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LETTERS TO CEPHAS: BOOK ONE

Name: LETTERS TO CEPHAS: BOOK ONE
Author: S. T. Villoth
ISBN: 978-1499203462

THE TRAVELS OF THOMAS THE APOSTLE TO THE MALABAR COAST OF SOUTH INDIA

by S. T. Villoth ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 18, 2014

Compelling and well-researched, yet not quite relatable.

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A fictionalized account of the Apostle Thomas’ travels following Jesus’ Crucifixion.

Villoth’s book, the first in a series, begins with the death of Thomas (here called “Thoma”) before flashing back to the Crucifixion of Christ (here called “Yeshua”) and Thoma’s subsequent journeys to preach the Gospel. An editor’s note reveals that the story has been reconstructed from scrolls found in the writer’s “ancestral house”: letters from Thomas to the Apostle Peter, called “Cephas” in the text. The use of Hebrew names for the characters can be confusing for readers trying to link the Hebrew names to their better-known biblical counterparts, but this choice lends authenticity to the story and helps maintain Villoth’s rich mood. The prose is voluptuous and imaginative, with sentences that twist and turn around the sights and smells of the ancient world as Thoma makes his way from Jerusalem to India: e.g., “…the tapestry of busy-ness being woven together by every living strand of muscle and sinew that was Damascus.” Plot-wise, the nature of Thoma’s relationship with his brother Yeshua is hinted at, though it never becomes abundantly clear. At one point, Thoma writes, “Yeshua betrayed us!...He who could mend bones, bestow sight, exorcise demons, he could not do that for us, at Golgotha?”; ultimately, though, readers never get a clear sense of Thoma’s emotional arc. The plot meanders somewhat, sometimes getting lost in the details, though it maintains a line of ancient mysticism that unifies Thoma’s experiences, including his encountering people of various faiths and discovering the ways early Christianity intersects. Clearly well-versed in the religious and political dimensions of the time, Villoth brings new insight into biblical territory, but these details can get in the way of plot and character development, which may turn off readers looking for a good story rather than a fictional take on biblical times.

Compelling and well-researched, yet not quite relatable.

Pub Date: May 18, 2014

ISBN: 978-1499203462

Page Count: 324

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Sept. 5, 2014

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.

Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.

Pub Date: March 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-609-60737-5

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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LAST ORDERS

by Graham Swift ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 5, 1996

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Britisher Swift's sixth novel (Ever After, 1992 etc.) and fourth to appear here is a slow-to-start but then captivating tale of English working-class families in the four decades following WW II. When Jack Dodds dies suddenly of cancer after years of running a butcher shop in London, he leaves a strange request—namely, that his ashes be scattered off Margate pier into the sea. And who could better be suited to fulfill this wish than his three oldest drinking buddies—insurance man Ray, vegetable seller Lenny, and undertaker Vic, all of whom, like Jack himself, fought also as soldiers or sailors in the long-ago world war. Swift's narrative start, with its potential for the melodramatic, is developed instead with an economy, heart, and eye that release (through the characters' own voices, one after another) the story's humanity and depth instead of its schmaltz. The jokes may be weak and self- conscious when the three old friends meet at their local pub in the company of the urn holding Jack's ashes; but once the group gets on the road, in an expensive car driven by Jack's adoptive son, Vince, the story starts gradually to move forward, cohere, and deepen. The reader learns in time why it is that no wife comes along, why three marriages out of three broke apart, and why Vince always hated his stepfather Jack and still does—or so he thinks. There will be stories of innocent youth, suffering wives, early loves, lost daughters, secret affairs, and old antagonisms—including a fistfight over the dead on an English hilltop, and a strewing of Jack's ashes into roiling seawaves that will draw up feelings perhaps unexpectedly strong. Without affectation, Swift listens closely to the lives that are his subject and creates a songbook of voices part lyric, part epic, part working-class social realism—with, in all, the ring to it of the honest, human, and true.