Jacob's Hands

Rating:
Summary: weak plot, weaker characters
Review: First off, let me say I enjoy most of Huxley's work. The style of this book is totally different from the usual Huxley method. I've never read anything else by Christopher Isherwood. This book starts out boring, and ends boring. That's really the sum of it. The characters are flat and extremely simple. In his early work (say, pre "Brave New World"), Huxley's characters are an embodiment of one single trait. However, they are always developed well, and their thought processes are complex while remaining within this one trait. This book has the same characterization - Jacob, for example, is moronically kind and simple (think Forrest Gump). There are also the classic evil tricksters, and so on. It's not done well at all, and I left this book with a bad taste in my mouth.

Rating:
Summary: weak plot, weaker characters
Review: First off, let me say I enjoy most of Huxley's work. The style of this book is totally different from the usual Huxley method. I've never read anything else by Christopher Isherwood. This book starts out boring, and ends boring. That's really the sum of it. The characters are flat and extremely simple. In his early work (say, pre "Brave New World"), Huxley's characters are an embodiment of one single trait. However, they are always developed well, and their thought processes are complex while remaining within this one trait. This book has the same characterization - Jacob, for example, is moronically kind and simple (think Forrest Gump). There are also the classic evil tricksters, and so on. It's not done well at all, and I left this book with a bad taste in my mouth.

Rating:
Summary: Healing in a Positive Way!
Review: I like a person that sticks to their beliefs and personal principles. A person that doesn't get swayed by others negative traits. That's why I took a special liking to Jacob Erickson, a shy, and sometimes naïve person, who is the main character in this wonderful little story that takes place in the 1920's. One day he discovers he has the power to heal animals with his hands, and soon after finds out he can heal humans, too, when he heals Sharon, a girl he has fallen in love with. He soon leaves his job on a ranch in California's Mojave Desert to pursue Sharon who has run off to be a singer in Los Angeles. It's there that there adventure starts to take several unexpected turns from working for exploitative showmen, to seedy stage shows, and to healing an ailing young millionaire named Earl, who changes everything and leads them on a different course in their lives.

Jabob reminds me of myself years ago when I had the opportunity to heal but decided to choose a different path for my life which I found to be in my best interest. It's a difficult choice and this story, told in the first person, makes it much more realistic. As Jacob finds out you can only heal those who want to be healed. The body can be healed but Jabob only wanted to heal the body if the soul & heart are healed, too. A wise choice. I'm glad I discovered this book and truly enjoyed it. Highly Recommended!

Rating:
Summary: The insights of Huxley ...
Review: Interesting how Hollywood types embrace such spiritual ideas without commiting to one chosen path. This work starts with an incredible insight into some of Jesus' words yet speaks to healing as a natural and mystical experience. I'd think the Creator would be more included in the reasoning.
Well worth reading. Many, many thanks to Sharon Stone for recognizing the beauty of this fable and giving it new life at this end of the century.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable fiction, its cinematic roots all too obvious.
Review: Its been a very long time since I've sat down and read a book from cover to cover all in one sitting. It couldn't be helped in this case. I know this was written as a rough draft for a screenplay, but so what, I think it is complete as it is. It does what a book should do. It starts the little theater of the mind and lets you fill in the blanks. If you lack imagination, for heaven sake don't pick up this book, wait for the movie. If you prefer to create your own details, however, you can't beat this for a good read.

Rating:
Summary: HEAL ME!
Review: Jacob's Hands is a tantalizing account of one man's eyes opening. Poor Jacob, so ingnorant of the world. He truly believes in goodness. This book is a look into the evils of human nature. Human nature is greedy and self serving, unfortunately, Jacob does not realize this. In attempt to give his love all that he can, he opens himself up to exploitation. This book is a reader's journey into the souls of the pure and the corrupt. Perhaps the authors whished us all to take a good deep look into our own souls and the manner in which we treat others. This book is just one more glorious demonstration of life by Adlous Huxley, this time with the help of Christopher Isherwood.

Rating:
Summary: I love this book!
Review: The narration of this story is more simplistic than Brave New World, but keep in mind that Jacob's Hands was written as a screenplay, not a novel. Aldous Huxley and Christopher Isherwood have created a wonderful story and though the reading is easy, the questions brought to life in this tale are anything but. Jacob is the shy, gentle antagonist (who reminds me of John Steinbeck's Lenny)blessed and cursed simultaneously with the gift of healing. Exploited and heart-broken, he must determine the true benefit of mending the broken bodies brought to him when he can do nothing to repair their souls. Ideas in this story range from the physical hardships of the lame, to the role of spirituality in healing, to first loves and betrayal. Enjoyable and thought-provoking, I recommend this book to anyone who likes to ponder over Huxley's logic, or just enjoys to read.

Rating:
Summary: A touching fable on healing
Review: This screenplay is the collaborative effort of Christopher Isherwood and Aldous Huxley. This work has an unpolished feel to it and may have been an unfinished work. However, the stark and unadorned quality of the work adds rather than detracts from its message.

It is a fable about a ranch hand, Jacob, who discovers that he can heal animals with his touch. The owner of the ranch is a widowed college professor with a physically handicapped adult daughter. The professor resents his daughter and wastes no effort in hiding his feelings. The daughter desperately wants freedom and independence. She asks Jacob to heal her.

The screenplay's uncomplicated message is that physical health alone does not make a person whole or happy. This work is unlike anything else by Huxley in its simplicity and ambiguous final paragraphs. It is a short work and is easily finished in one or two sittings.

Rating:
Summary: A touching fable on healing
Review: This screenplay is the collaborative effort of Christopher Isherwood and Aldous Huxley. This work has an unpolished feel to it and may have been an unfinished work. However, the stark and unadorned quality of the work adds rather than detracts from its message.

It is a fable about a ranch hand, Jacob, who discovers that he can heal animals with his touch. The owner of the ranch is a widowed college professor with a physically handicapped adult daughter. The professor resents his daughter and wastes no effort in hiding his feelings. The daughter desperately wants freedom and independence. She asks Jacob to heal her.

The screenplay's uncomplicated message is that physical health alone does not make a person whole or happy. This work is unlike anything else by Huxley in its simplicity and ambiguous final paragraphs. It is a short work and is easily finished in one or two sittings.

Rating:
Summary: little known gem from Huxley and Isherwood
Review: We owe it to Sharon Stone that we even have this short fable at all -- she found it thanks to her perseverance tracking down a reference made to the screenplay.

I agree with the writer below who notes that Jacob reminds him of Lenny in Steinbeck's work. He's not retarded, but he's immune to the lures of wealth and privilege. Despite the material promises stemming from his incredible ability to heal, he just wants a simple life with Sharon, the fallen character. Jacob has always loved Sharon -- the moment he cures her of her childhood disease, she literally runs off to be a singer. When Jacob finds her years later, they have the chance to go back and live in the "desert" (so many biblical allusions and overtones), but Sharon cannot give up the money left to her by a rich benefactor who was cured by Jacob but killed by his own inability to give up his disease.

The writing is vivid and reads very much like the screenplay that it is. There is something very moving about Jacob's simplicity and inability to be corrupted. A powerful little fable, worthy of rediscovery.