It’s tough to do a guy-meets-Jesus book and not be too pious for some and/or too heretical for others. Landis (Longing
), a former editor-in-chief at William Morrow, walks a line somewhere between in this ambitious and lyrical story of a young veteran returning to his New Hampshire home from the Iraq War. Army sniper Warren Pease (think of a famous novel by Tolstoy) meets a blue-jeans clad Jesus (“Call me Ray,” Jesus says) on the beach, and Jesus accompanies Pease through a day of returning to important relationships—his father, his girlfriend, his toddler daughter—while reflecting on his dead mother and other past events. There’s lots of gentle humor—Jesus likes burgers and of course he knows everything, including miscellaneous facts about the natural world. Much grimmer, and darker, are episodes set in Iraq of intense violence; they also seem somewhat stagier next to the relative naturalism of the New Hampshire setting, Ray’s supernaturalism notwithstanding. Being about Christ doesn’t automatically make it an edifying Christian novel, and it won’t sit well with some conservative religious readers. But it’s worth a dozen Shacks
. (Sept.)
