by Richard Powers, 2018
I cannot believe this book won the Pulitzer Prize! I got so tired of it half-way through and am so glad I finally finished it and can return it to the library. It was 502 pages of new-age gobbledygook about trees and 5 humans that try to save them. I don’t disagree-trees are wonderful! But by the time I finished his book, I was really tired of them. I did not like any his characters and the story got so convoluted at the end that I am not sure what happened. Glad this one’s over.
Reading this part made me realize, he’s been hoodwinked into thinking God is not good: “We live, we get out a little, and then no more, forever. And we know what’s coming–thanks to the fruit of the taboo tree that we were set up to eat. Why put it there, and then forbid it? Just to make sure it gets taken.”
No, no, no – you’ve got it wrong, Richard Powers. God did not put the tree there like a rock under a hat that He knew we would trip over and stumble and fall. Somehow, evil already existed at that time, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was forbidden to us because God knew we could not handle the knowledge of evil. He gave us free will, and we chose to believe the lies of Satan, but God conquered Satan through Jesus, who came first as our Savior, but will come again as a victorious King and put Satan away forever. Believe me, God is LOVE and nothing He does is evil or tricky or conniving. Unfortunately, we humans do nasty, ugly things like cut down trees and destroy and pollute our world, and it is GOOD to try and prevent those nasty, ugly things. But God has not turned His back on us and left us to our own devices. He will win in the end and it will be BEAUTIFUL and PERFECT.