...hts, haphazardly throwing around words and phrases, groping about for a bit of eloquence or deep thought. I was inwardly cringing as I read his pathetic efforts to write in his own "unique" manner. I appreciate quality work, and this was sadly devoid of anything that could be classified as having quality.
Another point that I will reproach Joseph Girzone is his characters. Apart from Joshua, we learn practically nothing about any of the main characters. Actually, I take that back; we don't even learn anything about Joshua. Even though we follow this man around for 19 chapters, we know zilch about him. Oh sure, we cleverly "catch on" that Joshua is actually Jesus. This is accomplished by some subtle hint dropping by Girzone. But other than this, we have no idea who the identity of Joshua the person is and the reader has no insight to Joshua's true thoughts or inclinations; we see only his actions, and not his thoughts or opinions (except, of course, that he wants peace!). The other main characters never shape up to be anybody, either. You are lead to believe that this relationship will go somewhere, and then it is just dropped, forgotten, abandoned (or the character just dies).
I know that this is fiction, but it is supposed to be pretty true to life, as if it could happen today. This assumption is destroyed by the fact that the people in these books act nothing like an ordinarily sane person on this planet would. They do not let their emotions of grief, anger, frustration, and the need for retribution or revenge out as a normal person would. Maybe they are all subdued by Joshua's holy presence, or by some other crazy factor that we can't possibly fathom. Whatever it is, it is totally fake and impossible; it's just not how humans act. If people were that trusting and noble in our normal society, they would all be conned, abused, and/or dead. I don't know in what setting this is supposed to be taking place, because if Joshua was in our present time (plus or minus 20-30 years) there is no way in heck that he would be received in the same fashion that he was in the book. I don't know which specific Holy Land Joshua was in either, because, last time I checked, the one on Earth isn't at all like the one described in this book (in its attitude, anyway; geographically I couldn't say).
I just can't bring myself to say that this book has actually taught me something or lead me to insightful conclusions or disco...