A peculiarly colorless portrait of Jesus that lacks the insights of a nonfiction inquiry into the biblical figure or the...
A fictional tale details the life of Jesus, from boyhood to crucifixion and beyond.
In this historical novel, Malmed (Carmen’s Journey, 2015) gives his version of the Jesus story, starting with the figure as an inquisitive lad who questions his father about religious practices such as animal sacrifice. Later, “out of the blue,” Jesus announces he will go “into the wilderness to think.” Following religious studies in Egypt, Jesus spends time with Judas. They visit Essenes who want to reform corrupt religious practices, such as Sadducee priests raking in exorbitant sums for their services in Jerusalem. Judas and other sicarii murder and maim some Roman soldiers. Jesus meets Zealots—“an underground guerrilla force” of Jews resisting the Roman occupation—and returns to Nazareth to preach but is met with derision and notes that “a prophet is without honor in his own land.” He ponders taking up carpentry or teaching because his “chosen career path had a large roadblock in it.” As the Pax Romana wears thin, Jesus enters Jerusalem and disrupts the moneylenders at the Temple. The Romans seize Jesus and question Judas about whether Jesus is a Zealot, ultimately executing Judas but trying to make it look like a suicide. After Jewish leaders refuse to implicate Jesus as a revolutionary, he appears before Pontius Pilate, who orders him crucified. Following Jesus’ death, his body mysteriously disappears. Ten years later, a local teacher named Isaac interviews the elderly scholar Nicodemus about Jesus’ mission and whereabouts. The author raises some superb questions about Jesus’ life and purpose. But Malmed delivers too much creaky exposition, compounding the problem by repeating pedagogical asides, such as an exploration of who the Zealots were, the intricacies of Jewish coins, and the explanation that Herod’s family converted to Judaism, rather than seamlessly weaving facts into the book’s action and dialogue. The latter is often stilted, trite, and anachronistic. Jesus says things like “Whoa! I don’t like that one bit” and “Tomorrow is another day.” Malmed is at his strongest when he attempts to explain Jesus’ aims, but even here his conclusions, voiced via a Q-and-A between Isaac and Nicodemus, are vague.
A peculiarly colorless portrait of Jesus that lacks the insights of a nonfiction inquiry into the biblical figure or the poetry and power of the New Testament.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5049-5289-7
Page Count: 170
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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