From /tmp/sf.3694 Sun Nov 8 23:06:23 1992 Path: isy!liuida!sunic!news.funet.fi!cc.tut.fi!fuug!mcsun!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!pacbell.com!pacbell!pbhyc!djdaneh From: ecl@mtgzy.att.com (Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: ON THE THIRD DAY by Piers Paul Read Message-ID: <1991Dec19.185358.10054@pbhyc.PacBell.COM> Date: 19 Dec 91 18:53:58 GMT Sender: djdaneh@pbhyc.PacBell.COM (Dan'l DanehyOakes) Reply-To: ecl@mtgzy.att.com Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Organization: Pacific * Bell Lines: 117 Approved: djdaneh@pbhyc.pacbell.com [Moderator's note -- not about this review, please read! Site pacbell has been having mailer problems. Hardware problems, actually, but they resulted in mail/news outage for a few days, compounded by my not being here for a few days adjacent to those. As a result, some book-type reviews are late -- they'll be posted during the next 24 hours or so. And some may have been lost completely. If you sent a review to RASFR during the last week-and-a-half, and you don't see it posted within a day or so after seeing this announcement, PLEASE resend it. And my apologies. --dj danehy-oakes, acting moderator, rec.arts.sf.reviews] ON THE THIRD DAY by Piers Paul Read A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1991 Evelyn C. Leeper The jacket blurb of this book starts off, "Suppose Christ did *not* rise from the dead? This question is the startling premise of Piers Paul Read's new novel." Yeah, and several billion people's belief systems to boot. What the blurb writer meant (or at any rate, should have said) is "Suppose someone found proof that Christ did *not* rise from the dead?" The premise of the novel is, in fact, that there is a "Lithuanian codex" to Josephus's writings that says that the body of Jesus was taken from the tomb and put in a clay jar in the cistern under the Temple Mount, and that the Israelis, while secretly excavating under the Mount, find the skeleton of a man crucified in the 1st Century with marks that match the "crown of thorns" and the wound in the side supposed given by a Roman soldier's spear. Now, clearly, whether this premise is fantasy depends on the reader's belief system as much as anything in the book itself. But the subject matter makes it reasonable to review it here, so do not take this review as promoting one belief system over another. All this said, I now have to tell you that, as fascinating as the premise is, Read has managed to make the book extremely dull. (I found myself thinking, "This man could make the Resurrection dull"--a particularly apt image!) His writing style is flat, and his characterization consists of telling you about people's feelings in a very analytical fashion rather than by showing, through actions or dialogue, what their emotions are. He is also a sloppy writer, since he has religious Jews referring to "Christ" rather than "Jesus." The former is a title and Jews consider its use improper because it implies that the speaker believes it to be an accurate one. A parallel example would be that during the Second Great Schism of 1378, followers of Urban VII did not call Clement VII Pope, and vice versa. This is not followed strictly by all Jews, but it would have been by the ones Read is writing about. But worst of all, he relies on stereotypes for most of his characters, and even more offensive stereotypes for their motivations. (To tell more would be a spoiler, so I will discuss this further at the end, after the "spoiler warning.") If you are interested in good writing along similar lines, there are better books to read. I would recommend Irving Wallace's THE WORD, whose premise is that a fifth gospel is found which was written contemporaneously with Jesus (or, if you prefer, the actual document found dates from a time indicating the writer of the document was relating first-hand knowledgee actual documents of four gospels extant all date from the 2nd Century or later). There are other, non-fiction works in this area, including THE PASSOVER PLOT by Hugh J. Schonfield (the contention is that Jesus and his disciples faked his death on the cross), and HOLY BLOOD, HOLY GRAIL by Michael Baigent. The contention in the latter, even more far-fetched, is that after the Resurrection Jesus moved to France, got married, and raised a family whose descendents still control much of Europe. Look, I don't make them up, I just report them. I should note that my first-ever book review was of THE PASSOVER PLOT. I wrote it in 1967, when I was seventeen, for the high school paper. The town was over 75% Catholic, the principal always checked over the newspaper's content, and my review didn't get printed. ***SPOILER WARNING*** This paragraph describes the end of the novel--stop now if you don't want to know. Okay? It seems that Ya'akov (an Israeli and a member of the Mossad) was worried about the shifting power in the world. The Jews in the United States would soon lose their power in New York and California to other immigrants, mostly Catholic, and the United States wouldn't support Israel as much. And Japan and the other powerful nations would have no reason to back it, since Israel has no oil to sell. But if the Christians no longer believed that Jesus had superseded Judaism, they would all become Jews--or barring that, at least more supportive of Israel even if Israel didn't have oil. Ya'akov was captured in Lebanon during the Israeli invasion and interrogated in Syria by a Russian Jew. During the interrogation, Ya'akov mentioned that he had been thinking of ways to undermine Christianity. It turned out that the Russian also was worried about the power of Christianity, especially the Catholic backing of the independence movement in the Baltics (this was written in 1990, remember). So the Russian arranges for Ya'akov to be released, goes back to the Soviet Union, and arranges for the KGB to forge a codex with the burial comments, which is then "discovered." Meanwhile, Ya'akov finds a 1st Century skeleton, has it doctored to have the correct wounds, then "plants" it under the Temple Mount. He waits a couple of years, then arranges for the Mossad to excavate (secretly, of course) under the Temple Mount, and has a noted archaeologist along, "just in case we find anything." Yes, folks, what we have here is that old standby, that hoary stereotype, the International Jewish Conspiracy to undermine Christianity! As if this weren't bad enough, he also claims that it's really only the Jews in the United States who support Israel, and that they manage to force it on everyone else. Ptui! I'm glad I checked the book out of the library rather than buying it. (But I suppose I shouldn't have expected more for an author who best-known work is an account of the Andes plane survivors who resorted to cannibalism to survive.) %T On the Third Day %A Piers Paul Read %C New York %D 1990 %I Random House %O hardback, US$20.00 %G ISBN 0-679-40089-3 %P 259pp Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com