If Robert James Waller were to don homespun and ride the circuit, this might be the result. The faithful and literarily...
In which a Gordon Gekko-ish sinner is hauled from the slough of despondency by a very helpful Buddy Christ.
Tony Spencer isn’t a bad, bad, bad man, but he’s not a good one, either. He loves women, whiskey and money, not necessarily in that order, and though once in reasonably good standing with the man upstairs, he has drifted into the limbo of not particularly caring one way or the other; in his view, “[l]ife was a violent evolutionary gasp of meaninglessness, the temporary survival of the smartest or most cunning.” Big mistake, for when Tony finds himself in the back of a big screaming ambulance, fate pitches him out on the other side of the universe to face down—well, Dad, or Papa God, as evangelist Young cloyingly calls him. Grandmother is more sympathetic, if a touch elliptical and, well, a bit hippie-ish (“Breathe in, breathe out, be still.”), but Sonny—that is, Christ—is a born explainer, patient and in the main, sympathetic. “Listen carefully, Tony,” He says. “There is only...hear me carefully: there is only one God.” Ah, yes: Straight is the gate and narrow the path—anyone who paid attention in Sunday school knows the drift, but Young’s J.C. rolls right up to the edges of the New Age, without much evident fondness for smiting and such. Young has a very odd sensibility when it comes to spinning descriptions, serving up disturbing metaphors, such as “Winter simply bowed out like a beaten woman” (Why not a beaten man? Because a beaten woman, presumably, is more Pauline.), and odd ethnic observations (“Obviously Anglo-Saxon, a hint of something darker and finer softened his features…”). Even so, this yarn is competently (but no more than competently) spun, if ever so obvious.
If Robert James Waller were to don homespun and ride the circuit, this might be the result. The faithful and literarily forgiving might approve.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4555-1604-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: FaithWords
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
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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