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
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
Deep schmaltz in the Bible Belt.
Christian-fiction writer Martin (The Dead Don’t Dance, not reviewed) chronicles the personal tragedy of a Georgia heart surgeon.
Five years ago in Atlanta, Reese could not save his beloved wife Emma from heart failure, even though the Harvard-trained surgeon became a physician so that he could find a way to fix his childhood sweetheart’s congenitally faulty ticker. He renounced practicing medicine after her death and now lives in quiet anonymity as a boat mechanic on Lake Burton. Across the lake is Emma’s brother Charlie, who was rendered blind on the same desperate night that Reese fought to revive his wife on their kitchen floor. When Reese helps save the life of a seven-year-old local girl named Annie, who turns out to have irreparable heart damage, he is compassionately drawn into her case. He also grows close to Annie’s attractive Aunt Cindy and gradually comes to recognize that the family needs his expertise as a transplant surgeon. Martin displays some impressive knowledge about medical practice and the workings of the heart, but his Christian message is not exactly subtle. “If anything in this universe reflects the fingerprint of God, it is the human heart,” Reese notes of his medical studies. Emma’s letters (kept in a bank vault) quote Bible verse; Charlie elucidates stories of Jesus’ miracles for young Annie; even the napkins at the local bar, The Well, carry passages from the Gospel of John for the benefit of the biker clientele. Moreover, Martin relentlessly hammers home his sentimentality with nature-specific metaphors involving mating cardinals and crying crickets. (Annie sells crickets as well as lemonade to raise money for her heart surgery.) Reese’s habitual muttering of worldly slogans from Milton and Shakespeare (“I am ashes where once I was fire”) doesn’t much cut the cloying piety, and an over-the-top surgical save leaves the reader feeling positively bruised.
Deep schmaltz in the Bible Belt.Pub Date: April 4, 2006
ISBN: 1-5955-4054-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: WestBow/Thomas Nelson
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2006
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