The Notebook
Overall Rating: 2.5/5
Spoilers: Really?
TL;DR: You really are just better off reading the actual Bible
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I originally bought this book many years ago as a teenager, thought it was interesting. Unfortunately, I found it dull, boring, and I ended up not finishing. So, after more than ten years and several moves, I decided to give it another shot. Maybe I was just too young and immature to appreciate it, so let's try again.
Regrettably, while I did finish it this time, my initial assessment still stands. If the Bible itself is the "tell" (A man, son of So-and-so, son of Such-and-Such of the Whatever Clan/Tribe, went to such a place and did/said such a thing), then this book ought to be the "show." This ought to be the narrativized explanation of why or how some of these things are important. The landscape, the towns, the people, the strategies. Given that the Bible is a single story, every short story in this book ought to build up to that end. The plot is already there, the foreshadowing is already provided.
And yet, almost the whole thing reads like the exact Bible passages but with a few extra words. Abraham starts off interesting on the first page, but then it tapers off and you basically start to expect to see the superscript verse numbers. The Judges may as well have been copy and pasted (especially Deborah). The Prophets spent so much time describing how emaciated and physically deformed they all apparently were that it detracted from anything they had to say. David manages to shoehorn in almost the entire book of Ruth for no good reason. Any valuable historical insights into Roman politics is wasted in a fumbled trial; I've seen ten lines in a stage play do more to explain things than the numerous pages this book dedicated to it. The apostles are flat and uninteresting. And the Crucifixion itself is wholly neutered with the glossy paintbrush of "pain".
On top of this, the grammar is atrociously inconsistent. I don't mind perspective changes (indeed, that's half the point), but the point of view shifts, the tenses are all over the place. Combined with the aforementioned complaints, I would almost believe that, were this book any newer (and not signed with Zondervan), it had never been touched by an editor, or even a middle school English class, and instead went straight to some shady internet self-pub.
There are a few gems, however. The death of King David is easily the most beautiful passage in the entire book. The politics of Rome are incredibly helpful, and the short story dedicated to Barabbas is quite good.
I kept telling myself that there's just too much to cover. We're talking literally thousands of years of history, hundreds or thousands of important people, and only six hundred pages. But I can't bring myself to believe that, not really. I think it could have been done, if it had been thought of as a singular narrative, and not merely copy-pasting Bible verses and adding a few fluffy words.
***
TL;DR: You really are just better off reading the actual Bible
