I laughed. I cried. Then I laughed some more.
Written: Mar 22 '08
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: amazing. Just...amazing.
Cons: long, a couple areas to prune
The Bottom Line: Wow, that was one trip.
|
|
|
| Greatpilgrim's Full Review: Mark J. Ferrari - The Book of Joby |
There once was a boy who worshiped King Arthur. Joby, being a modern boy, was popular but considered more than a little weird for his secret deeds of justice and kindness. But this made him the perfect Candidate in the latest cosmic bet between the Creator and Lucifer, where Creation was at stake and complex rules were put in place for the fulfillment of the wager. In short, if Lucifer’s crack operatives can get Joby (unknowingly, of course) to “unequivocally renounce the Creator, brazenly defy His will, and commit great wickedness instead,” our beautiful fallen angel will get to wipe out Creation and start over…on his terms. If he can just get the Candidate to stagnate in frustrated apathy, reduced to a lifetime of spinning his wheels wherever he goes while beating himself up constantly for hurting those he loves…it just might be possible to get the boy, the teen, the homeless man, the broken crusader, to turn his back on a distant and unresponsive God.
This is the story of Joby, a sweet little boy who just wants to be King Arthur’s knight.
~My take~
If my recap reminds you a teensy bit (or more) of the Book of Job from the Bible…well, erm, there’s a reason. But I’m deliberately NOT going to call it a retelling of that particular Biblical chronicle, because that would completely obfiscate the tone and impressions of this amazing novel. So just for a moment, indulge me and let any memories of a depressing, boring book about “the world’s most patient man” fade, and listen to how this story plays out.
The Book of Joby by Mark J. Ferrari, published in 2007, takes a deeply joyful and expressive approach to the dreams and struggles of an ordinary boy who grows up with beautiful hopes – inspired by visions of King Arthur telling him to “drink beauty” and “feed his soul” – and must constantly fight human obstacles as heavenly beings work for or against him. I was absolutely fascinated as I watched dozens and dozens of threads being pulled in the supernatural realm and how these resulted in the human/semi-human characters’ movements – and how the mortals’ actions could affect the angels and demons too.
Joby’s vivid imagination and a tapestry of Arthurian figures wielding magic may hint at a fantastical background, but The Book of Joby is not so much mythological in nature as it is a tense mind game between archangels and demons constrasted with homey prosaic details of Joby’s battles to hang on to joy. Warm lazy scenes of California’s beautiful coast, in the paradise-like town of Taubolt where much of the novel takes place, are inutterably magical in tone, but Ferrari never lets us get too comfortable and is constantly setting balls in motion for future crisis. The balance of appreciative delight in life’s small victories and intense emotional conflicts in the characters’ inner souls makes the narrative a constant source of ecstasy and pain, which have never been so gracefully entwined as in The Book of Joby.
I was surprised at how often I smiled and LAUGHED while reading it – this is a “book about Job” after all, the bleakest book of the Bible – but Ferrari’s deft and profoundly devious portrayals of traditional heavenly (and subterraneous) beings made me grin many times over his sly wit and humor. Take, for example, the head games Lucifer and God play as the arrogant playboy tries to outsmart his Maker and often thinks he’s won…but there’s always an annoying loophole. I snorted out loud at statements like: ”There you are.” The Creator shrugged, turning back to Lucifer. “He was dead, but now he’s not…You seem to have a lot of trouble with that concept.” Or the image of God and Gabe as two yahoos hanging out at a sports bar throwing back beers, only one of their many dubious incarnations as earthly beings.
Wicked? To be sure! And yet Ferrari’s wit has no venom, only a bubbling fountain of invention and startling creativity. His writing shifts colors and patterns like the surface of a rippling lake in the sunlight, bursting with light and wonder in one passage, plunged to gritty realism in another, dappled with hilarious dialogue here and there, but always genuine and assured of his voice as a storyteller. Apart from the frequent humor, I found the descriptions of demonic outbursts most delectable:
“With a celestial roar of rage, Lucifer abandoned the illusion of humon form, his skin seeming to rupture before an explosion of inner white light. Where Malcephalon had stood, darkness deeper than that between the stars strove to swallow and quench Lucifer’s deadly radiance. Vast arcs of raw power slithered and snapped across the indefinable spaces that were Hell’s real fabric, catching multitudes of mortal damned in the inexpressible torment of that crossfire.”
Whoah. I *believe* in this guy as the ultimate Bad Dude. Ferrari nails his characters time and again until I wanted to scream “HAND THEM ALL OSCARS!!” if it would just let up the emotional roller coaster.
~Got any plans this weekend? Not anymore…~
My only quibble with The Book of Joby is a pathetic one – at almost 650 pages of absolutely riveting storytelling, this takes some major time dedication. I would definitely recommend choosing weekend with some extra free time, or better yet, a vacation! Because so much of this book takes place in a “resort”-like town where the characters are doing all the kinds of things YOU want to be doing (hiking, swimming in lakes, strolling small-town streets where everybody knows everybody), it will make you less envious to read it in a pleasant environment yourself. Either way, the story will pretty much FORCE you to read the whole thing in a sitting or two, it’s just that compelling. So unless you fancy glancing up at the clock and noting that it’s 4am and you’re still awake reading with 200 pages to go, plan your reading time wisely!
I think Ferrari *could* have trimmed perhaps 50 pages or so of the novel down; most of the subplots are designed to lead us to a place of no return by the end, but a few got a wee bit off the beaten track, particularly the time spent on minor villains in Taubolt (as much as I loved to hate them). The ultimate pay-off in character development, however, was exquisite; I felt my time had unquestionably been well-spent getting to know and love Joby, Ben, Laura, Hawk, and Rose intimately.
~Bottom line~
I’ll say it – The Book of Joby isn’t for someone with a busy schedule, in light of the “you MUST finish me TONIGHT!!!” drama of its plot. But what truly made it worth the journey for me was the vulnerable way Ferrari laid bare the hearts of his heroes as faulty humans (even the angels) who had authentic struggles with life and spirituality. And he does it in a way that puts a hysterical and fondly sarcastic spin on doctrine. Yes, I said the D word. Doctrine can be FUNNY – Ferrari proves it. Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself, and see if you can hold back the tears through the laughter as characters like Joby and his best friend Ben and their beloved Laura come to an inevitable split, or the denizens of Taubolt whom we’ve hung out with and love are slowly picked off by masquerading demons, and not be affected by the conclusions about faith and trust that The Book of Joby leads us to. This was a book that I cared profoundly about, in every sense of the word.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Greatpilgrim
|
 - Top 1000 |
|
Member: Victoria
Location: FL
Reviews written: 272
Trusted by: 704 members
About Me:
April 25: My computer has now officially been broken for 10 days. WAHHHH!
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.