A strangely effective blend: an optimistic book about suicide.
A fast-paced fantasy novel about suicide and what comes after.
Steven, the narrator of Stevenson and Azad’s engaging fiction debut, just killed himself. It’s an unusual storytelling twist, one that, had this book been written at almost any other point in Christianity’s 2,000-year history, would have been followed by Steven finding himself in hell (in the Seventh Circle, according to Dante), destined to spend eternity being punished for the sin of self-murder. But in this novel’s much warmer, more humanistic world, Steven—a foulmouthed, excitable 34-year-old with a heart of gold—awakens in heaven, assured by both God and Jesus (who’s nicknamed “Junior”) that there is no actual place of eternal damnation. “[H]ell can be anywhere,” he’s told, with the shrewd elaboration: “Right before you pulled that trigger, I’m sure that you would describe how you were feeling as something close to what has been described by others as hell.” And this isn’t the only variation on standard Christian theology in this remarkable book; in a nod to Eastern mythologies, souls here—including Steven’s—return to the world again, to live new and hopefully better lives. Over the course of the novel, Steven has many lively conversations with God and Jesus on a wide range of philosophical subjects, and he’s given plenty of straightforward advice that will resonate with the book’s Christian readers, especially those whose lives have been touched by suicide. Steven is assured that “wonderful things will happen to you every day if you stick around and keep exploring your own mysteries,” and his life “will be better spent down there if it is an activity that results in a story, and not the other way around.” Whether Steven will succeed in his new life —i.e., put away childish behavior, live in faith, maybe even this time win the love of a pretty girl—isn’t clear. It rarely is.
A strangely effective blend: an optimistic book about suicide.Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2015
ISBN: 978-1491756164
Page Count: 284
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: April 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Constructed with delicacy, lyricism, and care, Hertmans’ novel still feels occasionally static.
A Christian woman and a Jewish man fall in love in medieval France.
In 1088, a Christian girl of Norman descent falls in love with the son of a rabbi. They run away together, to disastrous effect: Her father sends knights after them, and though they flee to a small southern village where they spend a few happy years, their budding family is soon decimated by a violent wave of First Crusaders on their way to Jerusalem. The girl, whose name becomes Hamoutal when she converts to Judaism, winds up roaming the world. Hertmans’ (War and Turpentine, 2016, etc.) latest novel is based on a true story: The Cairo Genizah, a trove of medieval manuscripts preserved in an Egyptian synagogue, contained an account of Hamoutal’s plight. Hamoutal makes up about half of Hertmans’ novel; the other half is consumed by Hertmans’ own interest in her story. Whenever he can, he follows her journey: from Rouen, where she grew up, to Monieux, where she and David Todros—her Jewish husband—made a brief life for themselves, and all the way to Cairo, and back. “Knowing her life story and its tragic end,” Hertmans writes, “I wish I could warn her of what lies ahead.” The book has a quiet intimacy to it, and in his descriptions of landscape and travel, Hertmans’ prose is frequently lovely. In Narbonne, where David’s family lived, Hertmans describes “the cool of the paving stones in the late morning, the sound of doves’ wings flapping in the immaculate air.” But despite the drama of Hamoutal’s story, there is a static quality to the book, particularly in the sections where Hertmans describes his own travels. It’s an odd contradiction: Hertmans himself moves quickly through the world, but his book doesn’t quite move quickly enough.
Constructed with delicacy, lyricism, and care, Hertmans’ novel still feels occasionally static.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5247-4708-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
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