Review: American Savior

Russ Thomas is a reporter for WZIZ, a TV station in Massachusetts, when he is sent to report on the story of a young child who had fallen three stories, seemed dead, and came back to life when a stranger came up and touched him.  Others were calling it a miracle, but Russ remained skeptical.  Later, he’s sent to a hospital where the same stranger has visited a young girl and seemingly cured her of a chronic illness.

The stranger becomes known as “The Good Visitor,” and he turns out to be Jesus Christ.  Jesus calls Russ on his private phone and tells him that he’s running for President of the United States and would like for Russ to work on his campaign.  Russ is not convinced at first, but finally agrees when Jesus visits Russ’s girlfriend in a dream.

Jesus assembles a ragtag campaign team and heads out on the road as the candidate for The Divinity Party and chooses his mother as his running mate.  Jesus runs an unusual campaign – he doesn’t criticize his opponents and he’s available for questions.

American Savior by Roland Merullo started out with a bang for me.  The middle of the book, with all of it’s campaign details, did drag a little bit, though.  When it gets to the end of the campaign, the book really picked up again.  It is worth reading for all of the questions it brings up.  When a woman screams that the candidate is not Jesus,

“I might not be,” he said slowly. “I might not be. But my question to you is this: would you know him if he came into your midst? If he came into your midst and did not look the way you expected him to look, and did not speak as you expected him to speak, would you know him?”

That really made me sit and think for a little while.  This book is humorous as well as thought provoking and I enjoyed reading it.

Roland Merulla has written ten books, including Golfing with God and Breakfast with Buddha.  He lives with his wife and children in Massachusetts.