tanane

I will say, this is probably my favorite religious-preaching-hidden-in-a-story novel that I've read. Maybe that's because it's not all that hidden-it's one man's personal search for the real Jesus amongst many fake/imaginary representations of Jesus that he keeps getting pulled into. It's a mix of real and imagined events that the reader it just supposed to be able to interpret what's *really* happening, and what's just thought process. All the imaginary stuff makes for a pretty entertaining read most of the time, though it does go over the top and on too long eventually. Like my sister seems to always say, this book could've used more edits. Plus, this story includes the talking donkey from the Bible, and I've always loved the talking donkey story (it never says it's the talking donkey from the Bible story, but I doubt it's mere coincidence). Anyways, this story can have some real insights, and extremely good/obvious visuals for the reader to understand the points being made by the ridiculous nature of some imaginary Jesus(es), so, you can read it to look deeply, or, you can read it as interesting and unique. Up to a point-like I said, it just goes on too long. One huge chase with the imaginary Jesus and all the other imaginary Jesus(es) getting in the way is enough-I didn't need the whole second one at the end of the book at all, and it greatly slowed my finishing of the book. It just goes on for too long and is too over the top. And, what can I say-all religious books meant to bring you close to God have extremely predictable endings with no interest. Obviously, this guy is going to find "the real Jesus" and have some profound moment, but someone can't feel a real life experience/revelation like that through a book-because it's fiction to you, even if it's not to the writer-you didn't experience it yourself, it can't make you find Jesus yourself. So, this book really stops being anything of value, at least to me, at about 3/4 through-with the exception that I liked the President story near the end. At any rate , it's wroth a read, and more valuable to me as a religious teaching tool than "The Shack" or "Joshua". Also, it does a pretty nice job or staying mostly neutral on what type of Christian views are "right". Except, if I was a Mormon, I'd be pissed.

2020-09-12 17:33