A lengthy, labyrinthine story about one’s family’s battle against evil.
K-N tells the story of a pastor attempting to save his brother from occult forces in this contemporary debut Christian fantasy.
Edward James Lanston, a member of a demonic secret society due to a pact an ancestor made with the king of the locusts, has recently been diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor. He suspects it has something to do with a magical attack that was recently made on his life—an attack sanctioned by Earle Marrow, the head of his society—during which an angelic being intervened to save him. Edward goes to his adopted father, a Christian billionaire, to seek his help, but the society quickly spirits the man away to keep him from interfering. This leads Edward’s adopted brother, the capable pastor and medical doctor Ace Cadman, to take steps to protect the family from the society (“When Ace Cadman showed up, it always brought comfort, solutions to problems, and at times like this, great relief”). Mounting pressures—the investigation into his missing father, his brother’s illness, and the management of his family’s fortune—weigh heavily on Ace even with God’s help. The good doctor manages to keep Edward alive...for now. But how involved can he become in the secret lives of the Lanstons without risking those of his own family? K-N’s story is epic in its scope and ambitions, and she manages to evoke the dramatic religiosity of the Old Testament: angels walking among men, spells of protection, and God as a direct presence in the lives of the characters. But the characters’ dialogue often sounds off: “And what is that?” Edward’s wife says to his doctor after learning he has glioblastoma multiforme. “Don’t throw us a name as though it’s something our chef serves us up for breakfast every morning.” The book’s main problem, however, is the odd, meandering nature of the plot, which snakes on interminably without ever becoming all that engrossing. With angels and demons doing the heavy lifting, the mortal characters lack the necessary agency to elicit emotional investment.
A lengthy, labyrinthine story about one’s family’s battle against evil.Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5127-9947-7
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2019
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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