A mixed bag. Relating his occasionally amusing adventures in breezy slang, Steinberg seems to be vying for the same audience...
A search for the roots of Mormonism.
Steinberg (Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian, 2009), who is not a Mormon, admires The Book of Mormon and its translator and publisher, Joseph Smith. “Joseph’s ambition to publish his bible,” writes the author, “struck me as a refreshingly honest acknowledgment of what it means to be a writer, a regular Joe with an unreasonable faith in oneself and in literature.” Steinberg sees the book as an exemplary tale “about writing books.” Every few pages,” he notes, “the story’s various narrators describe to us how the writing of this book is going.” Moreover, he considers it a prototype of “the big American literary project…to create America in words and deliver it to the people in a book as big and shameless and unruly and haunted and deeply problematic as the country itself.” He admits, of course, that the book is a religious tract and Smith, a Mormon prophet, so to investigate “the difference between prophecy and fabrication, angels and inspiration, delusion and fact,” he “set out on a journey through the exotic locales of this lost Great American Novel.” Steinberg’s travelogue is more about those locales and his personal trials and self-doubts than about theology. His marriage was doomed, he confesses, and he was worried about his writing career, which explains his eagerness to learn about writing from Smith. His journey took him to Jerusalem, where the sect began; Central America, where seminal events occurred; the Midwest, site of the real Garden of Eden; and Hill Cumorah, in New York, where Smith allegedly dug up the golden plates on which the book was inscribed.
A mixed bag. Relating his occasionally amusing adventures in breezy slang, Steinberg seems to be vying for the same audience that has made Broadway’s Book of Mormon such a huge hit.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2014
ISBN: 978-0385535694
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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