Today I present to you another work of fiction, "The Bronze Bow" by Elizabeth George Speare:
This book is about a young Jewish man during the time of Christ who is actively looking for the prophesied Messiah to bring His Kingdom and end Roman rule in Israel. As he hears of Jesus, his view slowly changes from one of a hateful rebel sworn to vengeance to one of peace, love, and acceptance.
The Bronze Bow as a quick read but well-written and with a good plot. Though it took a few chapters to meet and get to know the main characters, I quickly found myself engrossed in the story and urging them to go listen to Jesus' teachings and apply them. The book made me wonder more about what I would've thought and done if I were a Jew or a Gentile during the time of Jesus and if I would've had faith to follow Him or if I would've just listened to His 'interesting stories.'
The work is fiction of course, but a few things bothered me about the story. One thing was the fact that Simon the Zealot in the story seems to know nothing of Jesus or the teachings of John the Baptist who 'paved the way' for Jesus when in Acts 1:22, it appears that one of the qualifications for apostleship is that a man was there "from the baptism of John." What could possibly be called 'artistic license' aside, I didn't have any negative comments about the book, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction.
For the next reading review, I'll be examining some fiction for a change. I present to you "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell.
I had read this ginormous book (over 1000 pages!) once before in high school and had seen the movie at least once, so I knew all about Scarlett, Rhett, Ashley, and Melanie, and the major events in the story. While it was nice to fill in the blanks that were lacking in my memory bank, I was a little disturbed by the amount of profane language used by the characters, especially considering the negative publicity associated with the single word present in the 1939 making of the movie of the same title. All the characters except for Melanie and Ellen (Scarlett's mother) were also very disappointing, as selfishness, deceit, lust, gossip, and countless other sinful actions and attitudes were prevalent and even justified throughout the pages. I read the last few chapters through tear-filled eyes, severely affected at the mess the characters had made of their lives. I don't think this will be a book I read again in my lifetime.
Having said all that, there were several things that I did enjoy about this book. The first is the fact that because I now live in the metro-Atlanta area, I was super-excited every time I saw the name of a city that I knew of- Marietta, Atlanta, Kennesaw, Jonesboro, etc. The story really came alive for me since I am now familiar with its setting. Secondly, it was nice to review tidbits of history since I haven't had a true history class in years. It has never been a favorite subject of mine, but I do enjoy learning about certain past events when I know there's not going to be a test afterward. The thing I was most intrigued about, however, was that for a book about very worldly (and mostly ungodly) people, there were several Biblical references in the text that I was excited to find- the hanging of Haman, baptism washing away sins, carrying your cross (although, I think this was misused), gaining the world and loosing your soul, etc.
Those are my thoughts on this monster of a novel. Have you ever read Gone with the Wind? What parts did you like/dislike?
