LaHaye and Jenkins are literally preaching to the choir here.
This latest addition to the Jesus Chronicles is a fictionalized retelling of the Gospel story of Luke the Physician, tracing his development from Stoic to believer to chronicler of the life of Jesus.
LaHaye and Jenkins (Mark’s Story: The Gospel According to Peter, 2007, etc.) have staked out some familiar and comfortable territory for themselves and their readers, who’ll find no surprises here. The authors pick up the story of Luke, or Loukon, when he’s a slave of Theophilus, an enlightened Stoic. Theophilus sees some promise in Luke and has him educated as a physician, feeling that Luke will eventually make a welcome addition to his household. Luke feels the resentment of other slaves, however, especially of the appropriately named Diabolos, who is clearly destined not to rise. At Tarsus Luke meets the charismatic Saul, the most brilliant and irascible student at the university. At the completion of Luke’s study, and with the approval of Theophilus, Luke works at a free clinic and also as a ship’s physician, and his path once again intersects with that of Saul, now Paul, whose conversion experience has a great influence on Luke. From this point the novel becomes a series of dialogues—or even Q & As—in which Luke queries Paul about his newfound faith. Paul’s responses are not just preparation for his later writing, they herald his biblical statements. In conversation with Luke, for example, Paul says, “Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.” We obviously know where the story is headed. Shortly before Mary’s death Luke interviews the aged woman to get background for his retelling of the history of Jesus, and by the end of the book he’s finished his account of the apostles’ ministry.
LaHaye and Jenkins are literally preaching to the choir here.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-399-15523-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2008
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
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.
Hunter’s debut novel tracks the experiences of her family members during the Holocaust.
Sol and Nechuma Kurc, wealthy, cultured Jews in Radom, Poland, are successful shop owners; they and their grown children live a comfortable lifestyle. But that lifestyle is no protection against the onslaught of the Holocaust, which eventually scatters the members of the Kurc family among several continents. Genek, the oldest son, is exiled with his wife to a Siberian gulag. Halina, youngest of all the children, works to protect her family alongside her resistance-fighter husband. Addy, middle child, a composer and engineer before the war breaks out, leaves Europe on one of the last passenger ships, ending up thousands of miles away. Then, too, there are Mila and Felicia, Jakob and Bella, each with their own share of struggles—pain endured, horrors witnessed. Hunter conducted extensive research after learning that her grandfather (Addy in the book) survived the Holocaust. The research shows: her novel is thorough and precise in its details. It’s less precise in its language, however, which frequently relies on cliché. “You’ll get only one shot at this,” Halina thinks, enacting a plan to save her husband. “Don’t botch it.” Later, Genek, confronting a routine bit of paperwork, must decide whether or not to hide his Jewishness. “That form is a deal breaker,” he tells himself. “It’s life and death.” And: “They are low, it seems, on good fortune. And something tells him they’ll need it.” Worse than these stale phrases, though, are the moments when Hunter’s writing is entirely inadequate for the subject matter at hand. Genek, describing the gulag, calls the nearest town “a total shitscape.” This is a low point for Hunter’s writing; elsewhere in the novel, it’s stronger. Still, the characters remain flat and unknowable, while the novel itself is predictable. At this point, more than half a century’s worth of fiction and film has been inspired by the Holocaust—a weighty and imposing tradition. Hunter, it seems, hasn’t been able to break free from her dependence on it.
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-56308-9
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
BOOK TO SCREEN
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