Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Would You Die To Find The Truth? Review of Ted Dekker's Book "Kiss"

Ted Dekker's book Kiss frustrated me! The story is of a woman (Shauna) who was in a coma for weeks after a car wreck and dealing with amnesia, then faces strange repercussions that she doesn't understand. People are furious at her and blaming her for the accident. She accepts that though she doesn't understand how she could have done what they said she did; it's claimed she was doing drugs. She had never been a drug user but for some reason believes it, that annoyed me. Of course, she has lost six months of memories and is totally disoriented. People around her are lying about so many things, she just gets more and more confused.
The problems worsen when she starts to remember things that don't fit, especially when people start dying! Then she has memories that she finally realizes are not her own. Now she has people trying to ensure she doesn't remember the truth because of their culpability, others that are trying to protect themselves, some are trying to protect her. What frustrated me were all the instances when people gave her cryptic hints and answers to her questions, I wanted to say, Just SAY it already!
Another annoying part is that the christian faith angle of the story, something I always expect in Dekker's books, seemed to be missing for the most part. It seemed that a couple of christian references were "thrown in" to be sure they were included but really had nothing to do with anything. That actually would fit into the storyline, the woman had lost any faith years ago and only occasionally considered what her mother had taught her so many years before, only occasionally did she mourn the loss of the comfort she remembered from childhood.
I suppose one thing we're supposed to consider is how much we are or are not willing to use others for our own needs. Shauna was "taking" memories from people - she could actually access a memory from someone else which was then no longer in their own memory. There were things she needed to know to save her own life but she constantly had to fight with herself to decide if it's right to steal them from someone else.
This book did not leave me feeling as if I had been shown something profound but it was a good fiction story. According to the cover, the point is "Is dying for the truth better than living with a lie?" That idea is interwoven throughout the story and is the main thought we are to ponder. Perhaps I mostly missed that because it doesn't occur to me to just accept what I know is a lie because it's safer. Would I do that if I really was facing death for truth?

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