A high-stakes yet thoroughly pleasant story of recovery from tragedy firmly grounded in faith.
In John’s debut novel, a religious man’s redemption comes at a high price.
The 50-year-old Rev. James Matthews is the fourth in a line of African-American preachers manning the lectern in a Jamestown, New York, church. This house of worship, built around a very special hand-carved cross, was founded by his great-grandfather shortly after the Civil War and has been a place of spiritual guidance and refuge for the community ever since. However, the latest Matthews man of the cloth is enduring a serious crisis of faith following the tragic death of his wife, Thelma, in a car accident, and his son, John, from cancer. As this brisk novel opens, James’ son has just died. Adding to the melodrama is Luke Jones, the man who was behind the wheel of the car that killed Thelma. Having served only five of the 10 years of his sentence before being paroled for good behavior, he’s back in Jamestown, plying his trade of petty theft and general bad behavior. Although James struggles to regain his faith, it’s Luke who’s most in need of redemption. Following an accident at the church, the good reverend finds that he may have developed an unusual and powerful ability to help Luke and others. Although John’s novel is entertaining, it often feels like a fait accompli. The reverend’s redemption, for example, is never truly in question; instead, readers are pulled along by the tension between him and Luke. Their fates seem linked, with neither able to easily dismiss the other. Still, the religious certitude of almost all the supporting characters feels too easy. A budding romance between the reverend and his co-worker, Maya Richards, adds additional complexity; for many years, Maya kept her amorous feelings for James to herself out of respect for the late Thelma, but when he has a brush with death, she’s emboldened to act on her feelings. Their developing relationship grounds the novel’s more paranormal elements and provides a nice counterpoint to the violence that Luke represents. In the end, it’s Maya’s love as much as anything else that helps James find redemption.
A high-stakes yet thoroughly pleasant story of recovery from tragedy firmly grounded in faith.Pub Date: May 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0996392402
Page Count: 286
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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