I Am the Exile: Book Two of the Exile Trilogy
As a college professor, Dr. Arik Greenberg had studied religion all his life, earning advanced academic degrees in his field. But none of this would sufficiently prepare him for his true spiritual journey. In The Exile, the first book of a trilogy, his challenge was to rescue the family home from his mother’s deadly compulsive hoarding, and to protect his parents from their mental illnesses, borne out of a family legacy of abuse.
In book two of the Exile Trilogy, I Am the Exile, Arik deals with the untimely deaths of both his parents, just a few months apart, and endeavors again to save his family home, clearing it out and preparing it for rental. During this time, he seeks to repair his suffering relationship with the Divine.
His journey would lead him from a simple, trusting, ingenuous faith—through stages of doubt, anger, and Job-like questioning—and ultimately to a more complex and nuanced relationship with the Divine.
Reviews
★★★★★
This is a Big Read. I happen to be reading Salman Rushdie's third-person memoir, "Joseph Anton" (his security pseudonym) at the same time. Arik Greenburg's is better. His first-person vulnerability and expressiveness is just remarkable (I don't have an adequate adjective to describe it). He hits all the neuralgic points about suffering, guilt, growing up into adulthood, love of homeland and his Jewish heritage, the deep and painful bonds between parents and child and between husband and wife. I could go on!
"I am the Exile" reminds me of Kierkegaard's famous statement-- "The most common form of despair is not being who you are." Greenburg shares that difficult voyage for himself, something most people cannot do, all within the context of his faith in a God with whom he is wrestling. It is a genuine and deeply moving book.
— Jane H.
