Customer Reviews

The Novelist

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Think a novelist's life consists of fancy release parties, crowded book signings, and TV appearances? Think again. Being a writer is tough work, even for a bestselling one like Jordan Casey, the protagonist of The Novelist. She's made her success penning 20 testosterone-laced novels featuring super-spy Rex Tower, which is why most of the world thinks "she" is a "he". But the students in Jordan's class "An Introduction to Novel Writing" at the community college quickly discover Rex's creator is actually an utterly normal middle-aged mother of three.

Within the first minutes of class, one of Jordan's students challenges her to write a book less plastic and more personal than her Rex Tower stories--to open a vein at the keyboard, which in authorese means bleeding your heart into the story. At first offended, Jordan tries to ignore the challenge. But the criticism of her shallow novels cuts deep. Jordan's always been reluctant to merge her faith with her writing, but what kind of message is that sending to her son Zach, who's already skeptical of her Christianity? Soon Jordan sees the opportunity. Not only can she show, rather than tell, her class how to write a novel, but maybe she can use the resulting story to reach Zach.

And so a novella is born. Interspersed throughout the modern-day scenes of The Novelist, we read the manuscript Jordan writes for her students. A spiritual allegory she titles The Ambassador, Jordan uses slot machines and gambling as symbols to share the story of a man who is all of us.

But as Jordan's fictional story unfolds, so does the one of her real-life. Zach's increasingly erratic behavior drives mother and son even further apart, and Jordan and her husband struggle with how to handle him. Finding Zach's journal, Jordan is shocked to read about a side of Zach she never dreamed existed--he wants to die. Where did she go wrong? And how can she help a son who doesn't want to be helped?

Readers of The Novelist can't help but wonder how much of Angela Hunt is in Jordan Casey. After all, they're both bestselling novelists, drive the same model car, and even own mastiffs. But Angela insists, "Jordan is much more successful, wealthy, and better looking than me." It's clear however, that what Jordan lacks in her Rex Tower novels -- emotion and character -- Angela certainly doesn't. I knew I was in the hands of a skilled writer who drew me into the story from the get-go.

Interestingly, The Novelist also acts as a sort of primer for budding writers. Jordan's advice to her students could just as easily be read in an issue of Writer's Digest. From how to make time to write, to giving your characters warts, it's practical counsel all writers will appreciate. And anyone familiar with Angela's previous novels will smile at the nod toward two of her own, Unspoken and The Canopy, in a piece of advice Jordan gives the students.

When I asked Angela why she chose to write two stories in one, she said, "Jordan's story is a metaphor to illustrate how God plots our lives and yet still gives us free will within the framework of our stories." A concept Angela handles well. In the slower-paced allegory scenes of The Ambassador I recognized the Garden of Eden, man's fall, and his ultimate, beautiful redemption.

A great novel to pick up at the end of a hectic day, crisp writing and spiritual candor mark The Novelist as another winner for Ms. Hunt.

--Reviewed by C.J. Darlington for Infuze Magazine

Angela Hunt wraps a story in a story in such a unique way that it was hard to put this book down.

Jordan Casey is a writer, wife, mother and teacher. She is at a point where she is facing some difficult struggles and instead of trying to balance everything, she chooses a different path. She declines what could be a big paying project in order to teach a writing class and write a book that is unlike one she has ever attempted. The result is a magical tale of choices, mis-steps, love and redemption.

I loved the characters in this book. The husband and wife seemed like a real couple. The class that Jordan teaches was full of real life writing tid bits that I felt like I could use in my own writing. Even the smaller characters were full. I did not fully understand the character of the son, but I don't think that was the point. This was about a mother's struggles with her son, so I didn't feel like I needed a more in depth portrait of him.

I recommend this book and thank the author for giving me something a little out of the norm to enjoy.

I have found it hard to find beautifully written Christian fiction, but this book certainly fits the bill. It contains paragraphs, phrases, that make you stop and catch your breath. It also captures the protagonist's faith effortlessly. Without being syrupy or preachy, without having story lines constructed to artificially expound on it, it is just there. I recommend this book highly.

This is the first book authored by Angela Hunt that I've read, though I own many. Now I'm wondering why I waited so long to discover this talented author's work. I've read many stories with parallel times or situations, usually with the present reverting to a historical setting, and often I prefer one story over the author. I want to flip past the present story to read the good stuff...the story within the story. But The Novelist isn't like that. It's the only book I've ever read where I can stay that both stories equally stimulated me. They both held my attention. Both stories contained "the good stuff" I crave in a book. I love emotion, believable conflict, and a story that sucks me in so much that I can't stop reading it. And the allegory was so incredibly well done and ingenious that it literally blew my mind. I now see Christ's redemption even more powerfully because of the allegorical tale in this book. (BTW, I also love romance, but there wasn't much in this baby--and I still loved it! That's how you can be certain it was fabulous.)

The Novelist is one of the best books I've read in regards to tying things together in a convincing and satisfying conclusion. I loved how Angela Hunt showed the author in the story growing more than the person she hoped to influence with her story, and after fighting the Lord, she ended up being okay with that. Aren't most of us like this? We elbow the person next to us when the pastor is preaching a convicting message, but we should be looking at our own hearts first. The Novelist had me looking at my own heart and I'm better for the experience. Few stories impact me so much that I want to grab people off the street to tell them they MUST read this book, but The Novelist is one of them. It's got a powerful message that is seamlessly woven in, dynamic characters who will grip your heart, and it deals with sensitive subjects in an incredibly sensitive and well-informed manner. I loved this story because it has impacted my life--and not just because I am also a novelist--but because it's so rich and satisfying. I highly recommend it.

I was used to her suspense stories, so I was a bit uneasy about her writing something completely different. I read it and was blown away. It takes incredible talent to write a "story within a story" but Hunt does it so seamlessly that it just works. I had trouble putting it down. Definitely a must-read if you're a Hunt fan!

Angela Hunt offers us a rare insight into the inner workings of a writer and a parent in this fine novel.

Jordan is challenged to write a novel from the heart rather to simply fit a genre. As a beginning author I was deeply gratified with Hunt's willingness to abandon her own genre and to indeed write a book strictly from the heart. I don't how much of the Novelist reflects Hunt's own soul but I know she must have left some of it on these pages.

The story within the story takes a little while to get used to. But it works wonderfully once you give it a chance! How many of us would be willing to examine ourselves as honestly as Jordan does in the Novelist? This is a different kind of book and for that I give it five stars.

Angela Hunt insightfully creates wonderfully believable characters in Jordan Casey Kerrigan, best selling novelist, and her seminary professor husband, Carl. The Kerrigans live a comfortable life in the suburbs of Reno. The only major dilemma in their lives is the instability of their youngest child, twenty-one-year old Zachary.

After bringing Zack home from college in Utah after what seemed to be major bingeing episodes and a beating by thugs, Jordan and Carl pray that they can keep an eye on their son. They also pray that somehow Zack will grow out of his destructive behavior and become more interested in the life in Christ that they found not long ago.

Meanwhile, Jordan takes on teaching an evening fiction writing class at the local community college. When a badgering student challenges her to open a vein and write something more personal than her usual machismo loaded novels, an idea flourishes that Jordan believes may get a message through to her wayward son.

Jordan writes a brilliant allegorical novella (captured within the main story) as a teaching aid for her class. She also hopes to eventually use it to help capture the heart of her struggling son.

I don't always appreciate it when a writer attempts these feats of a story within a story, but I found this one intriguing and well developed. There were a few times while reading the allegory that I found myself wondering what was happening in the main story. But overall Hunt did a great job of holding my attention in both worlds.

The characters behave believably as many parents who find themselves in traumatic situations with their children. They struggle to know the right thing to say and do, and sometimes work harder keeping up appearances than being than being open, honest and real with their hurting children.

In resolving the story, Hunt takes an unexpected turn. Then we, along with her characters, are surprised by a heart-rending discovery.

- Victoria Austin

Angela Hunt is such a talented and imaginative author, but The Novelist is my favorite of her books...so far. I was captivated from the first sentence by her unique characters and multi-level plot that had me hooked in until the final satisfying page.

Christy Award winner Angela Hunt continues to churn out the goods with an uncommon twist, something she does with novel perspective and insightful grace. In this story, Hunt devises a clever scenario whereupon the protagonist, Jordan Casey Kerrigan --- the middle-aged female author of 20 bestselling spy novels --- decides to write an allegory in step with the community college writing class she is teaching. At the outset, Kerrigan faces some pretty potent verbal opposition from a male student who thoroughly thrashes her world-renown fictional hero. Taken aback, Kerrigan tries to see past the blatant criticism and privately wonders if her obnoxious student hasn't hit upon some measure of truth.

When her husband suggests a similar opinion, Kerrigan decides to take on the challenge of writing in a completely different genre, one that will open her veins like never before. Despite her initial angst, Kerrigan finds herself drawn to weaving a tale that mirrors the spiritual life journey her troubled young adult son, Zack, is currently living out by way of drinking, drugs, and outbursts of excesses and extremes of every emotional sort.

While Kerrigan's home front is characterized by the dips and dives of her clearly tortured son, Hunt finds solace and some peace in writing her concerns, observations and --- most obviously --- her weighted heart-burdens through her allegorical tale. Kerrigan steps into Paradise and, as the creator, writes in the main character William (the pseudonym for Zack). Day by day, Kerrigan explores the imaginary world of Paradise where she gives William the freedom to choose right from wrong, good or evil, allowing appropriate consequence to brim and overflow into the next. As real life concerns overshadow her professional life, Kerrigan continues to teach her college class, giving instruction on the how-tos of fiction in the making to eager students. She is suddenly on the learning end of the stick as she realizes how difficulties often force one to face up to hidden fears and the future unknown.

With adeptness, Kerrigan works out her spiritual take on making decisions, forfeiting others, and then coming to terms with the eventual outcomes by allowing her fictional character William to feel the brunt of his pain. Suffering along with her characters, Kerrigan prays that her allegory will touch a place within her son's heart, drawing him to Christ. As the writing class learns the mechanics of delivering a powerful message, so does Kerrigan --- painfully so. Only, she balks at God's instrument of delivery; when Zack attempts suicide, Kerrigan can no longer play the "fix-it" mother role. She finds herself upended, without recourse, and finally, a willing character in the story of her own life.

Readers will appreciate Hunt's ability to mesh these two storylines together: the fictitious Kerrigan life with the allegorical Kerrigan work in progress. Hunt asks the important questions throughout her text and then thoughtfully allows time and pages for these ideas to simmer before offering some conclusion. Perhaps the most poignant moments in this rendering occur when Hunt asks the introspective questions only a mother can understand, when she realizes she is powerless to make a difference and heal those she loves. Each transparent encounter is beautifully expressed and laden with gospel help and hope.


--- Reviewed by Michele Howe

Let me preface this by saying that while I'm a Christian, I tend to hate most "Christian" Fiction. Most of it seems to be formulaic "feel good" fluff. But that is neither here nor there. This is about "The Novelist."

I own an anthology of short stories from the 70s titled "Anti-Story." It's a collection that has found works of fiction that shatter your concept of what fiction can be. The fiction is either odd because of the topic of the story, the organization of the story, and many other things.

"The Novelist," if it were 30 pages long instead of a large novel, would have fit right in with that anthology. It's a great, surreal intersection of imagination and reality that makes me wish *I* had thought of it first.

The novel has two main parts to it... the current trials and tribulations of an author who is teaching a college course on story crafting while her son is "dealing" with alcoholism and other problems... and the a story that she is writing to deal with this. They are laced together well and provideds an interesting read... the one story line providing the tension, the other the allegory.

"The Novelist" is a daring accomplisment for Angela Hunt and to her I tip my cap.