Book Review

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

When Bad Things Happen to Good People
Harold S. Kushner
Avon Books 07/97 Hardcover $5.99
ISBN: 0380603926

When Rabbi Kushner son Aaron was just three years old, he was diagnosed with a "rapid aging" disease; he died after his fourteenth birthday. Out of this harrowing experience, the author has created a meditation about God, human suffering and life's tragedies. He contends that bad things happen to good people because (1) it sometimes just goes that way; (2) we are given freedom of choice and consequently life is full of injustices; (3) nature is morally blind; and (4) there may be "corners of the universe where God's creative light has not yet penetrated."

In the last chapter, Kushner probes Archibald MacLeish's play J.B.. He concludes that it is the destiny of God's sons and daughters to see that "the ability to forgive and the ability to love are the weapons God has given us to live fully, bravely and meaningfully in this less-than-perfect world."

Books and Audios Recently Reviewed

Reviews and database copyright © 1970 – 2012
by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat