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A.J. Honestly, one of the best books I have read. Not only did I have a blast reading it, but learned so much from it. The only regret I have is not having properly thanked God for having your book to entertain me while riding a packed NYC subway all those times and having an enjoyable ride.
I have read his newest book and then went on to this one. :) I hope you continue to write and please keep us all posted on Jasper (he is my favorite part of your books and I love how he calls you A.J. He takes you along for the ride without making you do all the dirty work.
He is a very humble man and it showes in every chapter; he is also funny. A.J. I was not disappointed.
This book is more about what he goes through with some nice facts; it is not a lesson on the bible and is more about his experience while attempting to do this crazy task. Not funny in a stand up comic has a set of jokes sort of way, more of an I can find humor in everyday life sort of way; he knows you can relate and it makes it even better. He doesn't try to make it seem like he is making a joke out his quest to live by the bible and from his newest book; you know he takes his little quests to heart.
if you read this try not to think of it as a sin. - Julie is my second; she is a saint by the way - I vote you buy her something really nice).KK
For one thing, I thought he sounded like about the worst parent I've ever heard of, alternating wildly between obsessive-compulsive overprotectiveness and almost criminal neglectfulness. And I didn't care much for him. Jacobs. One thing I will say for the book, it did for some reason make me want to read the Bible again, which I haven't done all the way through since I was seriously religious myself, more than a decade ago.
Now, Nazi comparisons are generally totally hyperbolic if they're even slightly true, so I want to preface my next comment by stating very clearly that I am not comparing what he did to what they did---obviously, mutilating your child's genitals, as bad as it is, isn't even on the same scale as mass murder and ethnic cleansing. Some people can be excused for that sort of thing because they really don't know any better, but he should have known better, and did, but went ahead and did it anyway. But I prefer something more along the lines of Julia Sweeney's Letting Go of God, where she grew up with religion and went on a more genuine (it seemed to me) "spiritual quest," eventually ending up as a contented atheist---partly because I can identify more with that narrative, but also because she was much more sincere and a lot better philosophically.I had a lot of other problems with A. I can see that maybe for someone who is also approaching religion sort of from the outside looking in, it might have had more emotional resonance. Or, to be more precise: I really liked a lot of parts, individually.I just didn't like what it all added up to.
If his kids somehow manage not to turn out to be meth addicts in prison, as he so deeply fears, it will be a miracle---or at least thanks only to their mother.And then there was the whole circumcision thing at the end, which pretty much ruined it for me. So he has actually done research on the subject professionally, knows very well that it's a barbaric practice (so much so that he can't even stay in the room and watch or even hear it done to his first son) based on primitive superstition akin to the animal sacrifices that he has denounced but even worse because it's a piece of his child's sexual organ that he's sacrificing, and that there's no compelling medical reason to have it done---and he does it anyway. Of course, I know next to nothing about child-rearing and I could be way off, but on just a common sense level the guy is an idiot. J. His first attempt at discipline, by ignoring his son for hitting him with the bowling pin until he apologizes, seemed like a really bad idea to me.
(And of course, it would become increasingly ineffective the older the kid got, and by the time he was a teenager having his father ignore him would be a positive incentive). So, I just finished The Year of Living Biblically, and I have to say.I hated it. Why. Because his father did it, and his father's father, and so on back to some mythical patriarch because he was commanded to by some invisible god (in whom Jacobs doesn't even believe)., according to some ancient religious text.
But his reason for doing it was exactly the same as the Nazi whose defense was, "I was only following orders," except maybe even one step worse because in his case the orders came from somebody who didn't even exist. He abandoned his own independent judgment in deference to the group (in this case, to the literal tribe), because, well, because he is a coward, plain and simple. And one thing I could relate to him on was the beard thing, with which he started the introduction.
He should have either stuck to the idea of it being basically a stunt memoir and tried to make it as funny as possible, or taken it really seriously---I just couldn't buy him trying to have it both ways.I think a big part of my problem was that I couldn't really relate to him, an issue I've been thinking a lot about lately in terms of identifying with fictional characters, but it applies in real life, too. I grew an Old Testament beard once in college for a while, and I got called the Unabomber a couple of times, too. It might be effective occasionally, but using it as a standard disciplinary method I think could be even more psychologically damaging to the kid than physically beating him.
And it seems like there was such an obvious way to discipline him in that situation that would actually fit the crime, namely, put him back in his crib for time out and take away the bowling pin. That really bothered me, as you can possibly tell.The whole red heifer thing also seriously disturbed me, but he was just reporting there. Then someone called me Jesus, and it had to go.
What a fascinating experiment. I was really curious about what he'd discover as he tried life out Jesus' taught way, and all I discovered was that he was unwilling to really give it a go. In that sense I found his writing "humble", as the title asserts he is -- he presented more than one well-researched side to many issues, and then ventured out a statement of what he thought, tentatively. I think a more fitting title would be, "The Year of Living out the Old Testament: One Man's Quest to Explore His Jewish Roots." In his Old Testament exploration, I thought the author did a good job representing different viewpoints fairly. Throughout the book, the author reveals himself to be a "biased experimenter," only taking on those biblical challenges that suit him. I was curious, and was intrigued by positive reviews of the book I read on Amazon.
So I bought the book, but was disappointed. What appears at the start to be an earnest attempt of an open-minded individual to try the Bible's way of living reveals itself for what it is: A nonpractising Jew exploring his roots. I loved the concept of the book -- a nonreligious man trying to live out the Bible literally. An experimenter who's already made up his/her mind about what results are NOT possible is not a good experimenter. That was most disappointing for me. So don't read this book expecting that the author will rise to the title of the book. Unfortunately, the author had already made up his mind on several counts, and I as a reader was left feeling ripped off.
And he pretty much keeps to exploring stuff his Jewish parents would be okay with. what would be the outcomes of one who did that sincerely. However, in his unwillingness to explore areas that strayed from his Jewish roots, I found his quest to be not-so-humble. He gives more focus to zanier rules, which is entertaining but not thorough. He sticks mainly to the Old Testament, and confesses that there are some things he's just unwilling to look at/explore -- pretty much all of the New Testament included. He was not able to use the same open-minded approach that he used elsewhere in the book; rather, he ended up seeming quite closed-minded. I wanted an unbiased experimenter.
The reading is very uneven and has no story line, it is a basically a diary of Jacob's adventure in trying to following the over 700 rules of the Bible. We are reading this book for our church group. Some days (the book is divided into months and days instead of chapters) are more interesting than others but you have no clue where he is leading to next -- just like life it's self. We meet every Saturday morning for 1 hour to discuss what we have read for the week. We are up to February (The book starts in September). You never know what rule is going to talk about next. Is he going to make it or not.
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