This hybrid biography of the enigmatic historical figure extends narrative convention to consider the story behind his silent life and what we may draw from it.
Lazarus, the odd ball. The odd man out. With his sisters as buoys. Who was he?— The man whom Jesus called back to life. What did he think of death?— Lazarus, the recessive. Lazarus, who survived a time of persecution by the Pharisees and the Roman government. Lazarus, who went about his business in his father’s house. A father with whom he had clashed. And managed in a withdrawn manner to steer his ship across waters Jesus could walk upon, and Lazarus could only sink into. Lazarus, who was disappointed not to be chosen as one of the disciples. Yet he prevailed in his own off-chute way as he walked awkwardly in Bethany, just two miles from Jerusalem.
Diane Glancy’s Lazarus is conjecture of what this troubled figure could have said, thought, and written. It is biography interrupted by first-person fragments from his sisters, Mary and Martha, along with the meta-nonfiction of the author’s travels, statements, and intentions.
Lazarus was a modern man who had purpose and substance yet found himself ineffectual to some extent. Lazarus the book looks at the difficulty of living a responsible life.
