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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Magnificent characters, history, story,
By Avid Reader (Franklin, Tn) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Peace Like a River (Paperback)
"Peace Like A River" is part of the "Testament of Man", Fisher's story of the rise of Western civilization from cave man to the modern age. Each of the twelve books centers on particular themes or concepts without which the world would be radically different. What shines is not only a detailed portrayal of the times and ideas but fabulous characters, dialogue and emotion.
In the 4th century Christianity has split into hundreds of rival sects with conflicting, divergent and bizarre rites. Hareb is a dour Christian who believes laughter is from the Devil. His long-suffering wife does not understand his moods nor beliefs yet follows him. Their son, David, a devoted Christian, is in love with a slave woman, Helene. He frees her but is caught. Escaping to the desert, Helen encounters many of the various sects including those attempting to obtain salvation through mortification of the flesh - ghastly masochistic acts of self-denial. She meets Mark, a nice man whose Christianity is quite shallow. When Hareb appears on the scene to "wrestle with the devil" by resisting the most beautiful whore in the land the stage is set for a stunning finale. Helen is a sharp-tongued beauty who gives nor takes quarters. She defies authority in her quest for truth and is shocked by the way the simple teachings of a Jewish peasant have been altered. One major theme that is present in other novels of the series is the growing tendency to cast woman as the source of evil. By this time, the Jesus of history has been lost, replaced by a glorious, supernatural Christ of the Roman Empire. At the end, Helen attempts to discover Jesus, the Jewish peasant, but fellow Christians scoff at the notion that the "Word was a Jew". Brilliant and bittersweet, my Grade: A+
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