3 out of 4 stars
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Jump by Michel Sauret depicts the religious journey of Christopher Dove. His journey begins at home with his parents, who take the phrase "leap of faith" literally. Every year on his birthday, Christopher climbs a tree and jumps out of it. His safe landing is a sign that his faith in God is strong and that God is with him. His fifth jump, Christopher doesn't land safely. This triggers his faith journey. As he grows, his faith wavers, and his relationship with his family becomes strained. This leads him to his next step in his search for God: college. When Christopher still doesn't find God there, he moves on, hitchhiking to Selma, Alabama, where his journey peaks, and he finds God in an unexpected way.
I appreciate what Sauret did with the way Christopher's religion affected his life. The way his parents forced it on him made him unhappy and unsatisfied, which is something I found very realistic. Religion should never be forced on a child; the fact that they had no choice in the matter and didn't get to discover the religion on their own terms ruins the experience for them. Sauret shows this through Christopher, who becomes resentful towards religion and his family, causing him to move away for college and lose contact with his parents and sister. This scenario is not unfamiliar to many people who were raised in a very religious family or who went to a religious school. This sense of reality is what makes Jump so genius. It's relatable.
What I thought Sauret handled particularly well was the idea of sexuality and how religion affects a person's view of sexuality. Throughout the book, Christopher's sexuality is a constant burden on him. He does his best to suppress it, but it continues to plague him. The success here is the same as throughout the rest of the book: the realness of the situation. As someone who has experienced growing up both religious and homosexual, I thought the sexuality aspect of Christopher's character was an incredibly smart addition, and that it was very well handled.
I had only minor problems with this book. One of those problems was the organization. There are three parts to Christopher's spiritual journey: home, college, and The Household. While that's fine, I found they didn't flow very well, particularly the transition from the start of the book to The Household. The Household seemed like a completely different story. While it wasn't bad, I wish the book had come together better instead of feeling chunky. The second problem I had with it was that I wasn't able to immerse myself in the story. Christopher's character was written in a detached voice (in my opinion), even though the journey he was on was very personal. That didn't come through in the writing, which made it hard for me to feel for Chris.
While I appreciated how realistic and easy to relate to Jump was, I was unable to emotionally invest in it due to the writing style. Another problem I had with it was that the end of the book felt completely separate from the rest of it. For these reasons, I give Jump three out of four stars. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys religious fiction, but I would advise them not to expect to finish it and think "wow!" It was good, but nothing more than that.
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Jump
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