Several years ago a co-worker told me that she had read the greatest book-Beloved by Toni Morrison. Now there is a standard formula for novels that goes like this-run your hero up a tree, throw rocks at him, and then get him down. The formula for Beloved is more- run your hero over with a truck, throw him down a mine shaft, have him land on broken glass, let him bleed for a while, throw a big rock on top of him, and leave him to die. Do I need to tell you that Beloved was not my favorite book?
So I should not have been surprised by Fall Down on Your Knees, one of the first books to win the coveted Oprah Book Club seal of approval. The fact that Oprah made Beloved into her Magnum Opus and starred in the equally horrid movie should have let me know what I was in for. And yet, I was not prepared for Fall Down on Your Knees.
I used to sell books online, I had one of those low priced Amazon Dealer shops that sold books I bought for a dollar then sold for two or three dollars. It worked fine until Amazon upped their cut until I had no profit left at all. Oh, well, no great loss. Anyway, I sold Fall Down on Your Knees every time I found. I never read it, just listed it and shipped it out the next day. I am not at all sure why it was such a hot seller, except for the Oprah Factor.
Ok, I must admit that I did not get through this one. It’s a rare book that I start and can’t finish, but Fall Down on Your Knees did the trick. The first four chapters or so, which is about all I could muster, had a suicide, which was seen at least twice, a mother murdering her daughter, seen at least twice, an Aunt accidentally killing a Nephew, a man marrying a child of thirteen, crushing depression and the one character that showed some signs that she would escape from this nightmare- is one of the people that ends up laying in an ocean of their own blood. There is mental cruelty equal to and beyond the bodily horrors. This book is just too grim and gory for me-and I like vampire books.
Now it is possible that the story lightens up at some point, but I doubt it. The tale of a God that is pure unadulterated Evil is not likely to find a happy ending. Rarely have I read a book that so clearly lays the blame for all that can possibly go wrong at God’s feet. Nor does God made an appearance as a positive force at any time during the painful moments I was trapped in the ghastly narrative. It is clear that belief in God is the greatest sin one can commit in Fall Down on Your Knees. This book made me sick, and I’m practically an atheist.
I can only guess that it is this queasy feeling the author wants to import to the reader. But let me tell, I can watch the Evening News and feel sick to my stomach, I don’t need a novel for that.
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