Heaven on Earth: The Lives and Legacies of the World's Greatest Cathedrals

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James McBride is a master storyteller and I felt fully invested in the characters of this wonderful book. He describes Bernice as having "the kind of face that made a man wire home for money," that made me chortle. In terms of what has been written, the prose is light and readable. The one time it really dragged was due to the subject matter (the incredibly boring history of the American labor movement) rather than the author's style. One of the kibbutzniks admitted: “People like me who started as socialists concluded that you can work hard and get nothing while others don't work hard. It's so unfair.” And this simple deduction had to take a whole life-span to be learned! Well, doesn't it look like 2 plus 2 to you? “Those who leave [the kibbutz] are often the most economically productive.” Wow, that's some deep, deep, thinking. James McBride is a beautiful writer. I mean that sincerely. But all the beautiful writing in the world can't make up for the endless parade of side plots and random character introductions that take the place of an actual coherent story.

ETA: Just finished Part II, and dropping my review down to two stars for the moment because I'm flabbergasted and disappointed that McBride decided to play the death of one of the central characters as a diatribe against smartphones. Just incredible. A moment arises with genuine emotional impact and truth, and all of a sudden I'm reading about how capitalism and pop culture erase history, and that the kids these days are all addicted to the Internet?!? JFC It's just so heavy-handed, and it's a damn shame because McBride has great observations and analysis about race and class, and he's morally correct about the nature of America, and its history and future. But this book fails as a novel precisely because he does not trust his readers to reach those conclusions without cramming them into his story in 24pt bold italicized font. Engels and Marx…had succeeded in recasting socialism into a compelling religious faith…by reducing all of history and all problems to a single main drama….It linked mankind’s salvation to a downtrodden class, combining the Old Testament’s notion of a chosen people with the New Testament’s prophecy that the meek shall inherit the earth. Like the Bible, its historical narrative was a tale of redemption that divided time into three epochs: a distant past of primitive contentment, a present of suffering and struggle, and a future of harmony and bliss. (356) That said, the pride and strength shine through, too. None of McBride’s characters portray themselves as victims. No, they plan, scheme, and collaborate to help each other, and in a real-life, gritty way. I loved Chona, doling out credit to her neighbors, writing letters to the newspaper to decry the Klan marches in her town, and protecting young Dodo. How Nate’s character unfolds, slowly, carefully, dangerously, was wonderfully done. Even the “Lowgod” community, murky and spooky as it is, was interesting to watch. There was power in those gatherings, and the coming together of two different groups was smooth and clever, done with mystery novel style. But beyond that, the book is sound, it is orthodox, it is Biblical—throughout Brooks points the reader to The Book and The One Who inspired it. His aim is to show "that believers may in this life attain unto a well-grounded assurance of their everlasting happiness and blessedness." He then goes on to examine the nature of that assurance, hindrances that keep believers from it, reasons to encourage believers to seek it, and how they can go about it, the difference between true and counterfeit assurance, as well as answering questions about assurance. Examining the doctrine from so many angles, you really feel (and probably do) that you come away from this book having an exhaustive look at the doctrine.biting social commentary (including occasional breaches of the fourth wall: Doc, fully drunk, howled out his joy. “It’s all a dream!” he shouted. “This great America. This great land of opportunity. Give us your poor. Your tired. Your weak. And we will give them jobs. And homes. And businesses! We will make them men. And women. And they will”—he burped loudly—“replace us!” -- the book is set in the late 1920s/early 1930s; the language might be modern but the sentiment has been in the US for a very long time: Madison Grant's "The Passing of the Great Race" was published in 1916), As a musician, he has written songs (music and lyrics) for Anita Baker, Grover Washington Jr., and Gary Burton, among others. He served as a tenor saxophone sideman for jazz legend Little Jimmy Scott. He is the recipient of several awards for his work as a composer in musical theater including the Stephen Sondheim Award and the Richard Rodgers Foundation Horizon Award. His “Riffin’ and Pontificatin’ ” Tour, a nationwide tour of high schools and colleges promoting reading through jazz, was captured in a 2003 Comcast documentary. He has been featured on national radio and television programs in America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Divine knowlege fills a man full of spiritual activity; it will make a man work as if he would be saved by his works, and yet it will make a man believe that he is saved only upon the account of free grace." (178) The first 4-5 chapters in the book are fantastic. The chapter on Marx and Engels is one that I'll definitely re-read in the future since it was such a thorough account of these two. Also the later sections of the book (while it has issues that I outline below) is important to understand if you want to make sense of what China and Russia are up to today.

At some point, the author starts lecturing readers (something I can´t stand);how can the death scene of one of the best characters ,which could-should- have been poignant,morph into a diatribe against cell phones,decades into the future??? All of the socialist societies had to adapt capitalist tendencies in their economies to survive, which were completely against the original tenets of the socialism set forth by its original creators,such as Hess and Marx. Even the kibbutz that scholars and socialists have held up as examples that socialism can work (I remember reading about those in school)are starting to break down. The only small social communes that have been able to be relatively successful are those that revolve around religion, which ironically is something that most socialist leaders oppose. The narrative pulls you here and there, up and down, and when you meet Dodo, the sweet and barely teenaged deaf kid, your protective instincts will wrap yourself around him and never want to let him go. And, when Dodo meets Monkey Pants—well, this right there—the heart of the novel that will break you in pieces.Heaven on Earth covers an entire millennium of cathedral-building from c. AD 500 to the sixteenth century. The central core of Emma Wells's book focuses on the explosion of ecclesial construction that began with the emergence of the Gothic style in twelfth-century France, which produced such remarkable structures as the cathedrals of Notre-Dame, Canterbury, Chartres, Salisbury, St Mark's Basilica in Venice and the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. From Constantinople's Hagia Sophia to London's Westminster Abbey, from Florence's Duomo to St Basil's in Moscow, Emma Wells tells the story of the feats of engineering that brought twenty great cathedrals into being. Poussin’s painting results in the most remarkable discussion. Clark begins at the center of the painting, with Mary, Joseph, and the priest placed on a cross patterned in the marble floor. Clark discusses the mysterious nature of the sacraments, while simultaneously establishing them as “social and natural facts” (143). Through the positioning of the figures and the use of light, Clark observes how the painting primarily communicates Mary’s relationship to Christianity, with the priest figuring much more dominantly than Joseph. Then, the analysis moves to the utter left of the painting, where a figure is half hidden behind a column, with only cloths and veils visible. Clark’s associations flow freely from what this figure is doing there and which meanings she might convey. He identifies her as a primary witness of the event. While she is positioned far away, she is the only one that really observes. But then Clark suggests, because her face is invisible, perhaps she looks out the picture plane. Contrasting his own line of argumentation, this second interpretation relates the divine marriage scene (and the sacrifice of Christ it prefigures) to the outside world. This relation between inside and outside, between divine and earthly, is Clark’s favorite (and arguably the most interesting) connection to make in understanding depictions of alternative worlds. The most consequential of these new possibilities was socialism, although this was not in view when the Revolution began. The stormers of the Bastille had not aimed at a socialist objective, nor did the actors in any of the other increasingly radical moments—journées, they were called—of the next five years. On the contrary, from Mirabeau to Robespierre, the revolutionists, it has often been noted, were mostly of the bourgeoisie, and their key pronunciamentos affirmed the right of property. This book started at a 5, and ended as a 2. It's VERY detailed and, while biased, it presents a pretty measured and balanced overview of the history that it covers. I certainly learned a lot of socialism's history, and the notes I took are useful. Early on, we meet the arresting Jewess, Chona. Chona is an unforgettable female protagonist—I’m keeping her in my journal of best. female. characters. ever. She is handicapped with a limp—but her limp doesn’t stop her strength of purpose, her fierce dignity, her bounteous benevolence, her gentle grace, and her consummate integrity. You will fall in love with her, just like Moshe, the theater and dance hall owner, did. Moshe and Chona dared to welcome change and inclusivity to their part of the world.