Left Behind
No. 1 in the Left Behind series
by Tim F. LaHaye, Jerry B. Jenkins
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Tyndale House (Wheaton, Illinois): April 1996. Trade Paperback: 320 pages. ISBN-10: 0-8423-2912-9 Suggested retail price: $13.99 (US) Tags: armageddon; Israel; made into movie; rapture; Religious Tactical strength: [6/10] |
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Rayford Steele, a 747 pilot, must turn his plane around and land back in Chicago when many of his passengers disappear, leaving their clothes behind. Once he can contact the Chicago tower, he learns that the disappearances occurred worldwide. At home he discovers that both his wife and 13-year-old son have also disappeared. What else could have happened but the rapture of the saints. Christ has taken the faithful in the first resurrection.
Rayford quickly realizes that he will do anything to one day see his wife and son again, so he starts reading his wife's bible and contacts her church. After watching a video made by the church's pastor for just such an occasion, Rayford becomes saved. His new mission, share the Christian message with as many people as possible, especially his college-age daughter.
Buck Williams, a hot reporter for a weekly news magazine, was on Rayford's plane. Buck intended to visit a British financial contact. Later Buck learns that his contact has supposedly committed suicide, but Buck believes that members of a financial power conglomerate have murdered his friend. As Buck investigates, he finds that the evidence all seems to revolve around Nicolae Carpathia, a fast rising politician from Romania. To the devastated world populace, Carpathia seems the only voice of reason, calling for world unification and disarmament. Buck suspects that the same financial powers behind his friend's murder also promoting Carpathia.
Rayford's study group suspects that Carpathia is the antichrist predicted by the book of Revelation. Rayford has a chance to share the gospel with Buck, and Buck feels the message must be true, but hesitates to commit his faith. Buck's suspicions about Carpathia grow as he learns more, and as Carpathia chooses Buck for several exclusive interviews.
Lahaye and Jenkins do a good job turning a conversion story into a suspense novel. The novel does bog down in the middle as all the characters waiver in their faith and determination, but the last third rolls along at a fast pace. Although the authors freely admit they hope to get the reader to make a commitment to Jesus, the text of Left Behind doesn't come off very preachy.
Except for the religious aspects of the characters, the rest of the characters' lives seem hollow and undeveloped. The authors spend a lot of time telling the reader character aspects rather than developing those traits through behavior. For example, they describe Carpathia as a suave and powerful speaker, but most of his speeches get paraphrased and the rest border on casual conversation. We have to take Lahaye and Jenkins's word about Carpathia's charisma.
Several aspects of the typesetting kept bothering me enough that they distracted me from the story. Tyndale chose to set Left Behind with a ragged right margin, which looks very unusual for a fiction work. At one point, the typesetter has set an entire chapter opening in the wrong font, and you can see numerous places where the typesetter compressed the letter spacing to remove widows and orphans.
