An often affecting tale of a youngster’s Christian discipleship.
In this historical Christian novel, a young girl without parents witnesses the crucifixion of Jesus and embarks on a spiritual journey that’s fraught with challenges.
Esther, a 12-year-old girl living in Jerusalem, loses her mother at a terribly young age and belongs to an economic class that others around her disgustedly call the “dirty poor.” She notices her father becoming increasingly distant and fearful, and one day, he suddenly sends her and her younger brother, Jacob, to the home of a friend in a nearby village without explanation. They’ve barely arrived before they decide to return and look for their father. The girl inadvertently stumbles upon the crucifixion of Jesus—a spectacle that makes a transformative impression upon her: “The sight of such cruelty made me want to run away, but something inside me would not allow me to leave His side. Mesmerized, I stood looking up at Him, thinking that truly this was not a common criminal for He was no ordinary man.” Esther also recognizes the brutalized face of the man who’s being crucified next to Jesus: her own father. Hungry and alone, Esther and Jacob are taken in by Mary Magdalene, who raises them as her own children while teaching them the meaning of Jesus’ ministry and his resurrection. Esther becomes a committed Christian filled with a “fervent love of Jesus.” Debut author Thomas thoughtfully chronicles Esther’s continuing spiritual journey; after she later witnesses a murder, she’s compelled to run away in order to protect Mary and Jacob, and she finds her attachment to Jesus’ teachings to be profoundly tested. Over the course of this book, the author’s command of the historical period is notable, and her knowledge of Christian doctrine and history is even more impressive. Her prose is, by turns, moving and elegant, although the plot sometimes meanders in a desultory fashion. The novel also occasionally adopts a didactic, proselytizing tone, so it will likely be enjoyed most by someone with an abiding interest in Christianity or an outright devotion to the faith.
An often affecting tale of a youngster’s Christian discipleship.Pub Date: June 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-63575-376-9
Page Count: 267
Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PROFILES
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
A charming and incisive debut.
Four young nuns wind up running a halfway house full of quirky characters in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.
Four Catholic sisters live with the elderly Sister Roberta in upstate New York. All on the edge of turning 30, the young women are at loose ends: Their day care is shuttered, and Sister Roberta is retiring. However, the four women refuse to be parted: “We were fixed to one another, like parts of some strange, asymmetrical body: Frances was the mouth; Mary Lucille, the heart; Therese, the legs. And I, Agatha, the eyes.” Eventually, the Buffalo diocese decides to transfer them to Rhode Island, where they are put in charge of running Little Neon, a “Mountain Dew”–colored house for residents trying to get sober and get back on their feet. When the local Catholic high school needs someone to teach geometry, the sisters volunteer Agatha, who is labelled as the quietest but the smartest of the quartet. As Agatha immerses herself in her new life, she finds the residents of Little Neon, from parolee Baby to Tim Gary, whose disfigured jaw prevents him from finding love, open her eyes to new realities, as do her colleagues and students at the high school. Eventually, Agatha can no longer ignore that the church, and most of all she herself, is changing. Luchette’s novel, her first, is structured in small chapters that feel like vignettes from a slightly wacky indie film. The book is frequently vibrant with resonant images: Agatha learning to roller skate in Little Neon’s driveway or a resident drunk in a sequined dress riding a lawnmower through the snow. But even though the book feels light, Luchette does not turn away from the responsibility of examining the darkness undergirding the institution of the Catholic Church.
A charming and incisive debut.Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-374-26526-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
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