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A review by rosseroo
The Book of Neil by Frank Turner Hollon
2.0
This novella (you can read it in one sitting) is a satirical take on what would happen if the second coming of Jesus happened today, in America. The gimmick is that no one in our narcissistic digital era would take him at face value, and so after months of drifting around the country and being arrested for vagrancy, he stages a bank robbery in order to gain media attention to draw the attention of someone who might actually believe.
The story is told in short sections by the various people he encounters in the course of this scheme. There's Neil, an average guy whose wife and kids place ever-increasing material demands on him. The small town police chief who locks up the "Jesus Bandit." The bank teller he robs, who believes he is He. The atheist New York Times reporter who flies in to capture the story. And even the evangelical President, who secretly meets with him/Him. Given the brevity of the book, they all come across more as types, than a fully-realized characters.
The overall effect is more cutesy than provocative -- but then again, as a nonbeliever, I suppose the basic premise lacks dramatic stakes for me. It feels kind of like the story someone might put together as a final short project in film school. There's no real depth of engagement with the questions it raises. I guess it could have value in some kind of religious education setting as something teens could read and use as the starting point for some kind of discussion.
The story is told in short sections by the various people he encounters in the course of this scheme. There's Neil, an average guy whose wife and kids place ever-increasing material demands on him. The small town police chief who locks up the "Jesus Bandit." The bank teller he robs, who believes he is He. The atheist New York Times reporter who flies in to capture the story. And even the evangelical President, who secretly meets with him/Him. Given the brevity of the book, they all come across more as types, than a fully-realized characters.
The overall effect is more cutesy than provocative -- but then again, as a nonbeliever, I suppose the basic premise lacks dramatic stakes for me. It feels kind of like the story someone might put together as a final short project in film school. There's no real depth of engagement with the questions it raises. I guess it could have value in some kind of religious education setting as something teens could read and use as the starting point for some kind of discussion.