Not Many Fathers - Robert J Cottle
This book is written by a good friend of mine who also attends ChristFirst Church! This is the first time I've reviewed a book written by someone I know well and its an odd experience (I also know the author of The Earth Cries Out which I rated last year as one of my top 5 New Zealand-authored books, but I haven't done a full review of it yet).
Not Many Fathers follows Kenaz, and later his son Othniel, as they take part in the wilderness wanderings and eventually the conquest of Canaan. Othniel is mentioned only occasionally in the Bible, but one thing that is known is that he becomes the first Judge (as in 'the book of Judges'). Cottle points out that as a close relative of Caleb, Othniel was one of the few men in that generation of Israelites to have a 'father figure' survive into Canaan, and suggests that this is one of the reasons why Othniel could rise to prominence, since most other men didn't have the same positive role model. This is an interesting topic to focus on, although much of the book simply outlines the events that happen, rather than clearly focussing in on the intended theme.
The thing I find the hardest about reviewing Bob's book is that it has a number of issues that would be helped by a good editor. There are occasional continuity errors (a character in one chapter states that they tried to conquer the city of Jebus "but those towering walls make it almost impenetrable" (page 276) only to state in a later chapter that "we haven't bothered attacking it yet" (page 307)), and characters tend to speak in clipped sentences that seem a bit 'modern' for the setting and also make some sentences a little hard to follow. This latter element is made more noticeable by the fact that other sections of the book quote Scripture verbatim, meaning that a character based on an historical figure might change their way of speaking from casual to 'Scripturally-stylized' and back again, sometimes within a single scene. There are also moments where Bob has made decisions about how particular events happened or how particular passages of Scripture could be interpreted (such as giving Moses a second wife, or castrating the Gibeonites) that don't line up with my own views on how things would have happened, even when I can see how he arrived at his views - always a risk in Historical Fiction, but made more obvious by being based so strongly on Scripture.
However, he has picked an interesting period of history to focus on, and has taken the time to think about the narrative that will fit the facts.
Overall, Not Many Fathers is an interesting concept with room for growth in the execution.
Completed 7 November 2022.
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