Facile redemption aplenty.
A rote addition to the glut of inspirational allegories promising quick fixes for ontological angst through prayer.
The authors, co-founders of Sacred Center New York (“one of the fastest-growing spiritual churches in America,” according to the book’s publicity material), bring us Joseph Hutchinson, a farmer circa 1883 who has always wanted to be a carpenter. Joseph has inherited the family farm and the family curse—all of his male ancestors going back generations have died in their 20s. Joseph expects to suffer the same fate, but finds respite in the farmhouse attic, which exudes a comforting aura. When wife Miriam dies after caring for the daughter of his neighbor (and former crush) Grace, Joseph is left with two small children, a debt-ridden farm and crushing guilt—just before Miriam’s death, he had unwisely dissed a vision of the Angel of Death, who only wanted to give him a mysterious chest. Joseph uncovers a mildewed chest in the attic, containing a notebook left by Joseph’s ancestor Malachi in 1780, which transcribed Grandma Mary’s three secrets of prayer—unfair to divulge here, but suffice it to say that when it comes to prayer, it’s all about you. Joseph replicates the chest according to his vision, and Grace provides the gold lock. The characters write prayers on slips of paper and deposit them in a slot at the top of the chest, which cannot thereafter be opened—kind of like an IRA, only forever. Their prayers are answered: The mean bank president, Charlie, who threatens Joseph with foreclosure, gives him lucrative carpentry contracts. When Charlie’s carriage accidentally runs down an orphaned immigrant Jewish girl, Sarah, Charlie adopts her. Sarah rallies everyone to host a Christmas party, where the town children will receive toys designed by Grace and carved by Joseph. There’s artistic fulfillment and business opportunities for all (except doomed Sarah) and even a fourth secret—whose revelation will have to await the inevitable sequel(s).
Facile redemption aplenty.Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-385-52023-2
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2007
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
An illuminating read for anyone interested in the inner workings of the Catholic Church; for prelate-fiction superfans, it...
Harris, creator of grand, symphonic thrillers from Fatherland (1992) to An Officer and a Spy (2014), scores with a chamber piece of a novel set in the Vatican in the days after a fictional pope dies.
Fictional, yes, but the nameless pontiff has a lot in common with our own Francis: he’s famously humble, shunning the lavish Apostolic Palace for a small apartment, and he is committed to leading a church that engages with the world and its problems. In the aftermath of his sudden death, rumors circulate about the pope’s intention to fire certain cardinals. At the center of the action is Cardinal Lomeli, Dean of the College of Cardinals, whose job it is to manage the conclave that will elect a new pope. He believes it is also his duty to uncover what the pope knew before he died because some of the cardinals in question are in the running to succeed him. “In the running” is an apt phrase because, as described by Harris, the papal conclave is the ultimate political backroom—albeit a room, the Sistine Chapel, covered with Michelangelo frescoes. Vying for the papal crown are an African cardinal whom many want to see as the first black pope, a press-savvy Canadian, an Italian arch-conservative (think Cardinal Scalia), and an Italian liberal who wants to continue the late pope’s campaign to modernize the church. The novel glories in the ancient rituals that constitute the election process while still grounding that process in the real world: the Sistine Chapel is fitted with jamming devices to thwart electronic eavesdropping, and the pressure to act quickly is increased because “rumours that the pope is dead are already trending on social media.”
An illuminating read for anyone interested in the inner workings of the Catholic Church; for prelate-fiction superfans, it is pure temptation.Pub Date: Nov. 22, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-451-49344-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2016
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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