Review: Logos by John Neeleman

Original Title: Logos

Author: John Neeleman

Publisher: Homebound Publications

Release Date: March 10th 2015

Source: From Novel Publicity 

Genre: Historical Fiction

Logos is a bildungsroman about the anonymous author of the original Gospel, set amid the kaleidoscopic mingling of ancient cultures. In A.D. 66, Jacob is one of Jerusalem’s privileged Greco-Roman Jews. When Roman soldiers murder his parents and his beloved sister disappears in a pogrom led by the Roman procurator, he joins Israel’s rebellion against Rome. The rebellion he helps to foment leads to more tragedy—personal and, ultimately, cosmic: Jacob’s wife and son perish in Rome’s siege of Jerusalem, and the Romans destroy Jerusalem and the Temple, and finally extinguish Israel at Masada. Jacob wanders, and in Rome, he joins other dissidents—plotting vengeance not by arms, but by the power of an idea. Paul of Tarsus, Josephus, the keepers of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the historical Jesus himself each play a role in Jacob’s tumultuous fortunes, but the women who have loved him compel the transforming and subversive climax.

REVIEW

I am a Hindu and I know about Christianity only through my Christian friends and movies.  It's so popular that many movies are taken even in my regional language.  So, I entered this book with as much nervousness when one has on their interview day.  As far as I am concerned, this book is just plain fiction to me, but the research work and hard work of the author can be noticed.

The story follows Jacob, whose life traverses along various historic life events.  Jacob is not the usual hero type material.  He is the hero, who is common man.  So, seeing history through his eyes is definitely a story, that is commendable.  Jacob faces so much tragedy in his journey, but still comes up with confidence and heart in each instance.

Facts and fiction play side by side in the novel and the readers will be kept interested enough to get absorbed into the life of Jacob.  The real story, as said by John Neeleman, questions some major beliefs of the society.  Well, I am not good with Christianity or history, so I am not the right person for judging this part.

A new perspective on history!

4 STARS!