Three Words That Describe this Book: disorientation, allegory, immersive

Review in the May 1, 2020 issue of Booklist and on the blog: http://raforall.blogspot.com/2020/04/what-im-reading-survivor-song-and-jesus.html

My Booktube

First: I have no idea what I read but I liked it. Very trippy and I’m assuming Weird (that’s a genre title) fiction usually is.

Like simultaneously I have no idea what the ending meant but also it felt totally appropriate for the novel to end like that, in a good way.

This was very well-written and I did enjoy my time with it. And I feel like even though it is Weird, it wasn’t overwhelming once you get used to the fact this novel is more about dealing with the unknown and just how heavy/complex that can be.

A lot of ground is covered in this and I think you have to be ok with just not grasping everything to really get into it. The not-knowing is woven in such a way that it feels like it’s part of the text and not like it’s something that is holding you back from enjoying it.

We all know the traditional Easter story, not the one about bunnies and eggs, but the equally fantastic one about Jesus rising from the grave, ascending the physical world and achieving salvation for our entire species.

In Jesus and John, Adam McOmber asks, what if it happened another way? What if Jesus stumbled out of his grave like a zombie and shambled around the earth mindlessly? And what if his disciple John shared more than a brotherly love for the messiah in life and followed Yeshua’s shambling corpse through the world hoping to be lead to some greater truth?

The result isn’t a zombie story or even a horror novel in the traditional sense, but something more in the vein of magical realism. Yeshua isn’t devouring brains, but is simply a being beyond death who seems to walk aimlessly through the world. And though there are some frightening or disturbing moments and images, they are meant to make you think more than jump. Still, the novel is fantastical, but strangely more down-to-earth than the biblical versions of Jesus’ resurrection that have become part of our cultural memory.

Through this speculative journey, which becomes something of an Odyssean quest, McOmber provides a look at many very real human experiences. There is an exchange early in the novel where two characters in a homophobic society discuss their sexuality. Jax asks John if he prefers women or men, and John says he doesn’t feel comfortable answering. To that, Jax replies,
“There’s a difference between lying and not wanting to talk about something.” All too real for many queer people as well, John refers to Yeshua as his “friend” throughout the novel, despite flashbacks and current emotions that make it very clear John and Yeshua were in love before Yeshua was resurrected.

Despite, or maybe because of the eerie, surreal setting, these tender moments carry a weight that elevates the novel to become a haunting retelling of the Easter story readers will not soon forget.