Book Review: The Blessings by Elisa Juska

Let me just say, first of all, that I am a big fan of Elise Juska, and that I admire her talent immensely. Getting Over Jack Wagner is one of the funniest novels written by a woman I've ever read, and her short story “The Way I Saw the World Then” is one I have read aloud in my writing classes many times as an example of beautifully written, heart-wrenching  literary fiction. Therefore, when I discovered her new novel, The Blessings, I was so excited I found myself frantically tapping the good old “Buy with one click” button before I’d even read the sample (in truth, before I’d even read the summary!)—something I have never, not once, done before with any other author’s work. So as you can imagine, it was tough for me to give this book a mere two-star rating.

The Blessings, which is the story of a large Catholic family experiencing one problem right after the other, in my humble opinion, reads more like a series of writing exercises than a novel. For example, Chapter One is told from the point of view of college-bound daughter Abby. We spend a few pages in her head, getting to know her and her opinion of her family members, but then the chapter ends and we move on to another character’s head, and the next time we see Abby again, we are viewing her through another character’s eyes; she is several years older, and we have no access whatsoever to her inner self. And so the book goes, chapter to chapter, character to character, crisis to crisis. As a reader who likes to become immersed in the hearts and minds of characters, this structure alone is something I found very unrewarding. We would visit a character for a few pages, hear his or her tale of woe, and then move on.

The other thing that really bothers me about this book is that the characters are all so completely self-absorbed and miserable. Don’t get me wrong; I love drama and am all for torturing fictional characters with all manner of illness and bad luck. But there is nothing fun about these characters or their misery. The book is depressing, full of maudlin, discontent characters, who just do not seem to love one another in any genuine way. I know one reviewer called this a “bighearted novel,” but where is that heart exactly? In the couple that can’t cope with their daughter’s bulimia and therefore divorce; or in the sister-in-law who, after years of trying to get pregnant and the birth of one child, hints to her husband that she wants to have an abortion after accidentally becoming pregnant with a second; in the deadbeat son who attacks an innocent old man in the Wendy’s parking lot so that he and his friends can rip off his car stereo; in the brother who travels to Spain with his girlfriend only to mope and sit silently through most of the trip for reasons I still have yet to fathom; in the doctor husband with two beautiful children and two homes to boot (one of them beachfront!) who considers having an affair with a woman he works with just because she can bake cupcakes and his wife is a lousy cook . . . ? I’m sorry, but I just don’t get it. What this family needs is a priest or therapist to come along and tell them all that happiness is often a choice, to remind them that true love is often a matter of will, and that life is a gift. Ugh. I could go on and on, but I’ll spare you the rest.

The Good Stuff:

Elise Juska can write—no doubt about it. Her descriptions are amazing and the dialogue is painfully real.

The Not So Good Stuff:

See my rantings above.

Overall Score: Even though I am obviously not a fan of The Blessings, I cannot bring myself to assign a score to a writer whose talent I admire as much as Juska’s.

Bottom Line: I did not like this novel and would not recommend it to a friend.

Book Review: Every Bush is Burning by Brandon Clements

Though I am a Christian myself, I don’t normally read Christian fiction, but I made an exception for the oddly titled indie novel Every Bush is Burning by Brandon Clements mainly because I had read on Goodreads that the author himself had described his book as “edgy,” which, in case you weren’t aware, seems to be the CBA’s code word for “real.” In other words an “edgy” Christian novel is not limited to a cast of saintly Christian characters doing saintly Christian things.

The story is told by Jack Bennett, a thirty-something journalist in the midst of an early midlife crisis, whose horrendous childhood experiences have caused him to become extremely bitter and suspicious of all things religious. In Jack’s opinion, all Christians are, at best, meddlesome hypocrites and, at worst, child molesters, a view that is strengthened when he discovers a homeless man named Yeshua (of all things) vainly trying to gain entrance into a local church one Sunday morning. In a fit of compassion Jack offers him a ride to the local coffee shop, and during the course of their conversation, he is stunned by a request Yeshua makes of him:

“Repent of cheating on your wife and beg for her forgiveness. She is the best thing you have going for you and trust me, you don’t need to screw it up any more than you already have.”

And so, you can imagine where this is going, Yeshua eventually tells Jack that he is, in fact, Jesus, sent to earth by God in order to help him through this turbulent time in his life.

Okay, so, as I said early on in this review, I don’t normally read Christian books, let alone books with fictional characters claiming to be Christ, but the fact that I did read this book at a rapid pace and with great interest in where the author was going with the story is a testament to his ability to hook the reader and then soundly reel her in.

The Good Stuff:

• The characters are sympathetic, interesting, and above all, as real as all get out.
• The plot is, for the most part, tightly woven leading to a climax that is worth the wait, but the end of the book is what strikes me as particularly true and poignant. I won’t give it away here, but just know, the resolution of this book, just like the rest of it, does not necessarily fit with the standard conventions of Christian fiction.
• The descriptions are simple but go a long way in revealing character.
• The character’s voice is strong and compelling.
• The dialogue, for the most part, is real, relevant, and revealing.

The Not-So-Good Stuff:

The construction of the book is not flawless. There are tense shifts in places that strike the writing teacher in me as unintentional, and Yeshua’s rather long-winded monologues get a bit too preachy at times.

Overall Score:  90%, A-. Every Bush is Burning is a solid, well-constructed tale that will appeal to the believer (particularly the backslidden or disillusioned) as well as the skeptical non-believer.

Bonus Points: I believe Brandon Clements deserves bonus points for the sheer brass it took to write this story that breaks so many of the tidy rules of Christian fiction.

Bottom Line: I would recommend this book to friends, students, people on the street, and I’m looking forward to reading more from this talented young author.