Friday, June 23, 2017

"My Brother's Keeper" by Bill Kassel (hint: read the book!)

I could say that Bill Kassel’s novel is a “can’t-put-down” opus. I mean, it’s got everything a good read should have. Suspense. Humor (and I’m talking about laugh-out-loud humor!). Tragedy. Sorrow. Joy. Education (you really learn stuff you didn’t know before). Even a bit of romance. And more. It’s got everything a can’t-put-it-down can offer. And yet…

I put it down. Reluctantly, but often. Why?

To pray.

Because “My Brother’s Keeper” – a novel told from the point of view of Saint James the Just – is more than just a novel to revel in. It’s a work to pray over.

I found myself laughing, crying, and praying with this book. I stopped in my reading and gazed on Рoh well, many things. A cr̬che I keep in my reading room. A crucifix, of course. But also some wonderful mind-images of a laughing Mary with her Son. A painting of Saint Joseph, foster father of Jesus. That wonderful picture of Elizabeth greeting Mary by Carl Heinrich Bloch (you know the one I mean).

Unapologetically Catholic, the novel nevertheless is equally unapologetically Jewish.

How can this be, you ask? Kassel so sensitively and deftly weaves the similarities between the two groups — there is no question that Jesus lived His life on earth as a devout Jew, as did his family members and followers — that this reader, anyway, was left deeply pondering the pointlessness of the separation between Judaism and Christianity.

And echoing the prayer of Jesus…

“Father, that we may be one.”


Thank you, Bill Kassel, for your amazingly beautiful perspective. I’m greatly anticipating a sequel from you!