Book Title:  Riven
Author: Jerry B. Jenkins
Publishing Company:   Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Year:  2008
# of Pages: 559
ISBN 10:  1-4143-0904-X
ISBN 13:  978-1-4143-0904-0 

Reviewed By:  Deborah Ground Buckner (Kansas City Correspondent - USA) 

Riven is, in the words of author Jerry B. Jenkins, "the novel I've always wanted to write and is unlike anything I've ever written."  This is a fascinating statement and a brave course of action for an author who has written over 170 books, best known among them the popular Left Behind series.  A ‘n' E Vibe readers will recall last year's review of Midnight Clear, both the novel by Jerry B. Jenkins and the film brought to the screen by the author's son, Dallas Jenkins.

My enjoyment of Midnight Clear came from its presentation of characters who cross paths in unexpected ways and change each other's lives;  Riven achieves this same effect.  Brady Darby is a high school kid on the edge;  growing up in a trailer park with a mother who is neglectful at best and alcoholic and abusive at worst, Brady looks after his younger brother Petey and dreams of an escape.  When his attempt to make it on the school football team fails, Brady takes a chance at trying out for the drama club's production of Bye, Bye Birdie.  To the amazement of the school and himself, Brady has talent.  Perhaps for the first time, he sees an escape route stretching before him, an opportunity to make it in the world.  With a caring teacher offering support, Brady can follow the path of working hard in school and developing his talent, or he can take the course of neglecting his studies and pilfering money from the trailer park laundromat where he works each evening.  Unfortunately, if there is a way to blow an opportunity, Brady will find it.  Over and over, as his life unfolds, we can always count on Brady to let someone down-mostly himself. 

Thomas Carey is a minister whose long walk with God has not followed an easy road.  Anyone who believes the worst form of politics is local politics has never encountered the organization of a church.  Jenkins pulls no punches in showing the dark side of church life, the members on personal power trips, ready to manipulate and intimidate as needed.  After a series of unsuccessful assignments, Thomas finds himself called to the ministry of a prison chaplaincy.  He enters a world he is completely unprepared to face.  Along with these new challenges, he must also cope with his wife Grace in failing health and his daughter, Ravinia, who has fallen away from his teachings.

It is in the maximum security prison where the life paths of Brady and Thomas intersect.  Each finally finds a life of meaning, and neither could do so without the influence of the other.   

Jenkins' development of the characters of Brady and Thomas is thorough and engaging.  He creates memorable, believable people whose failures and triumphs can be understood and accepted.  The culmination of their story requires a little suspension of disbelief, or at least did for me.  Since my past includes some years of practice as a criminal appellate attorney, I can attest the major event of this book could never happen in an American prison.  But it makes a fascinating and moving story.

This truly is the story of Brady and Thomas, so the lesser work in character development of other players in their lives can be overlooked.  I found Thomas' wife Grace to be rather one-dimensional.  Her illness seemed a useful literary device to keep her in the background of the story.  I only wish friends I have had who suffered from this illness could have lived the many years this character survives with it.  There is more success with Thomas' daughter Ravinia, an interesting young woman pursuing a legal career and a relationship with Dirk, a charming fellow who is not at all the type a minister wants his daughter to bring home.  Thomas' understanding and acceptance of the situation makes him an interesting character.  Grace's judgmental revulsion tends to make one eagerly file her away as a boring stereotype. 

Jenkins' plot is fast and furious and will keep the pages turning throughout this reading experience.  Devotees of both Christian and general fiction will find the story to be a basis for continuing thought long after the covers are closed.