Left behind… really?
Posted in Fantasy |
I’m always on the lookout for English books I can borrow, so when my friend and I ended up in the Peace Corps volunteer lounge in Kyiv, Ukraine, I took advantage. One of the books that caught my eyes was Left Behind, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. I love post-apocalyptic fiction, so I regularly look for more books on the subject, and this one was on several lists. But it’s not a typical end-of-the-world novel: it’s got a Christian message.
How does that work? Well, the basic plotline is that the Rapture comes. Real Christians get taken to Heaven, the rest stay on Earth. It starts up good: among those taken are airplane pilots, car drivers, administration and law people, so things get out of control in an appropriate apocalyptic fashion. We’ve got a couple of pretty interesting characters (an airplane pilot and his daugther, a journalist, a flight attendant) who are mostly skeptic about this whole Rapture business, since they are not believers.
And then… it starts to get preachy. The first third of the book is actually interesting, things happen, characters discuss religion with pros and cons… until they start “seeing the light” and welcome God in their lives. Or something. Seeing a very rational character struggle with his (lack of) faith for half a book then suddenly realize God is real in the space of three pages… sorry, I’m not buying that.
But the part that annoyed me the most was the main antagonist (if you can call him that). The first part of the book mainly concerns the four characters I mentioned, but from time to time a brilliant Romanian politician by the name of Nicolae Carpathia is mentioned. He is perfect, everyone loves him, he has amazing ideas and everyone agrees with him. The events would seem far fetched, no one could have such an ascension (from low-level politician in an Eastern European country to leader of the UN), but… he’s the Antichrist. Yep, me and the Antichrist are from the same country.
And still, that doesn’t bother me. It’s fiction, and hey, at least more people find out Romania exists! “Come visit, we have Dracula and the Antichrist!” But how unimaginative can you get? How little research can you get away with? Somewhere in the book a character explains that his last name comes from the Carpathians mountains in Romania. Makes sense, right? Wrong. One, I’ve never heard of anyone with a name remotely similar to the mountains. Second, hello, “Carpathians” is an English word! Do you actually think we call them “Carpathians” in Romanian?! Also added to the mix is some mumbo-jumbo about the “original Romanians” who came from Rome (nope, sorry, the “original Romanians” were called Dacians, and Romans conquered them) and were blond (as far as I know, Romans were dark, and modern-day Romanians are also dark). And to top this off, Nicolae. As in dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Is it the only Romanian male name the authors ever heard or should it make the connection with Ceausescu?
Then I have some more gripes with the book itself, not its story. It has two authors, although only one of them (Jenkins) does the actual writing. LaHaye “conceived the Left Behind series” - good job, but how does that make you the author of the book? The praises on the cover and first page are at least dubious, coming from distinguished people such as Mike Trout from Colorado Springs. Wow, some dude from Colorado liked it, I’m so going to buy it now? This is also the first novel I’ve seen with a trademark: the actual title is “Left Behind ™”.
Bottom line: it was better than I expected. I figured it would get preachy, but at least the first half the book is free of that. What I don’t understand is the target of this book: Christians or non-believers? If it’s the latter, I’m sorry, it didn’t work; I believe just as little as when I started. If it’s the former, I think it might work. A Christian probably wouldn’t find it as preachy and would be able to enjoy it much more than I did. The writing is plain, though, so read it for the story or don’t pick it up at all.
P.S. And I recently found out there are seven or so Left Behind books translated into Romanian… Guess they’re popular.
June 11th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Well Jen, I have to admit I really love Dracula. Actually the foundation, I mean I really love Vlad Tepes, but also the legend made by Bram Stoker. But know with the Antichrist things get better:)
I had a slight problem with “The Historian” by Elizabeth Kostova, not a very bad book, but when I read it something seemed strange (I didn’t review the books then).
On the other hand, since I read “Wastelands” I missed “Fallout” and I start playing them again. And I wait for “Fallout 3″ to come out :)
June 11th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
I am very ashamed, I never read Stoker’s book… How can I call myself a Romanian spec. fic. fan? :P The movies are fun though, I remember one of them where the actors actually tried to speak Romanian… “Aaaaargessss…. saaaangeeee…”
‘The Historian’ is so… big. I think I have it at home, but it’s intimidating and I don’t plan on reading it very soon.
Seeing ‘Left Behind’ in a Romanian book fair (at Rao) was a bit ‘wtf’. Especially since the title was translated as ‘Supravietuitorii’ (’The Survivors’, for the English-speakers out there), which implies that the people who were taken to Heaven didn’t survive… eh?
As for gaming, my only drug is World of Warcraft. My apocalyptic tastes manifest only in books.
June 14th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
I read that book a few years ago, since my family seemed enraptured by them (yes, bad punnage!), but I was less than impressed. Take the points you made, add in the wooden dialogue and awkward plotting, and then toss in the virulent reactions I had when I began to realize that this was more than just a fundamentalist Protestant tract. Unlike the rest of my family, who are Protestants, I decided to become a Catholic about five years ago and the not-so-subtle attempts to tie in the Antichrist to the Catholic Church didn’t sit too well with me…but when I read some online commentaries on the latter books that revealed that my suspicions were correct…let’s just say I have absolutely no desire to read another word from these two assclowns!
Sad, as apocalyptic stuff can be quite entertaining. And speaking of that word in its other, older meaning of “revealing,” have you tried any of Maurice Dantec’s works? Finally one of his books, Cosmos Incorporated, was translated from the French this year and I just finished reading it Thursday. It was surprising near the end. Mostly enjoyed it.
June 14th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Hm, I hadn’t noticed that Catholic connection… But what makes less sense now is why take a character from a 95% Orthodox country and try to tie him to the Catholic Church?
Thanks for the suggestion too, I’ll look for a Romanian translation… or maybe even try to read it in French.
June 20th, 2008 at 7:24 am
Since when did the “Rapture” ever make sense outside of certain Protestant groups? :P And hopefully, you’ll find the Dantec to your liking :D
June 20th, 2008 at 8:51 am
well, now that you mention it, i have to do a bit of research on that. i never realized catholic religion was so divided. (i’m not religious so i don’t know much about orthodoxy, let alone catholicism…)
at least the book did one good thing, made me learn some new stuff :P
June 21st, 2008 at 6:58 am
Catholics and Orthodox are much closer than Catholics are to that fringe element of Evangelical Protestants in theology. Much closer. I live in an area full of Evangelicals and I’m a Catholic convert. Makes for interesting observations whenever matters of eschatology come up!