiently facile form to engage one's interest and sentiment. The publishers however see a much wider audience for The Chosen. If they "rub their tzitzis for good luck,"—perhaps—although we doubt it.
Pub Date: April 28, 1967
ISBN: 0449911543
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1967
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