Acts of Love, Acts of Defiance, Acts of Faith. Review on Acts Of Faith - Erich Segal

''Your faith is what you believe, not what you know.''

-- Mark Twain

Acts of Faith : Eric Segal: A towering novel of sin and salvation. So claims the book as I picked it up the other day for reading. After being ''inspired'' by Love Story By Segal, I decided I could probably take in a bit more of the emotional and sentimental aspect of Segal's story telling. What I had heard about him was that his novels are High on emotions, it is probably true so for Acts of Faith

The story starts in Brooklyn where the three protagonists, Daniel, Timothy and Deborah have their first tryst with faith. Segal then carries the story forward in rotation while keeping one of them as the main character. Although for Daniel the story is in first person, for Timothy and Deborah the story is narrated in second person. The chapters are named according to the central character for that chapter.

Daniel: Daniel is a Jew by faith and the only son of Rev Moses Luria. His father is an influential man in the Jewish community, he is the Silczer Rabbi and every man in the Luria family has been one. Daniel grows up with everybody's expectation that he would too take up the family tradition. Segal narrates Daniel's story in first person and shows this feeble little rabbi's son's struggle growing up with great expectations on his shoulders. But his immediate problem is dealing with the Irish Christian bullies who are trying to beat him up on his way back from school.

Deborah: Deborah is Daniel's elder sister. She is the first daughter of her father's second wife. From the very beginning Deborah is trained to be a proper Jewish girl and fit to be a Rabbi's wife. But looking at all the special privileges bestowed on his brother, she painfully realizes that she would never have the chance of serving the god as much as he does because she was not born a man. A seed of discontentment with this Jewish tradition is sown in her mind then.

Timothy: Timothy is born angry. He is bought up as an orphan despite of both his parents being alive. He is born to his mother when his sailor father is away on the ship. After the sailor leaves his wife for good, she turns crazy and is put in the asylum. Timothy is forced to live with his mother's sister and her abusive police husband. Not exactly a very loving environment for a young boy to grow up in. He vents his anger by being the bully of his class and troubling the Jewish kids from the neighborhood.

One such act of rascality brings him contact with the Rav Moses Luria. This changes his life and turns it around 180 Degree. It is here that he meets a beautiful Jewish girl and falls in love with her.

This is where the three of them cross each others paths. Then Segal takes the readers on a journey with these three. A journey which not only covers places like Jerusalem and Rome and South America, but also on a religious and emotional journey:

Of how Daniel loses his faith and becomes liberated eventually breaking his father's heart.

Of how Deborah stays faithful to her love and eventually reinforces her faith in her God.

Of how Timothy finds solace and hope in the service of God, becoming a priest, and how he remains loyal to his one love, the beautiful Deborah.

Daniel: Daniel is sent off to Hebrew University, which is considered a relatively ''Modern University'', to finish off his studies and become a god's man himself. There he meets Professor Aaron Beller. Beller is a unorthodox modern thinking man who also comes from the lines of rabbis. He slowly but surely manages to change Daniel's orthodox views. Daniel is then introduced to Ariel, a girl completely opposite Daniel, who changes Daniel's life. He has a big fight with his father about not following him and ventures into stocks and business. He ends up summing up huge amount of money but is still eager to make his father accept him back. Rav Moses Luria dies without forgiving his son. Daniel suffers betrayal in business and gets a chance to resume his service to the God.

Deborah: A poised little Jewish girl falls in love with a Christian boy. Her life changes forever. Rev Moses sends his own daughter away from home and to the holy land Israel. There Deborah suffers hardship and humiliation instead of an education she wanted. She runs away from her caretakers place and reaches a Kibbutz, an altruistic community of liberal Jews. She meets Boaz there and gets to know about the way of life of the Kibbutzniks. Deborah decides to stay on. Here she learns how to take care of her self and how to be in a big family. All this time her love for Timothy does not grow less. She only realizes how deep her feelings are when one day Timothy shoes up at her door. She gives birth to his son but her son is given Boaz's sons name. Deborah comes back to America for her father and studies there finally to become a Rabbi herself.

Timothy: An angry teenager at first, Timothy turns to God for solace. After being separated from Deborah, he goes to St. Athanasius' Seminary to study and become a priest. He completely immerses himself in the service of god. His progress impresses his teachers and other priests. He and a few of his fellow students get a chance to go to Rome to further their studies. During one of their visits to the holy land from Rome, Timothy manages to gather enough courage to search for Deborah. He finds her only to discover how strongly he loves her. But that is the path he cannot follow anymore. He returns back to Rome unaware of the fact that he has a son. He spends some time in South America and climbs up the hierarchical ladder quite fast. He ends up being an Archbishop in Rome.

The story finally ends with Daniel following his fathers footsteps and becoming the Silczer Rabbi. Deborah and Timothy meet in the end and live with their son Eli.

Now the emotional aspect of the story is quite intriguing. But I got lost in the religious aspects of it. Probably because I do not understand the intricacies of Christian of Jewish religious matter. I did not knew about Sabbath or Koshar or Mitzvah in the Jewish culture nor did I knew about the hierarchy of priests or the ranks of the papal order in the Christian culture, before reading this book. This is where I got lost and confused a bit.

Apart from that Acts of Faith makes for a good reading. I would recommend reading this book if you are a believer and a romantic. This book is best read late in the night, when you are snuggled warmly in the bed, there is silence around you and no one is going to disturb you for a long time.