Discount Price: $12.95
Price fluctuation possible.
How soon does it ship: Normal ship time within one day
Shipping? Absolutely FREE if you qualify for Super Saver Shipping.
Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9781583481066
ISBN number: 1583481060
Label: AuthorHouse
Manufacturer: AuthorHouse
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 335
Printing Date: December 30, 1998
Publishing house: AuthorHouse
Release Date: December 30, 1998
Sale Popularity Level: 3417492
Studio: AuthorHouse
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
No description available.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
THE ENGLISH NOVEL IN THE MAGAZINES, 1740-1815. WITH A CATALOGUE OF 1375 MAGAZINE NOVELS AND NOVELETTES.
In my novel, Red Heifer, I follow the life of Paul to understand why he condemned homosexuals. The scholarly yet very readable novel, explores various aspects of Paul's life to find where his hatred springs from. Beginning in pagan Tarsus the journey leads to Jerusalem where finding a blue heifer for the sacrificial offering leads Saul of Tarsus to the change of his name to the Apostle Paul. Whether you agree or not this novel will lead you to new insights about the dangerous times of Paul.
Rated by buyers -
White Crane: A Journal of Gay Men's Spirituality
Last Update: 12/15/2000
http://www.whitecranejournal.com/wc01128.htm#51lavigne3
Red Heifer
by Luther Butler
to Excel Press, 320 pages.
Reviewed by Steven LaVigne
When I was a little boy, I loved Sunday morning television. Not for cartoons, but because of "The Lutheran Hour." Weekly, they would produce stories from the New Testament in tacky, overindulgent productions. One weekend, my Grandmother got upset, because, being a staunch Catholic, she didn't want me to watch this, but my Grandfather calmed her and told her it was okay. He even sat down and watched it with me.
Reading Luther Butler's epic novel, Red Heifer is a lot like watching those old TV productions. Butler has recreated the life of St. Paul, with fascinating detail, using the strong visual sense of a Cecil B. DeMille movie, as he determines to uncover Paul's bigotry and hatred of gays and lesbians. The book opens with Paul's observances of the stoning of St. Stephen, cousin to Paul and nephew of Jesus' father, Joseph of Aramethia. Paul has betrayed Stephen because he knows Paul's sexual secret. And what is that secret? I dare not reveal it here.
The saga flashes back and forth in time. At the start, Paul meets God, presented, as it is in scripture, as a light, being told that "God never shows a man the path until he's on it." This meeting affects his brain, and he's able to see clearer into his past. Paul's father, a merchant, was a lusty, passionate and sexual creature. After Paul's mother dies in childbirth, father and son are estranged. Constantly seeking his father's approval, Paul's athleticism is applauded, although he's embarrassed because he's been circumcised. Both nudity and attraction to his friend Antoine frighten and confuse Paul. When romance and courtship with the beautiful Rebekah lead to tragic circumstances, further upsets by his father's actions, Paul encounters a mountain seer who predicts for him a life of sadness.
Further conflicted by the rules of his Jewish faith and the teachings in the ancient, Wiccan faiths, when Paul pledges to serve the goddess, Cybele, at which time, his sexual secret takes shape. Now planning to dedicate himself to the religious life, Paul earns a living by working for a traveling merchant. He encounters a blue heifer, a rare animal used as a burnt offering to cleanse a Rabbi who works with the dead. Because Paul has blue hair, and is like that Red Heifer in many ways, the book takes its title from this aspect of his life.
Upon his arrival in Galilee, where Paul is reacquainted with his friend, Antoine, we learn that, ironically, in his carpenter's shop, Joseph makes a fine living building Roman Crosses to be used for crucifixion. As Jesus has begun preaching, one night Paul encounters him in a dark alley, and is told that someday, "You will follow me." When Antoine spends the night with a prostitute named Mary Magdelene, she entices Paul, then, when she's rejected, humiliates him, so he flees. He's then asked by the henchmen of Pontius Pilate to spy on Jesus.
Put on trial because of his part in Jesus' crucifixion, Paul is told to escape, and the sequence in which he's lowered over the walls of Damascus in a wicker basket is exciting reading. It is shortly after this, while Paul is alone in the desert that a voice inside him criticizes his conflicting thought on gays and lesbians, as well as his substantial sexism. Because he's chosen not to be accepting, the voice tells him he's a hypocrite. The voice questions Paul's decision, telling him that the choice will require "reexamination for centuries," and calls into question just how enlightened we really are. Even Joseph tells Paul he should be silent on these issues. Butler offers a Paul who's multifaceted, and even has conflicts with the risen Christ. He also restored Joseph to his rightful place as Jesus' wise, Earth father. He's created very realistic, contradictory characters.
Red Heifer is an astounding book. Butler has an impressive sense of revisionary storytelling, and this enormous saga is great reading!
Steven LaVigne lives in Minneapolis with his partner, Douglas Dally. Presently on a renewed spiritual journey, he's an elementary teacher. His book, film and theatre reviews and essays have been published frequently. He's at work on a biography of actress Sylvia Sidney. He can be reached at stevenlavigne@hotmail.com.
Find other books like this one:
