Lars Petter Sveen. Children of God. Trans. Guy Puzey. Graywolf, 2018. See here to purchase the book.
Lars Petter Sveen is a Norwegian author, who has received literary awards. Children of God
is set in first century C.E. Israel, the time of the historical Jesus.
It consists of short stories, many of which overlap with each other in
characters. Looming throughout the book is a blind old man, a sinister
presence who still appeals to people’s desire for purpose and meaning.
I found this book to be rather dull, to be honest, but I may like it
if I were to read it years in the future. Plus, you may find it
interesting. The book is a translation from the original Norwegian, yet
the prose is neat and clean. Perhaps the prose could have had more
feeling in it, though.
People in the book struggle with profound issues. One person desires
healing and receives it yet finds his faith tested when his illness
returns. A revolutionary struggles with Roman oppression due to the
pacifistic teachings of Jesus.
Jesus appears rather human in this book. He does not exude an
enormous amount of warmth, but neither is he cold. He responds like one
would expect a lot of people to respond: with guarded tentativeness.
There are people who believe that they are healed by Jesus yet their
diseases remain, and Sveen may have been trying to make some profound
point here: they were healed within, even if they were not healed
without. Still, Jesus seems to accomplish real outward healings. The
book is somewhat nebulous about whether Jesus rose from the dead or was a
failed idealist. One character remarks that many versions of Jesus
emerged after the claims that Jesus rose from the dead.
This book is not exactly preachy, but people still wrestle with the teachings of Jesus.
I checked this book out from the library. My review is honest.