Midrash on the Juanitos: a didactic novella [Paperback]

Russell Rathbun (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 6, 2010

One part Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, one part Anchor Bible Commentary, Midrash on the Juanitos unravels the seductive, intoxicating power of reading the Bible. Mixing narrative and a playful reading of First, Second, and Third John, Russell Rathbun complicates and elucidates the text, while humorously causing us to rethink contemporary Christianity.

Editorial Reviews

Review

It begins with a lawyer and a pastor walking into a bar, almost like a self-conscious joke. But Rathbun's newest novella is no comedy. Immediately, the plot warps itself, like the undulating barstools of the first chapter, into part horror, part theologizing, and part Alice in Wonderland story about an obsessive and mentally ill pastor's search for a very particular answer in the Bible. The style of the novella is postmodern, recalling Thomas Pynchon's disjointed realities as the unnamed protagonist, an unreliable narrator, is speaking lucidly at one moment about early Christian history and experiencing terrifying hallucinations the next. Ultimately, Rathbun's narrator's project is to provide a Midrash, a rabbinic-style commentary and interpretation, of the Juanitos, the three Epistles of John. Instead of coming away with a grounded understanding of the author's biblical opinion, however, the novella elicits profound discomfort and fear, aided in no small measure by frighteningly deformed pencil-sketch illustrations accompanying the text. The search for absolute certainty and ultimate truth in scripture can be very taxing emotionally. But perhaps that is Rathbun's point after all. --Publisher's Weekly, April 2010

About the Author

Russell Rathbun is one of the preachers at House of Mercy Church in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Product Details

• Paperback: 146 pages
• Publisher: Cathedral Hill Press (April 6, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974298646
• ISBN-13: 978-0974298641
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,382,443 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Russell Rathbun is one of the preachers at House of Mercy Church (houseofmercy.org). He lives in St. Paul with his wife, two children, and their dog KoKo.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why is walking in love such a crazy idea?, July 18, 2010

By 

Linda Henry - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Midrash on the Juanitos: a didactic novella (Paperback)

I love this novel. It starts out like Fear & Loathing in LV, but the hero is a preacher who tries to literally walk into the Bible. This is at the behest of his lawyer, "a Biblical literalist who doesn't believe in God." Meanwhile, his therapist sees his problem as a chemical imbalance and says that reading the Bible is a trigger he should avoid. So when his lawyer says that the Antichrist is dead, and the proof is in the three Epistles of John (the Juanitos), Rev. L can't help but "pull the trigger." It becomes a detective story. To paraphrase the reverend, he's drawn by the possibility and authenticity of the Bible, the heart-breaking beauty of living in a walking-in-love kind of life, as opposed to the shopping/downloading/flat-screen life that offers "nearly authentic pleasure." Full of hallucinations (or are they?) and funny, beautiful streams of conscious and subconscious, with amazing illustrations by Jim Larson. Read it. Or walk into it. Whatever you're comfortable with.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ya Gotta Love Lamblove, October 5, 2010

By 

K. Hanson - See all my reviews

This review is from: Midrash on the Juanitos: a didactic novella (Paperback)

The lovable Reverend Lamblove rides again. And what a ride--equal parts Revere and Quixote. Neither post-modern nor pre-judgmental, this is no history-channel Naked New Testament documentary. Lamblove's crazed/inspired quest, for some fidelity in the authorship and meaning of the three Johns, is laudable. It is also hilarious. Lamblove's torturously non-geometric hermeneutical process elicits multiple insights, sidelights, and disclosure regarding the real anti-Christ. But Russell Rathbun's precocious preacher-man serves us all by his exegetical excesses. He is simply willing (if not certainly able) to excavate and decode some textual tension that many of us were not even aware of. In an era of widening gaps between mainstream Christian theology and some questionable cultural overreactions, Rathbun's novella brings fresh meat to a traditional midrash's stone soup.