In Lieu of Heaven, Kevin Archer's first-person allegory of disenchantment with his spiritual journey, is an ultimately enjoyable tale, drawing in the reader with smooth prose and accessible protagonists. Interest is sustained by thought-filled examinations of biblical precepts, all of which are artfully couched in an entertaining fictionalization of what might be called an atheist's apologetics.
A lone drifter, wandering a parched desert, happens upon an oasis occupied by a single inhabitant we soon discover is no other than the original Adam. The ensuing conversations between Adam and our drifter become a veritable deconstruction of biblical teaching, Adam insisting all the while that our drifter's quest to encounter God will never be met, since God is dead. Adam knows; he claims to be the one who killed Him, committing the murder as revenge for His having allowed Eve to die.
Exactly why Adam never died is not made clear, but the crux of the tale—aside from pointing out many of the ironies and hypocrisies of biblical teaching—centers around our waiting to have Adam explain precisely how it was he murdered God.
Enter the book's main flaw, stage left.
Archer's dénouement involves Adam and Judas being one, a resolution that had a difficult time gelling in my brain. Perhaps if Archer's Adam had conspired with Judas and claimed complicity in the death of Jesus I might have found In Lieu of Heaven slightly more cohesive. Of course, reading any manner of speculative fiction requires that the reader apply a hefty dose of what in drama has been dubbed "suspended disbelief." This doesn't mean, however, once the speculative fiction author has established the parameters of her "universe," that she can change them at any turn—or toss them wholesale out the window—without losing the reader's acceptance of said universe.
The other problem is, of course, that we all know Jesus died, but His death has never been equated with the death of the triune God. In Archer's work, the concept of the Trinity is not first deconstructed, as is so much else in biblical teaching, and therefore to accept the death of Jesus as equivalent to the annihilation of God requires a leap of, shall we say, faithlessness, that Archer has not wholly prepared us to accept.
Article comments
1 - DrPat
This sounds like a very intriguing - and provocative - book. Was Archer (the charactor) convinced by Judas/Adam's argument?
Did you get the feeling that Archer the author used "Adam" as the executioner of God in the sense of "all humankind," not just as the biblical progenitor of Man?
2 - Pat Cummings
This book review has been selected for Advance.net. You’ll be able to find this and other Blog Critics reviews at such places as Cleveland.com’s Book Reviews column.