theremharth's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
I struggled in rating this book. At times I wanted to throw it out of the window. At times it moved me. The characters are generally well constructed, but they can be cartoonish in how they are evoked. The world-building of the planet they go to is excellent, but how that is brought into the story is a bit bizarre. The pacing is weird. The whole conceit of being told everything is going to go wrong at the start just left me feeling uneasy through much of it. But I still really felt for Emilio - especially in the earlier parts of the book, and right at the end. When I finished it I cried, and went to stroke my cats for a while.
I'm glad I've read it, but I won't read it again. I wouldn't recommend it, unless you are already into this type of thing.
I'm glad I've read it, but I won't read it again. I wouldn't recommend it, unless you are already into this type of thing.
myoung1304's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
ktxx22's review against another edition
DNF at 16% I’ll come back to this in the future it’s just doing nothing for me currently.
caenisreads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
sadiqmuhammad's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
5.0
john1177's review against another edition
2.0
Such a mess. It starts strongly enough, but the endless buildup and grating characters and their endless, pointless conversations bog everything down.
kepheus's review against another edition
3.0
An agnostic priest travels far from home, finds God in serendipity, only to end up torn between hating himself or hating God.
I came for the premise, but only stayed for the big reveal...which appeared to be chosen for shock value because it wasn't terribly surprising. I mean, what did you expect from a bunch of lay people with no real training in first contact, diplomacy, or security?
See also: John Allen Chau
I came for the premise, but only stayed for the big reveal...which appeared to be chosen for shock value because it wasn't terribly surprising. I mean, what did you expect from a bunch of lay people with no real training in first contact, diplomacy, or security?
See also: John Allen Chau
jbmorgan86's review against another edition
5.0
Theodicy - (noun) the·od·i·cy \thē-ˈä-də-sē\ defense of God's goodness and omnipotence in view of the existence of evil. The textbook example is the Book of Job. Job loses all that he has and demands a reason from God. His friends say that he must have committed some great sin.
In many ways, The Sparrow is a retelling of Job. The main character, a Jesuit priest named Emilio Sandoz, loses everything he has and demands an answer from God. His Jesuit brothers wonder if he is to blame for his suffering.
This is my second time reading The Sparrow. While I enjoyed the first time (I gave it 4/5 stars), I appreciated it much more the second time. Some highlights below:
“'The poor you will always have with you,' Jesus said. A warning, Emilio wondered, or an indictment?”
"'Do you mean a mission or a mission? Are we talking science or religion?' 'Yes,' he said simply"
"Faced with the Divine, people took refuge in the banal, as though answering a cosmic multiple-choice question: If you saw a burning bush, would you (a) call 911, (b) get the hot dogs, or (c) recognize God? A vanishingly small number of people would recognize God, Anne had decided years before, and most of them had simply missed a dose of Thorazine.”
"'I was like the physicists you talked about. I was like a physicist who believes in quarks intellectually, but doesn't feel quarks. I could make all the Thomist arguments about God and discuss Spinoza and say all the right things. But I didn't feel God. It was not a thing of the heart for me. I could defend the idea of God but it was all from hearsay evidence, a lawyer would call it. None of it had any emotional truth for me . . . . I mean, there was a place in me that wanted God to be in it, but it was empty. So, I thought, Well, not yet. Maybe someday. And to be honest, I sort of looked down on that kind of thing. You know how there are people who'll tell you that Jesus is a close personal friend of theirs, yes?' His voice was very low and he made a face that said, Who are they kidding? 'I always thought, Sure, right, and you probably see Elvis at the laundromat.'"
"'It is the human condition to ask questions like Anne's last night and to receive no plain answers,' he said. 'Perhaps this is because we can't understand the answers, because we are incapable of knowing God's ways and God's thoughts. We are, after all, only very cleaver tailless primates, doing the best we can, but limited. Perhaps we must all own up to being agnostic, unable to know the unknowable.'
Emilio's head came up and he looked at Marc, his face very still. Marc noted this and smiled, but continued. 'The Jewish sages also tell us that God dances when His children defeat Him in argument, when they stand on their feet and use their minds. So questions like Anne's are worth asking. To ask them is a very fine kind of human behavior. If we keep demand that God yield up His answers, perhaps some day we will understand them. And then we will be something more than clever apes, and we shall dance with God.'"
“That is my dilemma. Because if I was led by God to love God, step by step, as it seemed, if I accept that the beauty and the rapture were real and true, the rest of it was God’s will too, and that, gentlemen, is cause for bitterness. But if I am simply a deluded ape who took a lot of old folktales far too seriously, then I brought all this on myself and my companions and the whole business becomes farcical, doesn’t it. The problem with atheism, I find, under these circumstances...is that I have no one to despise but myself. If, however, I choose to believe that God is vicious, then at least I have the solace of hating God.”
In many ways, The Sparrow is a retelling of Job. The main character, a Jesuit priest named Emilio Sandoz, loses everything he has and demands an answer from God. His Jesuit brothers wonder if he is to blame for his suffering.
This is my second time reading The Sparrow. While I enjoyed the first time (I gave it 4/5 stars), I appreciated it much more the second time. Some highlights below:
“'The poor you will always have with you,' Jesus said. A warning, Emilio wondered, or an indictment?”
"'Do you mean a mission or a mission? Are we talking science or religion?' 'Yes,' he said simply"
"Faced with the Divine, people took refuge in the banal, as though answering a cosmic multiple-choice question: If you saw a burning bush, would you (a) call 911, (b) get the hot dogs, or (c) recognize God? A vanishingly small number of people would recognize God, Anne had decided years before, and most of them had simply missed a dose of Thorazine.”
"'I was like the physicists you talked about. I was like a physicist who believes in quarks intellectually, but doesn't feel quarks. I could make all the Thomist arguments about God and discuss Spinoza and say all the right things. But I didn't feel God. It was not a thing of the heart for me. I could defend the idea of God but it was all from hearsay evidence, a lawyer would call it. None of it had any emotional truth for me . . . . I mean, there was a place in me that wanted God to be in it, but it was empty. So, I thought, Well, not yet. Maybe someday. And to be honest, I sort of looked down on that kind of thing. You know how there are people who'll tell you that Jesus is a close personal friend of theirs, yes?' His voice was very low and he made a face that said, Who are they kidding? 'I always thought, Sure, right, and you probably see Elvis at the laundromat.'"
"'It is the human condition to ask questions like Anne's last night and to receive no plain answers,' he said. 'Perhaps this is because we can't understand the answers, because we are incapable of knowing God's ways and God's thoughts. We are, after all, only very cleaver tailless primates, doing the best we can, but limited. Perhaps we must all own up to being agnostic, unable to know the unknowable.'
Emilio's head came up and he looked at Marc, his face very still. Marc noted this and smiled, but continued. 'The Jewish sages also tell us that God dances when His children defeat Him in argument, when they stand on their feet and use their minds. So questions like Anne's are worth asking. To ask them is a very fine kind of human behavior. If we keep demand that God yield up His answers, perhaps some day we will understand them. And then we will be something more than clever apes, and we shall dance with God.'"
“That is my dilemma. Because if I was led by God to love God, step by step, as it seemed, if I accept that the beauty and the rapture were real and true, the rest of it was God’s will too, and that, gentlemen, is cause for bitterness. But if I am simply a deluded ape who took a lot of old folktales far too seriously, then I brought all this on myself and my companions and the whole business becomes farcical, doesn’t it. The problem with atheism, I find, under these circumstances...is that I have no one to despise but myself. If, however, I choose to believe that God is vicious, then at least I have the solace of hating God.”
bookchew's review against another edition
3.0
Duly impressed that someone could invent such a world, but duly disappointed by several irritating aspects of this novel that overshadow its potential. The characters are cutesy in a way that straddled the line between amusing and grating (what's with the constant eyebrow lifting?). There were a few enchanted moments in which I thought "this is unlike anything I've ever read!" and other moments in which the idea of having to pick this book back up was so insupportable that I opted to read two other books in the meantime and finally finished this one on audiobook.
It's worth a read, but I think you have to set your expectations correctly. First of all, you have to be willing to suspend disbelief to a level that is far beyond that of most novels. The book is science fiction, yes, but based upon a scientific premise that is not elucidated well enough for me to believe it (the plot almost reads like a bad joke: a jesuit priest, a grad student, a texan, and two retirees are traveling on an asteroid to a foreign planet. They don't have a single astronaut on aboard, but they do have a deck of cards for playing poker...). It is a morally-challenging work, yet tolerable (i.e. not too religion heavy) for someone who knows (or cares) little about religion. There are sections that drone on tediously (i.e. those about life among the Runa in which nothing happens) and other sections that are glossed over in one paragraph (i.e. how any of this would be possible in the first place).
Glad I read it, but I don't think I'll have the patience to ever pick it up again.
It's worth a read, but I think you have to set your expectations correctly. First of all, you have to be willing to suspend disbelief to a level that is far beyond that of most novels. The book is science fiction, yes, but based upon a scientific premise that is not elucidated well enough for me to believe it (the plot almost reads like a bad joke: a jesuit priest, a grad student, a texan, and two retirees are traveling on an asteroid to a foreign planet. They don't have a single astronaut on aboard, but they do have a deck of cards for playing poker...). It is a morally-challenging work, yet tolerable (i.e. not too religion heavy) for someone who knows (or cares) little about religion. There are sections that drone on tediously (i.e. those about life among the Runa in which nothing happens) and other sections that are glossed over in one paragraph (i.e. how any of this would be possible in the first place).
Glad I read it, but I don't think I'll have the patience to ever pick it up again.
tinkersita's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
4.0