Old Edition replaced by 9781845503956
Book Description
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Incredible,
By gyrogypsy (Illyria) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Twice Freed (Freestyle) (Mass Market Paperback)
I first read this book when I was about twelve--then the book was fascinating. I re-read it about a month ago (I am currently nineteen), and it was incredible. Obviously coming from a Christian perspective, the book was very uplifting, but just as another book, it is truly wonderful. It captures the essence of the early wave of Christianity in Rome, including the accurate portrayl of the persecution, but doesn't spend time dwelling on it. The only thing slightly inaccurate was the portrayl of Onesimus as a gladiator. The psychological and emotional stages were effective, but it seems as though the author had seen "Spartecus" and borrowed the fight scene and gave it a different ending. Moreover, the condition of the gladiators was greatly downplayed. But despite this slight shortcoming, the book kept my attention. Also the dialogue in several situations is somewhat juvenile, but the speakers usually were quite young, so the situation remains suitable. I highly recommend this book.
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining; Slight Blimp on the 'Corny' Meter,
By
This review is from: Twice Freed (Freestyle) (Mass Market Paperback)
This is a novel for young adult readers that provides a thoroughly fictional account behind the letter of the Apostle Paul to the man named Philemon (for those who don't know, Paul's letter is included in the canon of New Testament scripture as the Book of Philemon, right in there with Paul's more public letters to the churches at Rome, Galatia, etc.). St. John took the few facts to be gleaned from the letter (primarily, the facts that a disciple of Paul's named Onesimus was a runaway slave belonging to another Pauline disciple named Philemon - and that Paul brokered Onesimus' return to the house of Philemon) and constructed a rich background that gives the reader a colorful (and questionably accurate) picture of early Church life in Greece and Rome. Like a first-century Forrest Gump, Onesimus appears in all of the important venues of the day. For his time and place, it doesn't get much more interesting than watching a pagan orgy in Ephasus, living through the earthquake at Laodicia, enjoying the praise of Nero in the gladiator ring, and, most significantly, receiving the personal counsel of Paul himself. Whew! Well St. John's Onesimus does it all. I read this aloud to my kids, and they enjoyed it and were drawn into the drama. St. John does a nice job of 'bringing the characters to life' and pulling the reader into the story emotionally. And, by the way, Onesimus is a very unlikeable and ruthless scoundrel most of the way through this novel - St. John's intent exactly. Oddly, St. John injects more than a bit sensuality in this work, and in reading this to the kids I found myself editing on the fly from time to time (too much admiration of one another's lithe bodies and muscle tone for my reading). Overall, a nice work and wasn't as corny as it could have been (for Christian fiction written in the mid 20th century). Just remember - Paul's letter was real, but this is made-up!
5.0 out of 5 stars
What a good book!,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Twice Freed (Freestyle) (Mass Market Paperback)
I bought this for my girls to read for a literature group for our home school. Both they and I really enjoyed it!
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
