American Savior: A Novel of Divine Politics (Hardcover)

by Roland Merullo (Author)
Key Phrases: West Zenith, Wells River, Anna Songsparrow (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
When Jesus Christ turns up in West Zenith, Mass., Catholics, Jews and atheists unite to help him realize his plan of becoming America's next president in this hilarious novel from Merullo (Breakfast with Buddha). Chief adviser to the Jesus for America campaign is Russ Thomas, a cynical TV journalist who sets out to convince the American public that Jesus is the real deal. Jesus' chances of being elected seem slim as he faces skepticism from both ends of the political spectrum over his platform of kindness and goodness and the fact that he names his mother as his running mate. But as Jesus hits the campaign trail, Russ and his team begin to have faith in their candidate, themselves and humanity. Most enjoyable are the takedowns of thinly veiled political journalists: there's loud-mouthed, insult-spewing Anne Canter and Bulf Spritzer, a decent guy [who] can never quite convince the viewer that he isn't ecstatic about being in the limelight. The result is, for the most part, an uproarious satire, hampered only by Merullo's occasional slips into the preachiness about morality that he so harshly mocks. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post

Reviewed by Ron Charles

Given the fawning coverage of Barack Obama during this election season, a story about Jesus Christ coming back to Earth and running for president seems almost redundant. But American Savior is blessed with enough gentle humor to keep this "novel of divine politics" fresh and even a little inspiring. The author, Roland Merullo, is developing something of a specialty in comic fiction with religious overtones or, if you prefer, religious fiction with comic overtones. In a previous novel, Breakfast with Buddha, a publishing executive drives across America with a Mongolian monk; enlightenment ensues. And before that, Merullo published Golfing with God, about a golf pro in heaven trying to pull the Big Guy's game out of a slump.

The set-up for American Savior sounds like the answer to a satirist's prayer, but the story never rips into our political system with the kind of bitterness you might expect. The narrator, Russ Thomas, is an affable TV reporter for a local station in western Massachusetts. He opens the novel by telling us, "My whole way of looking at life was turned upside down." He knows we'll be skeptical (he was skeptical at first, too), but he goes on to tell us about the man who called himself Jesus and ran for president of the United States.

It all starts after Russ covers a few local miracles for the news. He meets someone at a coffee shop who he assumes is a crackpot. Jesus wants Russ and his girlfriend to quit their jobs and join his campaign for the presidency. "I'm going to do things differently this time," he explains. "Last time I wasn't entirely happy with the way it worked out. To be frank, it took hundreds of years for what I did to have much impact on the world, and by then things were so muddled. . . . Well, you people have never really recovered. Look at the Middle East."

After considerable soul-searching, Russ is convinced -- sort of -- that this man is the Son of God. He joins the budding presidential campaign and brings along a ragtag group of friends and relatives, including his Roman Catholic mother and his Jewish father, who's sick and tired of all these Jesus freaks but, heck, family is family. Although they know no more about winning a national election than those fishermen knew about saving humanity 2,000 years ago, they have faith. They'll need it: November is just five months away. An adviser warns Jesus: "You're going to be seen as a Jesus-Come-Lately, if you want the harsh truth."

Much of the light comedy here arises from Jesus's straight-faced goodness amid the grimy mechanics of campaigning, polling and dealing with the media. When asked about the Divine Party's platform, Jesus tells his staff, "I'm running on the beatitudes."

"They'll hammer you on national defense."

"It would not be the first time," Jesus says.

If you know the Gospels, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Jesus is a pretty savvy campaigner. The novel follows the broad outlines of the Greatest Story Ever Told but with more TV commentary. Multitudes attend Jesus's announcement rally. He arrives in a black Hummer, guarded by biker-gangsters. "You are a nation in grave spiritual danger," he tells 60,000 people -- voters, protesters and fanatics. "I cannot say I will cut your taxes and raise your salaries. What I can say is that you will have a nation based on kindness and goodness." The crowd goes wild: "Jee-zus! Jee-zus! JEE-ZUS!"

Merullo spends most of his satiric capital on the news media, including appearances by thinly disguised commentators you won't have any trouble recognizing, like "Jim Wearer," "Lenny Queen" and a particularly vicious beauty named Anne Canter. (On "Meet the Media," George Bill quotes from the New Testament.) The Democratic and Republican candidates aren't quite sure how to respond to this unusual opponent, but their minions quickly go negative. The Washington Times runs a front page photo of Jesus embracing a boy with Down syndrome: "So-called Jesus Candidate Revealed To Be Gay. Former Homosexual Lover Admits to Five-Month Affair." Rather than deny those allegations, Jesus counters with a brilliantly staged stop at the West Edfort rodeo in New Mexico. He's a man's man. The next morning the Amarillo Chronicle cheers: "Candidate Christ Takes Bull By Horns."

Merullo was born and raised a Roman Catholic in Boston, but his recent novels are decidedly ecumenical, with a sparkly touch of New Age spirituality. The Jesus of American Savior should be familiar to liberal Protestants who grew up thinking Jonathan Livingston Seagull was, like, really profound. (Guilty.) His theology is a brand of sweet Christian Gnosticism: "We are locked in a dream," he tells his campaign staff. Through many lives, we learn dominion over the "thought-force." He's hunky and hip and all about tolerance, like a Unitarian porn star. And please, don't call him "Lord"; he hates that. "For the record," he says, "I never came to be worshipped, not the first time and not this time. I came to be emulated." The only people Jesus is really against, in fact, are evangelical Christians and conservative politicians, who, if they read this novel, will have to keep turning the other cheek again and again.

It's fun to imagine what would happen if a noble candidate threw caution to the wind and ran on a platform of universal kindness that appealed to our higher nature. Unfortunately, this Jesus's statements never strike the startling, iconoclastic note we hear in the Gospels. Instead, American Savior is at its best when Russ is wrestling with his conscience, trying to fathom how the election experience changed him, blessed him. Merullo knows what he's talking about. Before he started writing novels, he was a carpenter.

Copyright 2008, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: Algonquin Books; 1 edition (August 26, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565126076
• ISBN-13: 978-1565126077
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #74,450 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Inspiration, political satire and entertainment, all in one short read., August 10, 2008

By	Kathleen Wagner "*Mitakuye Oyasin or We are A... (SWPA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Jesus Christ for President of the United States. I expected this book to be entertaining, somewhat amusing, maybe Pratchett like. I was right. I was also wrong. This was a fascinating political satire that challenges our political system, the media and indeed our very culture.

It does this in a way that is certainly entertaining. At times it is amusing. But essentially, it is so much more. This book forces us to look more deeply into our beliefs, and the way we live and believe. It forces the reader to see that there are options and that perhaps more than options, possibilities.

What would the country be like if we chose kindness over cruelty. Generosity over greed. Truth over lies.
Compelling stuff. It had the effect of making me more dissatisfied than ever with the status quo. I miss more than ever, something that we never really had.

Read this book. It doesn't preach to you. It is a quick read, it won't strain your brain, it will make you smile. It is certainly an easy read. But when you close the cover after you have read the last word. You will feel better about yourself. You will know just a little bit more about love.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Gnostic Christ runs for President, September 9, 2008

By	Traveler (New England) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

(What's this?)

Before I started actually reading Roland Merullo's "American Savior" I was expecting something along the lines of the hilarious "Lamb" by Christopher Moore. I was kind of hoping for it to be honest as "Lamb" is one of my favorite books. Within a few chapters I knew that's not what Merullo had in mind.

Merullo has a point he wants to make and he mostly succeeds here. I'm not so sure the "converted" will get it, understand it or tolerate it, but others perhaps might. I'm going to save "the point" until the end as it will include some minor spoilers.

"American Savior" is a surprisingly light read considering the topic. But it doesn't go for the funny bone that often. When it does, unfortunately, it tends to fail. Thankfully, it doesn't tend towards the excessively sappy, although there are characters within it who are a bit silly with their earnestness. At one point I was fearing the author was trying to copy Catherine Ryan Hyde ("Pay It Forward" among many others) who is sometimes great, sometimes piles on the sentiment like a million boxes of tissues. But Merullo stepped away from that precipice.

Merullo's point was a bit spoiled for me because at times he just doesn't understand the specific nit-picky things.

In one scene he refers to "flashbulbs popping, tape recorders whirring." Flashbulbs haven't "popped" since about the 80s and reporters use digital recorders now almost exclusively. There is no "whirring."

In another scene it's explained how the Secret Service just then, after the campaign had long established itself in the polls, had decided that Jesus could have protection. If you're taking in a third of the vote in the current polls in a three way race the Secret Service will want to be involved. They're not going to wait weeks or a month later like they do in the book.

These kinds of minor mistakes pulled me out of the book. I just wished Merullo had done more research.

Now, to the point . . . (possible spoilers)

This is no New Age Christ. Merullo has done his homework here.

The Jesus Christ depicted here is the Christ that some second century Christians worshiped. They were called Gnostics and they were attacked in force by the more dominant segment of the Christian faith. The Gnostics had varied beliefs and practices. Some were anti-sex for example, others were not. Some scholars (Elaine Pagels "The Gnostic Gospels") believe that they did have some common core beliefs that challenged the very foundation of the early church.

In "Savior Nation" Christ says: "I never came to be worshiped, not the first time and not this time. I came to be emulated. That's what people didn't get. Followed, as in being an example, as in making your interior world resemble mine."

Now that's both shocking and refreshing. It's about getting your own internal house in order. The Golden Rule is in there somewhere as well. Love it.

In one early Gnostic passage Christ is asked how one finds the divine and he tells the questioner to find it in himself. Merullo has no doubt read the same Gnostic scripture.

This argument destroys the need for a Pope or any religious leader to "help" you find the path or act as a communicator with God. It also destroys the demand that one believe in the Trinity or that Christ "died for your sins" before you can be saved. It empowers the individual. It's obvious why the dominant "Christian" leaders wanted the Gnostics gone. They literally attempted to make them disappear by destroying Gnostic scriptures.

Fundamentalists or anyone who believes that the only way to God is through accepting Christ as savior will despise this book. As a survivor of Christianity, I can only say that the Christ depicted here makes me want to stand up and cheer.

"Savior Nation's" Christ says to group of alleged Christians: "I was sent by him who has the right to send, and him you do not know."

Take that Focus on the Family, Pat Robertson and Sarah Palin, Christ in this book doesn't support people who condemn gays or fail to believe in God a certain way. This Christ wants you to get your own head together and treat others will love and kindness. Period, nothing else matters.

You'll notice that Merullo didn't capitalize "him" when referring to God. To some that's disrespectful. Merullo was just being consistent here. Christ here points out several times that he is not vain. He not only doesn't need you to worship him, at times he finds it annoying. Think about it - can a deity be both the most moral entity AND be vain? No, it cannot. This has always enraged me about so-called Christians who depict God as this petulant teenager who resembles Anakin Skywalker. <shudder> Just as Merullo implies in the book, Christians have utterly warped morality in their depiction of Christ.

"Savior Nation" does end as it should. It's not a stupendous ending. No thunder claps or lightening. Just the mournful longing of one of the characters. Perhaps that's the only way it could end. Merullo had already made his point several times earlier in the book and there was no sense hammering it again in the last pages.

I give the book four stars for its message. It's not great literature, however. It's a little trite in spots. I kind of wish a more literary author had tried this. The "Gnostic Christ" in modern fiction. That I love. Just wish it had been a bit better presented.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking book, January 21, 2009

By	BermudaOnion (South Carolina) - See all my reviews

Russ Thomas is a reporter for WZIZ, a TV station in Massachusetts, when he is sent to report on the story of a young child who had fallen three stories, seemed dead, and came back to life when a stranger came up and touched him. Others were calling it a miracle, but Russ remained skeptical. Later, he's sent to a hospital where the same stranger has visited a young girl and seemingly cured her of a chronic illness.

The stranger becomes known as "The Good Visitor," and he turns out to be Jesus Christ. Jesus calls Russ on his private phone and tells him that he's running for President of the United States and would like for Russ to work on his campaign. Russ is not convinced at first, but finally agrees when Jesus visits Russ's girlfriend in a dream.

Jesus assembles a ragtag campaign team and heads out on the road as the candidate for The Divinity Party and chooses his mother as his running mate. Jesus runs an unusual campaign - he doesn't criticize his opponents and he's available for questions.

American Savior by Roland Merullo started out with a bang for me. The middle of the book, with all of it's campaign details, did drag a little bit, though. When it gets to the end of the campaign, the book really picked up again. It is worth reading for all of the questions it brings up. When a woman screams that the candidate is not Jesus,

"I might not be," he said slowly. "I might not be. But my question to you is this: would you know him if he came into your midst? If he came into your midst and did not look the way you expected him to look, and did not speak as you expected him to speak, would you know him?"

That really made me sit and think for a little while. This book is humorous as well as thought provoking and I enjoyed reading it.

Roland Merulla has written ten books, including Golfing with God and Breakfast with Buddha. He lives with his wife and children in Massachusetts.