Review:
The Columbia Review of Books& Film
-- Avraham Azrieli, TheColumbiaReview.com
Luguya (Payment in Kind,1985) offers a three-part novel about one man's extensive views onChristianity.
Humans: The Untold Story of Adam and Eve and their Descendants is a substantial novel in three parts by Joseph M. Luguya, which explores good and evil through human, mythological and supernatural characters, much of it in the form of a grand debate, delivering an intricate theological saga.
Humans includes three volumes: "The Thesis" (Volume One), "Mjomba and the Evil Ghost" (Volume Two), and "The Demoniac" (Volume Three)...
In an unusual move, using a key he took from his wallet, Mjomba unlocked a side door to his office and slid furtively inside." And from this opening of a mysterious door, Humans builds up to a complex yet compassionately humane story of Mjomba's fascinating journey.
In his earlier days, Mjomba had been a seminarian whose tangling with a monumental assignment on the "Original Virtue" led to an immensely challenging intellectual and spiritual quest--as well as a "Devil's bargain" of sorts. He fences with Satan and with its good counterparts while bringing into stark question many of the basic tenets of the church...
And so, in a twist that makes Humans uniquely intriguing, Mjomba's sincere efforts to turn the most evil force into good and, thus, save souls, ends up placing our hero himself in a highly questionable--and dangerous--position.
Author Joseph M. Luguya brings to this novel enormous knowledge of religious concepts and historical records. Through the protagonist and the secondary characters, the reader becomes privy to a wealth of ideas and detailed arguments, many of them new and daring. While much of the book offers a multi-faceted, extensive dissertation that might appear dense to some readers, the author's creative use of Satan's own voice makes it hard to put down, not only when provocative arguments begin to attain logical flair, but also when the author brings in controversial historical figures whose legacy is open to debate--and to literary license--as Satan claims them to his side...
Some of the arguments in fact ring true not only in the historical context, but in our current world, festering as it is with religious tensions and ethnic prejudices: "Later, during his oral defense of the thesis, Mjomba would comment that one of the legacies of original sin was the perennial tendency of humans to never see evil in themselves, and to see nothing good in other humans - especially those who were different from themselves in some respect." How true!
The author is especially deft at merging abstract ideas and structural visualizations into symbols that our hero's mind ponders in ways reminiscent of Dan Brown's symbolist Robert Langdon in The Da Vinci Code...
Humans is also distinguishable in telling a story within a story, cleverly utilizing several layers of imaginary characters...
In summary, Humans: The Untold Story of Adam and Eve by Joseph M. Luguya creates a dramatic confrontation between a virtuous young scholar and the most malevolent character of all, delivering an extensive, all-encompassing confrontation that becomes a metaphor for the very core of human existence. This thought-provoking, sprawling novel explores unresolved issues of faith and spirituality while the leading character valiantly defends all that he holds dear in the struggle between good and evil, life and death, and the opposing forces of divine creation. Readers will be enticed to contemplate the most fundamental questions of human existence and come away with a deeper understanding of both differences and commonalities that define us. Significant and Memorable!
-- Avraham Azrieli, TheColumbiaReview.com
Humans by Joseph Luguya | Kirkus Reviews:
Luguya (Payment in Kind,1985) offers a three-part novel about one man's extensive views on Christianity.
When readers first meet Christian Mjomba, he's seated in his 27th-floor office in the city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He has a pleasant view of the harbor and a degree from Stanford University on the wall, and seems to be doing fairly well. However, his dream of publishing a best-selling work remains unfulfilled. He does have a background in writing, though; as readers soon learn, he'd once been a member of a seminary brotherhood. During that time, he composed an extensive thesis on various aspects of the Christian faith, which strayed from official church teachings. Mjomba's intention was, in part, to "show unequivocally that the Prime Mover loved everyone irrespective of religious affiliation." The book begins with an in-depth exploration of the protagonist's views; there's more action in later chapters, but the emphasis throughout is on ideas. They include Mjomba's annoyance with those who use "the phrase 'the bible says,' " and his meditation on the human body, which he says is "designed to be both a temple of God and a vessel of His grace." The book covers an extensive amount of theologically intriguing material; it's critical of many different parties, including the Apostle Peter, the devil, and people who revel in "mostly ill-gotten wealth." ...Readers looking for new interpretations of Christian thought will find them here, though those hoping for more thorough integration with plot may be disappointed. Its details of life in Tanzania, such as the notion that "Even though most spoke English very well, Tanzanians just loved to speak Swahili," are memorable. That said, the text as a whole is concerned with issues that go well beyond any single nation.
An insightful...array of spiritual material.
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