(Permission is granted to the media to reprint in whole or in part)
J R Lankford. Great Reads Books, $26.95 (287 pp)
ISBN 0-9718694-1-3
2003 may be the year of the cloning novel as well as the clones, but this debut stands out against the competition. The Jesus Thief has a sensational premise--cloning Jesus--yet it is a novel of intelligence and depth.
The protagonist, Dr. Felix Rossi, is a devout Catholic about to lead a research project on the Shroud of Turin when he learns his dead parents were Jews so traumatized by their escape from Nazi Italy, they hid their past. In religious turmoil, he steals two bloodstained threads from the Shroud thinking that if a Jew clones Jesus it may end the persecution of Jewish people. "What could the DNA of God produce but God?" he says, convinced that the clone would actually be Christ.
His progress is impeded by a cast of vivid characters. Jerome Newton is an atheist aristocrat reporter for The Times of London and is bent on making a fortune off Rossi's story. Adeline Hamilton, Rossi's future fianceé and his sister's best friend, is the beauty he asks to carry the clone. Maggie Johnson, the Rossi's prying maid who has a mania for regal hats, is a devout Baptist; she fears his cloning project will cost her job. Sam Duffy, the Rossis' doorman, is torn between his friendship with Maggie the maid and his 11-year secret allegiance to a powerful and potentially dangerous man.
Frances Rossi, Felix's sardonic sister who shares the family home--a palatial Fifth Avenue New York flat--tries to convince him of his folly. "They've cloned a sheep, let's clone the Shepherd?" she says during a jaw-dropping conversation when she learns of his plan.
Lankford explores the hotbed controversy of human cloning as the characters confront its technology and its moral and legal issues. She depicts religious belief with lyricism and respect. But this novel doesn't shy away from human physicality--bodily ills, joys and yearnings. Two tasteful but stellar sex scenes seem to say, "This, too, is a gift from God." Coral, a minor character, is unforgettable as the prostitute whom few men can resist.
The novel is sweeping in its scope: the science and ethics of human cloning, the rescue of most of Italy's Jews from the Nazis in WWII, political corruption, the current African apocalypse, religious creed versus actually loving our fellow human beings. These and other topics are deftly entwined in a page-turning plot. Lankford's prose is clean, often elegant and intensely moving.
This radiant novel from a gifted writer will not disappoint.