Book Review: Joseph's Grace

Dear Readers,

I have recently read a book entitled “Joseph’s Grace” by Shelia P. Moses. Although it is an extremely simple book with the vocabulary of possibly a primary school student, it conveys a very strong message which I would like to share with all of you.

This book recounts the death of Jasmine, the narrator’s cousin whom he really loves to spend time with. The narrator, Joseph, is extremely upset. As Jasmine was killed by the companion of Joseph’s mother, Bow, she was extremely hated by Jasmine’s father. She came begging Joseph for money to buy drugs, and Joseph, being the filial boy, gave it to her. It was until one day when Jasmine’s mother, Aunt Shirley, wanted to put an end to it and called the police to bring Joseph’s mother to the rehabilitation centre for treatment. She at first was very rebellious, but gradually accepted the help by Shirley and eventually, under the care of Shirley and Joseph, she recovered.

This book shows the element of filial piety, which is seemingly absent in the modern-day metropolitan world, which many describe as “advanced in technology, but not so in the socio-emotional domain”. Joseph was willing to give his mother one chance after another to repent, although the previous one always did not work. How many of us would give our mums a chance, after they refuse to accept our help? (This seems rather ironical, after you read my previous post on Mothers’ Day.) Even when I was reading the book, I was urging Joseph to not give his mother a chance, for she would never repent! The novel is written in such a realistic way which really evokes the emotions from readers.

It also reflects many phenomena prevalent in our daily lives. One example would be underage relationships, whereby Joseph and Valerie, his girlfriend, consider whether to have a clean relationship as friends till they are older, or to start a sexual relationship. Others include friendship, and family bonds amongst all others.

The language is extremely simple to comprehend, and there is no bombastic vocabulary throughout the entire novel, so there is no need to worry that you cannot catch up! Descriptions are not so vivid, which I really like, because I find that too much descriptive and flowery language make the pace of the story much slower, and thus, is unable to captivate my attention...

This book really touched my heart at the fact that there are such saintly and angelic people living amongst us during our daily lives. This book is a must-read, and I really recommend it to all of you!

Best Regards,
Nathan :)