Methuselah’s Father

A split second before the club hit his head, Enoch saw it coming and started to twist his head out of the way. But he was too late! The hard shittim club caught his head an inch above and to the rear of his left ear, sending his body sprawling ten feet across the ground.

Methuselah’s Father

While the cover may be unimpressive, Methuselah’s Father surprised me with genuine characters and an interesting story. My only critiquies are someone nit-picky, but I’ll get in to those at the end.

Plot

It’s the year 699 after Creation. Enoch and his family are living on a humble farmstead, taking occasional visits to the bustling City of Gom. The family is happy there, performing occasional sacrifices to God. Until Enoch suffers a heart attack while debating Zaava—a woman who introduced meat eating to the city.

After this, he starts to wonder if his faith is authentic. Is God actually real? If so, where is He? Enoch’s search leads him across the world through a city more wicked than Gom and a place older than history.

While this isn’t a book with a lot of action, the story never drags. You’re brought along by the characters and suspense. Where will Enoch find God? You’ll have to read to find out.

Characters

The characters of Methuselah’s Father feel very genuine, and their interactions are the same. Though the dialogue isn’t the greatest, the characters and their development are well shown.

One of my favorite parts of the book is Enoch’s character arc. He goes from having a cold, distant relationship with God to literally walking beside Him. He’s courageous and determined, going to the ends of the earth on his journey.

Methuselah at first seems to be the main character of the book; it is his point of view that starts the first chapter. But after the first few chapters he’s left behind and Enoch becomes the main point of view. I wish he would have been featured more in the book. At one point he falls into a depressed state, but it is just glossed over. This is a missed opportunity; it could have been a great time for character development.

Theme & Spiritual Application

Especially later in the book, every other paragraph seems to contain a Bible verse. This does seem a bit out of place, which I’ll get in to later, but it increases the spiritual value of the book. By the end, you’ll be encouraged and reminded that God is with His children always, even unto the end of the earth.

As Enoch’s search for God makes up most of the book, the plot contains Biblical lessons. Sarah—Enoch’s wife—and several other characters have lengthy discussions about God.

Overall

Now I’ll get in to my handful of gripes about the series. The first is that several things seem out of place, from the use of miles to certain phrases to the Bible verses (which weren’t written at this time). Nothing too jarring, but a little out of place.

The second is something I mentioned already; Methuselah seems to be the main character of the book at first. His point of view introduces it, and he leads the book for the first several chapters. But he’s left behind shortly after, only getting a few mentions.

Thirdly, the dialogue and prose are mediocre. I feel like the dialogue is usually unnatural and unrealistic. It’s less of the characters showing their personalities and more of the author advancing the story.

Overall, I thought Methuselah’s Father was a great book. There is one scene, when Enoch is in one of the cities, that it mentions some of the evil things done in the place. It’s nothing descriptive, it’s just trying to convey what the Bible said about that time.

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Genesis 6:5

The book is on Amazon here, though the price is quite high for a shorter book. You can also see the Goodreads page here.