RSS Feed (xml)
Title: The Honourable MP Who Resigned
Author: Godfrey Mwene Kalimugogo
Reviewer: Dennis D. Muhumuza
Hardly a year after he released Bury me In A Simple Grave (2009), Godfrey Mwene Kalimugogo is back with a new novel that is guaranteed to ruffle some feathers in the corridors of our parliament. The Honourable MP Who Resigned is a 173-page account of a man who resigns from parliament and is locked in the toilet of his house by his wife and a local priest, the only “ransom” being that he withdraws his resignation letter in exchange for his liberty.
They argue that his intention to resign is an inexcusable betrayal of the trust the people of Muhiga Constituency put in him. But the reader cannot be duped; it’s clear that Ediosa, the MP’s wife, is the most egocentric woman one could ever meet. As she confesses, “I am not the type of woman who, when she passes by, little women should giggle and pinch each other, saying, ‘There is the wife of the former MP.” So when she conspires with the crazy priest, Benon Baguma, they become a deadly combination.
Even more, natives of the locale begin to question the sanity of the protagonist, for they cannot understand how a sane man can throw away “such a juicy package” as being an MP, a position of honour that they believe everybody would kill for!
But Medard Mugisha is fed up with the madness of the politics of the August House, which has become a den that inhibits the “custodians of greed, opportunism and corruption…a formidable obstacle to any change that may threaten the status quo.”
As he tells the narrator, parliament has lost its virility and is now there to “rubber-stamp ready-made decisions” of authorities that be. In biting satire, Kalimugogo exposes the idiocy of our MPs and their politics of the belly, the deceit of the people that are supposed to be the most close to us (in this case the wife of the MP betraying her husband) and the hypocrisy of the men of the cloth. Also, the mission to rescue the poor MP exposes the incompetence and recklessness of the armed forces.
The madness of Ugandan politics today is recreated in this hilarious novel. It also brings to mind the hullabaloo created by the resignation of Mbale Municipality MP Wilfred Kajeke in July 2009. The book is available in bookstores for Shs10,000.
--Sunday Monitor, October 31, 2010
Saturday, November 27, 2010
A lover and writer of good humour
At 67, Kalimugogo’s voice quavers with age but his enunciation remains perfect. He took Dennis D. Muhumuza back to the formative years that connected him to literature; a connection from which he has never extricated himself. 
Not much is known about Geofrey Mwene Kalimugogo but he is a prolific force in Ugandan fiction. His first book, Dare to Die, was released in 1972 but it’s his third novel, Trials and Tribulations in Sandu’s Home (1974) that distinguished him as a witty writer; the domestic comedy immediately got on the literature syllabus.
This he ably does, exposing corporate greed, corruption and the alarming gulf there is between the rich and the poor; issues of concern that a Ugandan reader easily identifies with. A Murky River ((2009) is, for example, about a man who worships money so much that he forgets his mother, only to discover after her death that no amount of money can bring her back.
His 2010 release, The Honourable M.P. Who Resigned, exposes the politics of opportunism, intrigue, sycophancy and the force with which the virtuous are exterminated, while in Bury Me in a Simple Grave, he realistically captures a society in which today’s generation disrespect elders.
“In the old society, the respect of the young for the older was sort of glue that kept society together,” he says with a faraway look, “But all that is getting loose; a young man telling his grandfather to go to hell was unthinkable. And in writing this book, I thought, ‘What does that presage?’” he said.
In a pithy style, enriched more by repartees, the tongue-in-cheek and satire, Kalimugogo presents egocentric, highly patronising, capricious and loquacious megalomaniacs that love their booze and live by the dictum, “For God and my belly!”
And beneath the humour are deep moral lessons. “As a Christian, I believe men and women should do good things because that’s what makes the world a better place,” he says.
The humour, he confesses, has much to do with the influence that English writer P.G. Wodehouse (1881-1975) has had on him.
“Wodehouse is the funniest person I’ve ever read in my life,” he says. “I don’t enjoy writing or reading dark material; I find it very difficult to put myself in a sad mood as a writer. I love good humour, satire, farce written in fresh and good language.”
His connection to literature; from which he has never extricated himself, began at Nyakasura SSS, where he studied from 1959 to 1964.
“The school had a first-class library and in S.4 and S.5, I was the chief librarian,” he says. “By the time I joined Makerere University College of the University of East Africa in 1965, I had read all the great masters: Joseph Conrad, Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy and Alexander Pope among others.”
At Makerere, Kalimugogo enjoyed the finest literary interactions that were to shape his literary ambitions. His contemporaries included John Ruganda, Prof Timothy Wangusa, Rose Mbowa, and Laban Erapu among others with whom they used to meet to discuss books and critique their own writings.
“The atmosphere was absolutely on fire with the passion and desire for literature,” he says nostalgically. “Our lecturers were extremely sharp and eager and the department of literature was running an internationally recognised literary magazine, Penpoint, which I edited in 1967.”
Kalimugogo graduated in 1968 with an Honours Degree in English and Classical Literature. He joined the Foreign Affairs Ministry in 1970 and worked in Kinshasa, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Nairobi before he retired in 2003 to spend the rest of his life writing.
In his demanding diplomatic schedule, it’s amazing that he could still find time to writ: “It’s because, apart from the joy of my family, there’s nothing as enjoyable as writing and reading.”
The light-skinned author would like to see more indigenous works on the national curriculum because “they have the most immediate relevance to the Ugandan audience.”
He advises budding writers to read widely because “it’s the only way a writer can establish a wide scope of literary reference.”
Kalimugogo comes from Kabale District, is married and has four children who are avid readers.
“Knowing that my books are being consumed and appreciated by the reading public is my best reward,” he concludes.
--Sunday Monitor, October 17, 2010
Not much is known about Geofrey Mwene Kalimugogo but he is a prolific force in Ugandan fiction. His first book, Dare to Die, was released in 1972 but it’s his third novel, Trials and Tribulations in Sandu’s Home (1974) that distinguished him as a witty writer; the domestic comedy immediately got on the literature syllabus.
Kalimugogo has since published 12 novels - a feat that’s yet to be matched by any of his contemporaries. In 2004 and 2010 respectively, A Visitor Without a Mission (2003) and Bury Me in a Simple Grave (2009) earned him honours from the National Book Trust of Uganda.
His novels are not products of pure imagination, seeing the realness with which they depict the experiences of everyday life.
“The job of an artist is to recreate a situation,” he says.
This he ably does, exposing corporate greed, corruption and the alarming gulf there is between the rich and the poor; issues of concern that a Ugandan reader easily identifies with. A Murky River ((2009) is, for example, about a man who worships money so much that he forgets his mother, only to discover after her death that no amount of money can bring her back.
His 2010 release, The Honourable M.P. Who Resigned, exposes the politics of opportunism, intrigue, sycophancy and the force with which the virtuous are exterminated, while in Bury Me in a Simple Grave, he realistically captures a society in which today’s generation disrespect elders.
“In the old society, the respect of the young for the older was sort of glue that kept society together,” he says with a faraway look, “But all that is getting loose; a young man telling his grandfather to go to hell was unthinkable. And in writing this book, I thought, ‘What does that presage?’” he said.
In a pithy style, enriched more by repartees, the tongue-in-cheek and satire, Kalimugogo presents egocentric, highly patronising, capricious and loquacious megalomaniacs that love their booze and live by the dictum, “For God and my belly!”
And beneath the humour are deep moral lessons. “As a Christian, I believe men and women should do good things because that’s what makes the world a better place,” he says.
The humour, he confesses, has much to do with the influence that English writer P.G. Wodehouse (1881-1975) has had on him.
“Wodehouse is the funniest person I’ve ever read in my life,” he says. “I don’t enjoy writing or reading dark material; I find it very difficult to put myself in a sad mood as a writer. I love good humour, satire, farce written in fresh and good language.”
His connection to literature; from which he has never extricated himself, began at Nyakasura SSS, where he studied from 1959 to 1964.
“The school had a first-class library and in S.4 and S.5, I was the chief librarian,” he says. “By the time I joined Makerere University College of the University of East Africa in 1965, I had read all the great masters: Joseph Conrad, Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy and Alexander Pope among others.”
At Makerere, Kalimugogo enjoyed the finest literary interactions that were to shape his literary ambitions. His contemporaries included John Ruganda, Prof Timothy Wangusa, Rose Mbowa, and Laban Erapu among others with whom they used to meet to discuss books and critique their own writings.
“The atmosphere was absolutely on fire with the passion and desire for literature,” he says nostalgically. “Our lecturers were extremely sharp and eager and the department of literature was running an internationally recognised literary magazine, Penpoint, which I edited in 1967.”
Kalimugogo graduated in 1968 with an Honours Degree in English and Classical Literature. He joined the Foreign Affairs Ministry in 1970 and worked in Kinshasa, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Nairobi before he retired in 2003 to spend the rest of his life writing.
In his demanding diplomatic schedule, it’s amazing that he could still find time to writ: “It’s because, apart from the joy of my family, there’s nothing as enjoyable as writing and reading.”
The light-skinned author would like to see more indigenous works on the national curriculum because “they have the most immediate relevance to the Ugandan audience.”
He advises budding writers to read widely because “it’s the only way a writer can establish a wide scope of literary reference.”
Kalimugogo comes from Kabale District, is married and has four children who are avid readers.
“Knowing that my books are being consumed and appreciated by the reading public is my best reward,” he concludes.
--Sunday Monitor, October 17, 2010
Don’t ever doubt your ability to impact the lives of others
Title: The Price of Stones
Author: Jackson Twesigye Kaguri
Reviewer: Dennis D. Muhumuza
This is a true story about an individual who took a step of faith to help his community. Jackson Twesigye Kaguri was lucky, at least, that his uneducated parents sacrificed to educate him; an opportunity he maximised, excelling and earning a government spot at Makerere University and finally finding himself at Columbia University as a visiting scholar.
There, Kaguri fell for and married an African American woman and it was when he brought her back home in the remote village of Nyakagyezi, in Rukungiri district, that he recognised the gravity of need in his neighbourhood as hundreds of people lined up outside his family’s door, seeking tuition and other necessities for children of relatives who had died of HIV/Aids.
Kaguri deeply comprehended their plight, seeing that he had lost his beloved big brother and sister to the deadly disease and whose children he was now taking care of. That day in 2001, together with his compassionate wife, he knew they had to do something. Thus, Nyaka Aids Orphans School was born, with the intention of “saving one child at a time.”
However, it was not easy as Kaguri had to confront financial obstacles, doubting Thomases and other individuals who thought he was using the Nyaka Project as bait to contest for and win a parliamentary seat.
Relying on God and the larger support of the community, Kaguri was undaunted as he began with one classroom, “stone by stone.” As the vision took shape, the sceptics relented and started supporting him, donors came on board andright now, the Nyaka Aids Orphans Project has since grown and is helping hundreds of orphans and widows.
The Price of Stones is about that challenging but incredible journey. In 263 pages, Kaguri and Susan Urbanek Linville crisply tell this moving account, sugared with hilarious stories of Kaguri growing up and how his father’s strictness, mother’s immoderate love and the generosity of his elder brother were to shape him into the inspirational figure he is today.
President Jimmy Carter praises the book as “an inspiring account of turning tragedy into hope”, while another reader notes: “If you’ve ever doubted your ability to impact the lives of others, read this story and it will change your mind and heart.” Published in the US by Viking Penguin early this year, this book is already available in Ugandan bookstores.
--Sunday Monitor, October 17, 2010
Author: Jackson Twesigye Kaguri
Reviewer: Dennis D. Muhumuza
This is a true story about an individual who took a step of faith to help his community. Jackson Twesigye Kaguri was lucky, at least, that his uneducated parents sacrificed to educate him; an opportunity he maximised, excelling and earning a government spot at Makerere University and finally finding himself at Columbia University as a visiting scholar. Kaguri deeply comprehended their plight, seeing that he had lost his beloved big brother and sister to the deadly disease and whose children he was now taking care of. That day in 2001, together with his compassionate wife, he knew they had to do something. Thus, Nyaka Aids Orphans School was born, with the intention of “saving one child at a time.”
However, it was not easy as Kaguri had to confront financial obstacles, doubting Thomases and other individuals who thought he was using the Nyaka Project as bait to contest for and win a parliamentary seat.
Relying on God and the larger support of the community, Kaguri was undaunted as he began with one classroom, “stone by stone.” As the vision took shape, the sceptics relented and started supporting him, donors came on board andright now, the Nyaka Aids Orphans Project has since grown and is helping hundreds of orphans and widows.
The Price of Stones is about that challenging but incredible journey. In 263 pages, Kaguri and Susan Urbanek Linville crisply tell this moving account, sugared with hilarious stories of Kaguri growing up and how his father’s strictness, mother’s immoderate love and the generosity of his elder brother were to shape him into the inspirational figure he is today.
President Jimmy Carter praises the book as “an inspiring account of turning tragedy into hope”, while another reader notes: “If you’ve ever doubted your ability to impact the lives of others, read this story and it will change your mind and heart.” Published in the US by Viking Penguin early this year, this book is already available in Ugandan bookstores.
--Sunday Monitor, October 17, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
For how long are we going to provoke God?
The prosperity gospel, or the gospel of the financial seed, has become preeminent in church, alienating the poor and conspiratorially replacing the gospel of fire and brimstone, writes Dennis D. Muhumuza
In his famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” fiery American theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), pleads with Christians to mend their ways and cease provoking God.
The sermon may be 269 years old, but its relevance is still as immediate as it is powerful, for it is evident there is a desperate need of healing and cleansing from the leprosy of sin that has infiltrated the church today and subjected it to mockery. Avarice has overshadowed the real Gospel as businessmen are busy becoming pastors and ripping off unsuspecting congregants for self aggrandisement.
The prosperity gospel or the gospel of the financial seed, has become preeminent in church, alienating the poor and conspiratorially replacing the gospel of fire and brimstone (Revelation 19: 20) that has long been effective in reminding believers about the ramifications of sin.
The non-believers and hypocrites in church circles are on rampage, using their money and treachery to hook up church girls; others are running after fame and riches at the expense of heeding the holy dictate of seeking the righteousness of Christendom by which these things follow by default (Mathew 6: 33).
The prosperity gospel or the gospel of the financial seed, has become preeminent in church, alienating the poor and conspiratorially replacing the gospel of fire and brimstone (Revelation 19: 20) that has long been effective in reminding believers about the ramifications of sin.
The non-believers and hypocrites in church circles are on rampage, using their money and treachery to hook up church girls; others are running after fame and riches at the expense of heeding the holy dictate of seeking the righteousness of Christendom by which these things follow by default (Mathew 6: 33).
It is flabbergasting how drinkers of inequity easily quote scripture to justify their straying: “All have fallen short of the glory of God,” “Let him without sin cast the first stone” as they go on amusing themselves in the amusement park of secularism. It explains the latest trend of sisters in church getting married in a hurry to disguise their pregnancies and quite a number dying while aborting.
The Biblical command of handling our salvation with fear and trembling has been ignored; we are living in the fast lane; indulging; replicating the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18, 19), after all God’s grace is sufficient.
One is tempted to believe these are the last days alluded to in 2 Timothy: 3, where greed, hedonism, envy, immorality, pride, disobedience, violence, deceit, recklessness, irreligiousness and all manner of loathsome behaviour had become the only way of life.
Similarly, we have become like the Cretans, who professed to know the Lord when in works they denied Him, “being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate” (Titus 1: 16). That is right; we should be guilty! For how long is God going to be “dreadfully provoked” as Edwards puts it? For how long are we going to abuse the liberty that God, in his immeasurable goodness, has granted us?
To think that it is alright to sin and repent afterwards is unquestionably delusional because life is so slippery that none can even tell what happens in the next microsecond. The Bible says the Master will arrive incognito and cut the unfaithful servant in pieces; sharing the fate of the disobedient (Luke 12: 35-48).
For as much as God is indescribably merciful, he resents hypocrisy and disobedience. Lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salt for this (Genesis 19:26), while Ananias and his wife Sapphira were struck dead for their financial dishonesty (Acts 5:1-11).
For as much as God is indescribably merciful, he resents hypocrisy and disobedience. Lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salt for this (Genesis 19:26), while Ananias and his wife Sapphira were struck dead for their financial dishonesty (Acts 5:1-11).
Edwards stresses that we are already condemned. That God holds us over the pitiless pit of hell, looking at us as worthy of nothing but to be cast into the fire, yet His hand upholds us from falling into the fire because of His mercy. Should He then be taken for granted? The Israelites crossed the Red Sea under the cloud of God but later desired evil things and sat down to a feast that turned into an orgy of drinking and sex. But in one day, 23,000 of them fell dead as a warning to us that the Lord must not be put to the test (Corinthians 10: 1-9).
The Bible further says straying after testing the righteousness and goodness of God is synonymous with crucifying once again the Son of God and holding Him up to contempt, thereby becoming like worthless land full of thorns and thistles and whose end is to be burned (Hebrews 5, 6).
Wake up, therefore, from your drunken stupor, says the Bible - and do not go on sinning so that the power of God that is constant in our lives can help us win in the daily war between the body and soul as revealed in Galatians 5: 17. Paul himself became a pugilist, punching his carnal self to bring it under subjection and subjugation so as to win the unfading crown presented to all who finish the race of salvation (1Corrinthians 9: 24-26).
It is time to mature from the elementary doctrine of Christ and graduate from milk to solid food in the word of righteousness by learning to distinguish good from evil. That way, we cease dreadfully provoking God, as Edwards put it.
--Sunday Monitor, October 10, 2010
It is time to mature from the elementary doctrine of Christ and graduate from milk to solid food in the word of righteousness by learning to distinguish good from evil. That way, we cease dreadfully provoking God, as Edwards put it.
--Sunday Monitor, October 10, 2010
The right door will get you to prosperity
Title: Tapping God’s Blessings
Author: Robert Bake Tumuhaise
Reviewer: Dennis D. Muhumuza
Author: Robert Bake Tumuhaise
Reviewer: Dennis D. Muhumuza
The front-cover picture of a hand unlocking a padlock did not have as much effect on me as the opening lines of the second paragraph of the first chapter: “We stand in the present holding the keys to the future doors of success and failure; it’s we who decide which door to open.”
The realness of those words struck me profoundly, overwhelming me with a sense of guilt; it hit me that had I chosen to open the right door, I would be far ahead on my prosperity journey. But I let life’s hard knocks keep me on the canvas instead of rising up and buffering.
That’s how convicting Tapping God’s Blessings is. Inspirational speaker and author Robert Bake Tumuhaise writes that we are all born to shine; to overshadow failure like light chases away darkness. He argues that it’s all about choice really: refuse to be poor, miserable, sick, barren or even an addict. Choose good health, joy and prosperity.First released in 2008 and aptly subtitled Keys to Open Doors of Success in your Life, the 126-page book is sugared with real life stories of people who have utilised or blown their chances and of ordinary Biblical figures that tapped God’s blessings and registered extraordinary exploits.
Most people measure success by the number of posh cars they drive or the mansions they own. But the author argues that success in God’s estimation is much more comprehensive than mere material wealth. And it’s this prosperity as prescribed by God that he writes needs be embraced. He shows how, including how dangerous it is to worship money and how ignorance has chained many in poverty, or how misdirected talents keep us struggling and dissatisfied.
Bake stresses that God should be mandatory in our lives as in all our business plans and ambitions; what he calls “seeking the God of blessings before seeking the blessings of God!”
The enviable simplicity, the touch of humour and most of all the believability that characterise Tapping God’s Blessings makes it the best inspirational Ugandan book I’ve read so far and one I strongly recommend for everyone that wants to prosper but is clueless on how to go about it.
--Sunday Monitor, October 10, 2010
--Sunday Monitor, October 10, 2010
Sunday, October 3, 2010
The literary volcano that Beverly Nambozo is
If there’s one person that has played her part in the rise of Uganda’s literary industry, particularly in the area of poetry, it’s Nambozo, writes Dennis D. Muhumuza
Her latest story can be found in Talking Tales (2009), a collection of short stories and poems by Femrite members. Titled Paddling, it’s a moving account of a young girl who gets impregnated by a priest and is contemplating throwing herself in a lake after she’s shunned.
Most of her poems, just like her short stories, are irresistibly sad and personal. As she confesses in one of her blog entries, she finds it difficult to write creatively when she’s happy: “Sadness makes me create. Emptiness makes me want to feel full and so I write...”
Bev, as is fondly known to friends, has worked as a teacher at Greenhill Academy and as radio presenter at Power FM but writing has always been her number one love. She quit her job at the East African Sub-regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women to focus on writing.
The effervescent lady had long observed a glaring absence of a platform devoted to promoting poetry for and by Ugandan women. So, she founded the annual BN Poetry Awards that recently celebrated their second anniversary with Sophie Alal’s poem, Making Modern Love, scooping the top prize of $250 and an autographed copy of Dr Susan Kiguli’s poetry collection, The African Saga.
The 33-year-old was immediately nominated for the August 2009 Arts Press Association (APA) Awards for rejuvenating indigenous poetry. She has since extended the poetry awards project to schools to stimulate students to “push their pens to the pinnacle.”
“The schools project is aimed at meeting the financial and literary needs of both male and female students through linking poetry to financial literacy,” she says. “After several sessions, students will submit poems that speak largely on saving, investment and the culture of money. These poems shall then be reviewed by a panel of judges after which they will be printed and distributed amongst other schools in the region.”
Even more, her initiative has birthed what is called Azania, an inter-university literary platform organised by Lillian Akampurira Aujo, winner of the top prize in the inaugural BN Poetry Awards for her poem, Soft Tonight.
“My intention is to continue making poetry matter,” says Bev. “There are several individuals and better established groups I’ve met in Uganda and East Africa that are doing a lot of work to promote poetry and I’m humbled to be part of a similar work as theirs.”
A holder of a Bachelor’s Degree in Education with a concentration in English studies and literature, Bev explains her obsession with poetry in an ugpulse.com article: “Poets are synonymous with passion. Poetry is part of the thrill of life…most Ugandan poets I know have told me that poetry takes them to peaks of passion; it saves them from stress and heals them from heartache. I agree with it all…and I’m proud of being a part of the growing wisdom that comes with words.”
After coming third in an international poetry competition organised by the UK-based erbacce-press, Bev won the publishing contract, and her first book, Unjumping, gets released in October this year. She also landed a scholarship for a Masters Degree in Creative Writing from Lancaster University, UK.
Inspired by Ugandan poets Dr Susan Kiguli, Prof Timothy Wangusa, Mildred Kiconco Barya and Joseph Kitaka Semutooke, Bev is organising a poetry training workshop for the participants in her previous poetry awards.
In what should pass as an aside, she’s happily married and a mother of one daughter. She’s also a competitive swimmer and dancer and her favourite quote is: “Each one of us is a volcano. Some extinct, some dormant and some active!”
--Sunday Monitor, October 3, 2010
--Sunday Monitor, October 3, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
The raging conflict between good and evil in the human soul
Title: Barabbas
Author: Pär Lagerkvist
Reviewer: Dennis D. Muhumuza
Author: Pär Lagerkvist
Reviewer: Dennis D. Muhumuza
If you have never paused to ponder the significance of someone choosing to die in your place, then Barabbas, the novel by award-winning Swedish author Pär Lagerkvist, will make you. Like the title suggests, the novel is drawn from the Golgatha experience in the Bible. Even those who don’t know their Bible well surely know about Barabbas, the man whose life takes a dramatic turn when it is exchanged with the Lord’s by Pontius Pilate. Jesus Christ – an innocent man, is crucified on the cross at Calvary while Barabbas – the notorious criminal, is set free.
The Gospels actually say close to nothing about who Babarras really was. This is what makes Lagerkvist’s novel unique because his version of Barabbas is that of a man whose troubles begin at conception. Accordingly, Barabbas’s mother is a Moabite woman taken prisoner by a band of rogues, raped and sold to a brothel in Jerusalem when she gets pregnant with Barabbas. Out of the bitterness of her misfortunes, she curses Barabbas when he’s still in her womb and delivers him in “hatred of heaven and earth and the Creator of heaven and earth”. She dies shortly after giving birth to him.Barabbas is picked from the streets and grows in his father’s gang; later killing his father in self-defence by shoving him down a precipice. So many things happen thereafter; Barabbas gets arrested and when Jesus later takes his place, Barabbas is changed forever. His band now looks at him as a burden; they don’t like his gloomy and scarred face and think it’s his fault that the band is dogged by bad luck as they have recently lost two members.
Everywhere Barabbas turns, he’s condemned. “Get thee hence, thou reprobate!” they shout. And poor Barabbas continues his lonely walk, the prominent scar on his lonely face reflecting his despised and ugly past. Barabbas cannot stop thinking about why the son of God accepts to die in his place in such a “dreadful way”.
This way, Barabbas, however condemned, is closer to Jesus probably like no other man.
Curved on a disk suspended from his neck is God’s crossed-out name. Barabbas wants to believe, to affirm his faith but he cannot pray. All he can say is, “I want to believe.” It appears he is inevitably connected with Jesus so much that his last words reflect the Masters. “To thee I deliver up my soul,” he cries as he gives up the ghost.
Lagerkvist, who won a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1951, writes movingly as he explores the raging conflict between good and evil in the human soul and man’s urgent need of God. To read Barabbas is to do yourself a favour!
--Sunday Monitor, September 5, 2010
Curved on a disk suspended from his neck is God’s crossed-out name. Barabbas wants to believe, to affirm his faith but he cannot pray. All he can say is, “I want to believe.” It appears he is inevitably connected with Jesus so much that his last words reflect the Masters. “To thee I deliver up my soul,” he cries as he gives up the ghost.
Lagerkvist, who won a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1951, writes movingly as he explores the raging conflict between good and evil in the human soul and man’s urgent need of God. To read Barabbas is to do yourself a favour!
--Sunday Monitor, September 5, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)