As a person who, admittedly, shies away from things labeled\n\u201chistorical fiction\u201d and worse, \u201cChristian fiction,\u201d I can\u2019t deny that I felt a\nlittle apprehensive in starting this book. Would it be corny and preachy? Would\nJesus be portrayed in a way that isn\u2019t accurate or seems pushy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hence, it took me a while to muster up the courage to read Madman<\/em>.\nAlso, I\u2019ve never really read anything that expressly dealt with things like\ndemons or capital \u201cE\u201d Evil, so I had my reservations. However, I was horribly\nwrong about this book. It defied every expectation I had about what modern\nliterature should do \u2013 and more so, what the function of something labeled\n\u201cChristian fiction\u201d should do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Madman <\/em>takes place\nin Biblical Palestine on the coast to the Sea of Galilee and follows the\nprotagonist, Tallis, on his quest to discover the how\u2019s and why\u2019s of the\ndisbandment of a Socratic school that was supposed to be operating but, upon\nhis arrival to check on it, hasn\u2019t met for three years. Tallis finds out that\ntwo of the school\u2019s teachers have tragically died \u2013 one dismembered on the\nsteps of a bath, and another by suicide. To his further dismay, one of the\nteachers has become head honcho of the local cult of Dionysus, which, though\nusually characterized by happy drunken revelry and festivals, has a side hustle\nof sacrificing small boys on the side. At midnight. In the woods. Charming. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The most interesting part of the story comes with the fate\nof another one of the school\u2019s teachers: he has become the resident madman, and\nhe dwells in the nearby tombs of Kursi, flinging himself in his own filth,\neating raw pigs, and generally just screaming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tallis is unnerved by the failure of the school and even\nmore so by the mystery of the madman in the hills. Why did he go mad? And why\ndoes the dark reality of the Dionysian rites seem to cast a black cloud over\neverything in town?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Groot bases the story of the madman from the story of the\nGerasene demoniac from the gospels of Luke and Mark, who is possessed by many\ndemons who collectively call themselves \u201cLegion.\u201d Her characterization of the\nman is chilling and believable. The omniscient narrator allows for the reader\nto get glimpses inside the mind of the madman, Tallis, and a number of other\ncharacters, ultimately allowing for the reader to feel intensely connected to\nthem \u2013 as if we have been a bystander observing the whole story from all\nperspectives and reading the journals of each person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This story is sprinkled with plenty of symbolism and mystery\nto keep the reader guessing, and Groot gives us a great snapshot of what life\nwas like for people of the time and the conflict that existed between Jews, Greeks,\nand others in the region. Her research is impeccable and her use of it is\ncreative. She addresses the heavy questions of the time that still plague us\ntoday, such as the questions of Truth, Evil, madness, and how humans fit into\nthe dichotomy of good and evil in the universe, all without seeming like she is\nimposing an ideology on the reader or making Jesus into a preacher who condemns\npeople for their wrongs \u2013 rather, she accentuates the mystery and wonder of a\ntime when history started to rewrite itself and all premonitions about the\ninner workings of the world were turned on their heads. It is a truly wonderful\nread, enough so that I read it twice. Maybe you will too. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Alayna Cowden As a person who, admittedly, shies away from things labeled \u201chistorical fiction\u201d and worse, \u201cChristian fiction,\u201d I can\u2019t deny that I felt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2819,"featured_media":792,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[211,1],"tags":[188,41,190,22,191,153,189],"class_list":["post-791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books-we-like","category-uncategorized","tag-alayna-cowden","tag-book-review","tag-christian-fiction","tag-fiction","tag-madman","tag-review","tag-tracy-groot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2819"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}