Crazy Jacob - Jim Ware

Jesus. He could not get that name out of his mind. Over and over, it pushed its way to the top of his brain as he prepared to launch his newly finished boat on the waters of Kinneret. Again and again, Stephen's words replayed themselves in his memory: "stories about happenings of that very sort" ... "on the the other side of the lake" ... "cured of a fever" ... "a man named Jesus"....

-Crazy Jacob, Jim Ware

 

 

 

This book was phe-nom-e-nal. Oh, wow I loved it. Seriously, just woah.

 

The book is inspired by a biblical  story of a demon-possessed man. There is no record of the actual mans name, so the author used Jacob as his name. There's actually not much biblical information about the man himself, other than his healing by the grace of Jesus. So, much of the book is made up. Jacob is a Jewish man in the boat business. Although he is Jewish, he freely believes in any god or spirit. Which eventually opened him up to demon-possession. The main character, however, is Jacob's son, Andrew. We see how much Andrew loves his father and tries to find someone who will help him. He had heard about a man named Jesus, but instead he tried seeing a witch. When that didn't work, Jesus was his last hope.

 

I heard the story when I was younger and it really scared me, but now that I'm a teenager I figured I could use a book with a chilling theme. It wasn't too scary, most macho people would say it's not. It's probably not scary if you have no imagination. But, I do, so I didn't let my mind vividly picture the scenes.  

 

I loved this book because the way Jesus was portrayed. He was portrayed beautifully, the way I'm sure He is. Jim Ware perfectly captured Him the best he could with human words. I loved it. Only a short part of the book is Jesus actually there, instead of just being talked or thought about, but the few chapters that He was present with Andrew and his family was wonderful. I wasn't scared to let my imagination vividly picture the scenes there.

 

This was written for a younger audience. (8-12), but I think anyone and everyone should read it. It's light, short, and easy to read. But nevertheless, it has a powerful impact.  I really don't know how to explain it in just the right way, because it's wonderful.