An often affecting tale of a youngster’s Christian discipleship.
In this historical Christian novel, a young girl without parents witnesses the crucifixion of Jesus and embarks on a spiritual journey that’s fraught with challenges.
Esther, a 12-year-old girl living in Jerusalem, loses her mother at a terribly young age and belongs to an economic class that others around her disgustedly call the “dirty poor.” She notices her father becoming increasingly distant and fearful, and one day, he suddenly sends her and her younger brother, Jacob, to the home of a friend in a nearby village without explanation. They’ve barely arrived before they decide to return and look for their father. The girl inadvertently stumbles upon the crucifixion of Jesus—a spectacle that makes a transformative impression upon her: “The sight of such cruelty made me want to run away, but something inside me would not allow me to leave His side. Mesmerized, I stood looking up at Him, thinking that truly this was not a common criminal for He was no ordinary man.” Esther also recognizes the brutalized face of the man who’s being crucified next to Jesus: her own father. Hungry and alone, Esther and Jacob are taken in by Mary Magdalene, who raises them as her own children while teaching them the meaning of Jesus’ ministry and his resurrection. Esther becomes a committed Christian filled with a “fervent love of Jesus.” Debut author Thomas thoughtfully chronicles Esther’s continuing spiritual journey; after she later witnesses a murder, she’s compelled to run away in order to protect Mary and Jacob, and she finds her attachment to Jesus’ teachings to be profoundly tested. Over the course of this book, the author’s command of the historical period is notable, and her knowledge of Christian doctrine and history is even more impressive. Her prose is, by turns, moving and elegant, although the plot sometimes meanders in a desultory fashion. The novel also occasionally adopts a didactic, proselytizing tone, so it will likely be enjoyed most by someone with an abiding interest in Christianity or an outright devotion to the faith.
An often affecting tale of a youngster’s Christian discipleship.Pub Date: June 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-63575-376-9
Page Count: 267
Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PROFILES
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
Deep schmaltz in the Bible Belt.
Christian-fiction writer Martin (The Dead Don’t Dance, not reviewed) chronicles the personal tragedy of a Georgia heart surgeon.
Five years ago in Atlanta, Reese could not save his beloved wife Emma from heart failure, even though the Harvard-trained surgeon became a physician so that he could find a way to fix his childhood sweetheart’s congenitally faulty ticker. He renounced practicing medicine after her death and now lives in quiet anonymity as a boat mechanic on Lake Burton. Across the lake is Emma’s brother Charlie, who was rendered blind on the same desperate night that Reese fought to revive his wife on their kitchen floor. When Reese helps save the life of a seven-year-old local girl named Annie, who turns out to have irreparable heart damage, he is compassionately drawn into her case. He also grows close to Annie’s attractive Aunt Cindy and gradually comes to recognize that the family needs his expertise as a transplant surgeon. Martin displays some impressive knowledge about medical practice and the workings of the heart, but his Christian message is not exactly subtle. “If anything in this universe reflects the fingerprint of God, it is the human heart,” Reese notes of his medical studies. Emma’s letters (kept in a bank vault) quote Bible verse; Charlie elucidates stories of Jesus’ miracles for young Annie; even the napkins at the local bar, The Well, carry passages from the Gospel of John for the benefit of the biker clientele. Moreover, Martin relentlessly hammers home his sentimentality with nature-specific metaphors involving mating cardinals and crying crickets. (Annie sells crickets as well as lemonade to raise money for her heart surgery.) Reese’s habitual muttering of worldly slogans from Milton and Shakespeare (“I am ashes where once I was fire”) doesn’t much cut the cloying piety, and an over-the-top surgical save leaves the reader feeling positively bruised.
Deep schmaltz in the Bible Belt.Pub Date: April 4, 2006
ISBN: 1-5955-4054-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: WestBow/Thomas Nelson
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2006
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