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A review by bristlecone
The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs
1.0
I did not like this author at all --- and since the book is all about the authors experiences, it was impossible to separate the book from the smug, self-congratulatory and shallow author.
I guess I don't understand why the author (as a secularist) did this. It isn't a surprise that living biblically is basically impossible, requires a variety of compromises, even across biblical dictates; or that there are some weird things one would have to do. But I think the thing I liked the least was the author's superficial insights. It reads like someone who is attempting a stunt for a book --- which is this author's bag --- while trying to make the reader believe it is a deeply spiritual journey. When confronted with moral ambiguities he fails to provide any real sense that he reflected on it in any meaningful way (ex. His wife confronts him about a giant Jewish party that he thoroughly enjoys, but that women are not allowed to attend, he notes that he noticed the gender segregation, but didn't really think much of it because it is tradition and not his place to question).
I stopped reading at about the point the he started on the New Testament stuff because I just couldn't take the whiny and superficial "what do I do about Jesus" thing. He says he started the project as a secularist and just engaged in the rituals to see what would happen. Even with his new found Jewish heritage, it didn't seem too much of a stretch for him to take the same approach for the New Testament. His discussion of what to do about the New Testament just drove home the hoaxiness of the entire endeavor for me. Is the reader really supposed to believe that this author, whose entire identity as an author is about being able to commit to stunts like this because they are in fact stunts, is sincerely wrestling with the bigger issues of what these rituals mean and which are more meaningful than others? This was the last superficial straw for me.
I guess I don't understand why the author (as a secularist) did this. It isn't a surprise that living biblically is basically impossible, requires a variety of compromises, even across biblical dictates; or that there are some weird things one would have to do. But I think the thing I liked the least was the author's superficial insights. It reads like someone who is attempting a stunt for a book --- which is this author's bag --- while trying to make the reader believe it is a deeply spiritual journey. When confronted with moral ambiguities he fails to provide any real sense that he reflected on it in any meaningful way (ex. His wife confronts him about a giant Jewish party that he thoroughly enjoys, but that women are not allowed to attend, he notes that he noticed the gender segregation, but didn't really think much of it because it is tradition and not his place to question).
I stopped reading at about the point the he started on the New Testament stuff because I just couldn't take the whiny and superficial "what do I do about Jesus" thing. He says he started the project as a secularist and just engaged in the rituals to see what would happen. Even with his new found Jewish heritage, it didn't seem too much of a stretch for him to take the same approach for the New Testament. His discussion of what to do about the New Testament just drove home the hoaxiness of the entire endeavor for me. Is the reader really supposed to believe that this author, whose entire identity as an author is about being able to commit to stunts like this because they are in fact stunts, is sincerely wrestling with the bigger issues of what these rituals mean and which are more meaningful than others? This was the last superficial straw for me.