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A review by kmcfall
The Great Passion by James Runcie
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
3.75
Very nice--but too much sermonizing. This started out as a read-aloud book for my husband and me. We are both liturgical nerds, and I don't think I've ever read a fiction book that dealt with liturgy and the liturgical year more than The Great Passion.
I really loved the first half of the book. The character development of the main character, Stefan Silbermann, was very strong, and the description of how he became a part of the Bach family was fully engaged my interest. As a person who loves baroque music and liturgy, this was so fun to read. I squealed as though I were an insider when the Telemanns visited the Bach household.
But Bach's character was, pardon the pun, too one-note. The cantor (Bach) became so preachy, and this really changed the way I felt about the book. There were too many long sermony discourses. In real life, I enjoy good preaching. But these sections were too frequent, too long, and seemed inauthentic. Maybe Bach and company were given to breaking into sermon, but these moments just seemed so overly demonstrative. These sections really bogged down the story.
Outside of that, it was an enjoyable story.
I'll add that it was nice to listen to the parts of the Passion as they were being described toward the end--the "Herzliebster Jesu" chorale and "Ich will dir mein Herze schenken,"especially.
I will recommend this book to several clergy friends--with the warning they'll encounter a lot of sermonizing by Bach and other characters.
I really loved the first half of the book. The character development of the main character, Stefan Silbermann, was very strong, and the description of how he became a part of the Bach family was fully engaged my interest. As a person who loves baroque music and liturgy, this was so fun to read. I squealed as though I were an insider when the Telemanns visited the Bach household.
But Bach's character was, pardon the pun, too one-note. The cantor (Bach) became so preachy, and this really changed the way I felt about the book. There were too many long sermony discourses. In real life, I enjoy good preaching. But these sections were too frequent, too long, and seemed inauthentic. Maybe Bach and company were given to breaking into sermon, but these moments just seemed so overly demonstrative. These sections really bogged down the story.
Outside of that, it was an enjoyable story.
I'll add that it was nice to listen to the parts of the Passion as they were being described toward the end--the "Herzliebster Jesu" chorale and "Ich will dir mein Herze schenken,"especially.
I will recommend this book to several clergy friends--with the warning they'll encounter a lot of sermonizing by Bach and other characters.