Passion The Books

It began quietly in a garden called Gethsemane and culminated violently on a hill called Calvary - a brief moment in time that forever changed the world.

But nothing you'll see or hear can compare to the gospel truth. And nothing but the Bible itself will ever fill you with hope or inspire you more than the book you now hold in your hands.

Indeed, no picture or film or sound will match the breathtaking detail and power of this beautiful volume from the final chapters of the best-selling masterpiece The Desire of Ages, a vibrant and biblically faithful comentary detailing the last hours of Jesus Christ's life.

This gripping and unique narrative from one of Christianity's most-published writers goes beyond the physical suffering and explores the deeper spiritual revelation of love's most poignant act. You'll understand more about the intricacies of Jesus' suffering, but you will also learn of a greater suffering that no insult, no lash, and no nail could ever inflict.

If you want to know the true meaning of the passion of Jesus Christ, ask yourself instead, "What is the true meaning of love?" Then open up this book and find the answer.
--- from book's back cover

Gailly writes bare-bones narrative - non-sequential with broken syntax. But do read the book before reading the introduction - the literary school and structural devices are not required to enjoy the book.

The narrator gives the story in third person - moving from the end of vacation to return of hidden letter to workers' strike to Asia road construction to civil unrest to reunion with love. The tone of the narrator varies from neutral observer to intimate knowledge of the inner thoughts of characters. At times the disjointed prose leans towards stream of consciousness; at other times, the punctuation severs relationships between elements of an otherwise normal sentence; still other times the disrupted syntax reveals pure perception without mental overlays of meaning.

Through it all, Gailly manages to create narrative tension in the reader - you want to know what happened/will happen. You want to understand more about the characters. In short, it is a very literary good read of a mystery-romance.

An example of the prose: "A name like this. Or like that. Sounded like this. She made some noises with her mouth while moving her fingers, then: I wonder, she said, what family of instruments, what coupling, or marriage, could make that sound." Or "Brought it to his lips. And. With a stiff movement of his neck. As if caught in a vice. He emptied it. Put it down. Then. A pause."

The "DaVinci Code" has nothing on this fascinating story that entwines the time and place of Jesus with a contemporary story of discovery and love.

Alba Ambert evokes the arid, sun-drenched Middle East of biblical times and transports the reader to a past that lives on today in the religion that it spawned. We meet the biblical Mary, a character more complex and compelling than the usual stereotypes.Neither saint nor whore, Mary's life is unveiled as it might have been. The novel also brings us, Maria, a modern-day salsa singer, her reality and her dreams.

Parallel stories, Mary and Maria, bring us two fascinating women and pose a puzzle: what is real and what is dream -- and does it matter?

Beautifully writen and intricately plotted, "The Passion" rewards from start to finish.

William Taylor is a gifted writer and one of the great civil rights lawyers of our time. His leadership/insider view of the multiple dimensions of civil rights advocacy [data and testimony collection, Congressional hearings, the courts, regulation enforcement, executive orders, judicial appointment fights, etc.]is must reading for all, particularly people of color, women, people with disabilities, and others who still aspire to justice and the American dream.

Bill McCrone, Ph.D., J.D.

"The Passion of Phineas Gage & Selected Poems" is the latest collection of [Jesse Glass'] poetry and will serve to bring his abilities as a word smith to an appreciative readership. Glass is perhaps best known for his experimental writing and insights into human nature. This new compilation of his writings will continue to document his unique approach to the written word that includes the deft use of such postmodern tools and poetic forms as collaging, fragmentation and 'Oulipo-like' processes. The limitations of this review format cannot hope to do justice to Glass' imaginative layouts and framing of words-on-the-page. "The Passion of Phineas Gage & Selected Poems" collection of Jesse Glass' work is most especially recommended to the attention of avant-garde poetry enthusiasts. Two other volumes of poetry from Ahadada Books are also highly recommended for personal, academic, and community library poetry collections: Jerome Rothenberg's "China Notes & The Treasures of Dunhuang" (0973223391, $12.95)China Notes & the Treasures of Dunhuang and Jim Daniels' "Now Showing" (0978141415, $10.00).

This is a very good novel based on the life of Sacco and Vanzetti. It is an interesting, easy read (easy in the reading part of it, not so easy to stomach the situation). I recommend it very much.

The book contains a chronology of the people and events leading
up to the Crucifixion. There is a detailed critique of the
various stages which lead to the Resurrection. The volume would
be useful for theology students studying the Life of Christ just
preceeding the years of the Crucifixion. The book is a good value
for the price charged.

This is a wonderful collection of essays of African American responses to Mel Gibson's _The Passion of the Christ_. Essayists, including JoAnne Terrell and Demetrius Williams, demonstrate how black women and men can make sense of the connections between the violence committed against Christ and that historically against African Americans. What you find here is more than a critique of Gibson's film. The essays are calls for hope and inspiration. They see Jesus' life as important as his death and detail the various ways that African Americans overcome violence to have lives of faith. This book should be read by anyone interested in race and religion in the United States.

The book has the normal flow for a Stone book with very good research and interesting trivia. Plus, Stone does his best to explain the origin of Fruedian thought and the struggles of Sigmund Frued to get his word heard in very hostile environment. He shows the delicate balance between his student life, to his married life and his struggles to learn a pyschology which was never respected in his life time. Also shows, America becoming a strong society which has just started to influence global thoughts and respect global thought leadership.

Wilhelm Reich was many things in his lifetime- a student of Freud, a political activist, a research scientist, and an inventor. His work was decades ahead of its time and is finally being rediscovered and reevaluated by the public. If, like me, you are interested in Reich and his work, you might want to check out a novel called We All Fall Down, by Brian Caldwell. it draws heavily on Reich's theories, particularly Listen Little Man and The Mass Psychology Of Facism. It's a great introduction to Reich's work and the entire novel draws heavily on his theory. It's very interesting watching an author explore his theories in a fictional setting. Well worth reading.