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Left Behind (Left Behind #1)

by Tim LaHaye, Jerry B. Jenkins (Goodreads Author)

3.81 · Rating Details · 163,791 Ratings · 3,194 Reviews

An airborne Boeing 747 is headed to London when, without any warning, passengers mysteriously disappear from their seats. Terror and chaos slowly spread not only through the plane but also worldwide as unusual events continue to unfold. For those who have been left behind, the apocalypse has just begun...

Mass Market Paperback, 342 pages

Published September 1st 2000 by Tyndale House Publishers (first published November 12th 1995)

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Jun 16, 2009 Brad rated it liked it

Shelves: shabby

It has been a long time since I read Left Behind, but I have one interesting memory of reading it that remains clear and is, I think, worthy of discussion. I'll get to that memory in a second, but first I must digress.

I read this book for a student of mine. She was a very nice lady who came into my English classes worried for everyone's souls (and I say this with all honesty). Left Behind was her favourite novel (her favourite book was The Bible, obviously), and she asked me to read it just afte ...more

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Oct 25, 2008 Will Byrnes rated it liked it

Shelves: religion-and-sprituality

Try to forget for a minute that there are people who take this stuff literally. The book actually works as a sort of sci-fi novel, the kind Robert Heinlein might have written for adolescents. The characters are paper thin and the truth is revealed to true believers. It is a scandal that this stuff sold so many copies. But it was worth the read to know what all the fuss was about. Entertaining, sure, but still a major eye-roller.

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Jan 01, 2008 Summer rated it did not like it

Shelves: 2007, novels

I felt left out of the Bad Books Club because I completely failed to get past the first chapter of The DaVinci Code, so I read this to keep up. And boy, is this one horrible book! And there's at least 11 more of them! (N.B. - I will not be reading the rest of the series)

The writing is beyond terrible. In a story that presents so many interesting narrative possibilities - the grief of those "left behind" after The Rapture, the breakdown of society after a massive tragedy, the personal pain and so I felt left out of the Bad Books Club because I completely failed to get past the first chapter of The DaVinci Code, so I read this to keep up. And boy, is this one horrible book! And there's at least 11 more of them! (N.B. - I will not be reading the rest of the series)

The writing is beyond terrible. In a story that presents so many interesting narrative possibilities - the grief of those "left behind" after The Rapture, the breakdown of society after a massive tragedy, the personal pain and soul-searching of those who believed they had faith but who were found wanting - and ignores them all in favor of people sitting on beds and talking on phones. The authors say that there is violence and mayhem, but don't show any of it. The main characters' conversions to Christianity happen as almost an afterthought - there is little description of the feeling of God's love, of how they will change their lives and live by the teachings of Jesus. The book could have been about 300 pages shorter for all it has of any substance, or it could have remained the same length and added some actual plot or character development.

Oh my, the characters. Our Two Heroes are named Rayford Steele and Buck Williams. The current president is named Gerald Fitzhugh (totally not supposed to evoke John Fitzgerald Kennedy, I'm sure!). Williams's editor is named Steve Plank, and I presume that if this naming scheme keeps up, later volumes will include media mogul Robert Mudrock and sassy reporter June Heat-Register. There are two women in the book, and both of them are boy-crazy and even find the time to get makeovers in the middle of the horrors of the post-rapture world. They are also wholly without personality, but so are all the male characters. The Antichrist shoots his two closest business partners in order to command respect, and then uses his evil hypnosis skills to make everyone in the room forget about it. So what was the point? There's also a great throwaway line about how much Planned Parenthood loves its filthy abortion money, and how they're so sad they no longer have any babies to abort (no mention is made of reproductive health, etc.)

Theologically, this book is on shaky ground as well. There is the aforementioned avoidance of actually describing the process of converstion, and there is little Biblical evidence given for the Rapture itself (an event which many Christian sects do not believe in and see no textual evidence for). Questions are brought up (in the book!) about God's seemingly abusive role in forcing people to accept Jesus's sacrifice and love for humanity by secondhandedly killing scores of people in the aftermath of an event where drivers of cars disappeared suddenly. If the seven years of tribulation are supposed to give the unbelievers a second chance, how about all of those poor souls who died in accidents, or who were stricken with heart attacks? These questions are not answered in the slightest, and I was slightly thrown off by the book's refusal to capitalize "Him" when speaking of the divine. It's an ostensibly religious book without any real faith.

This could have been such an interesting story, but the writing is so utterly awful that the series stands as dangerously bad. It does nothing to address the mystery of faith and the horrors of the Apocalpse - it could be any third-rate spy thriller gathering dust on an airport bookshelf. And it's so damnedly popular! ...more

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Apr 18, 2009 Nick Black rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: unlikely-to-acquire

My mother demanded I read this in my senior year of high school (I was no slouch reader or anything, I assure; this was indeed punishment for a handful of books the parents had found, and thrown away -- Henry Miller, The Story of O, Beyond Good and Evil, and for some incomprehensible reason Invisible Man, which all ought indicate the parents as not particularly illiterate people themselves (aside from the Ellison, their Index Librorum Prohibitorum at least evidenced a self-coherent ethos), and g ...more

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Jul 06, 2008 Allen rated it did not like it

Recommends it for: nobody with a functioning neuron

Shelves: religion

I usually have students fill out a card at the start of the semester with information like their major, where they went to high school, etc. One thing I always ask is what book they read most recently. The Left Behind series started showing up on those cards a lot a few years ago, so I decided to read the first one to see what they were like.

This is absolutely the worst-written book that I've ever picked up. The dialogue is painful, the characters are wooden, the descriptions are hackneyed. In ...more

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Sep 22, 2008 Ancient Weaver rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: absolutely no one

Shelves: fiction, f-this-crap

Left Behind is one of the most wretchedly awful books I have ever forced myself to read.

If possible, I would give this book zero stars. Only by sheer willpower and by listening to the audio book one short installment at a time was I able to get through this one. Whole essays/rants could be written on how much this book sucks, but I'll limit myself to just a couple observations.

The worst thing about LB isn't LaHaye's crazy religious beliefs, it's the fact that it's such a horribly written pi Left Behind is one of the most wretchedly awful books I have ever forced myself to read.

If possible, I would give this book zero stars. Only by sheer willpower and by listening to the audio book one short installment at a time was I able to get through this one. Whole essays/rants could be written on how much this book sucks, but I'll limit myself to just a couple observations.

The worst thing about LB isn't LaHaye's crazy religious beliefs, it's the fact that it's such a horribly written piece of garbage. The only other books I have read that have been written this poorly are L. Ron Hubbard's Mission Earth series (which, interestingly enough, are also religious propaganda fiction written by a fanatical religious leader in his declining years). C.S. Lewis was a popular Christian author with whom I often disagree, but Lewis is infinitely more readable and infinitely more enjoyable than LaHaye and Jenkins regardless of whether you agree or disagree with him.

Apparently, the writing process for the LB books was as follows - LaHaye would write up a couple hundred page outline of notes and then submit the notes to his co-author Jenkins who would turn these notes into a story. Jenkins set a goal of writing 20 pages a day, which means that within less than one month's time he could crank out a whole book. A real writer worth his or her salt might spend years taking notes, writing, editing, rewriting, editing some more, re-re-writing, etc. It's not surprising then that LB reads like mass-produced crap, because that is exactly what it is - McFiction for the McMasses. No, scratch that. Stephen King used to joke about how his books were the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and fries (most of what he wrote was at least a hundred times superior to LB). LB is the four-day old, rotting McFiction that somebody salvaged from a dumpster.

A final comment on this travesty of the written word - there is an almost total absence of Christian virtue or compassion in LB. The Christian scriptures speak of the fruit of the spirit being love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. None of the "Christian" characters in this book embody these kind of virtues.

Christianity in LB is more like a form of Manichean dualism than a religion of faith, hope, or love. The so-called Christians in LB are grim survivalists resigned to a fatalistic worldview of kill-or-be-killed. Their only concerns seem to revolve around taking care of their own and signing up more recruits. It's no wonder that so much of what passes for Christianity in America consists of extremist, right-wing militia groups holed-up in their gated compound mall fortresses rather than genuine religious communities when books like this are what so many "Christians" imagine to be representative of their faith. ...more

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Jul 02, 2007 Greg rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction

Most people do now know that I have read 7 of the 13 Left Behind books (12 actually, but then they threw on that extra one, and this is not counting the prequels, the kids versions and the horrendous graphic novels: Armageddon can pay off nicely as long as it's delayed). I don't hide the fact, it just doesn't come up that often. I would have read all of them, but when I went through my Left Behind phase these were the only ones out. The phase lasted I think 2 weeks. The books read quickly.

Why?

O ...more

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Sep 18, 2007 Lori rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, has-religion-in-it, lost-lit

i read this entire series.....almost non stop...
they came out with a prequel series, but i figured how many times can you beat a dead horse....

This series was really really good.
I didnt know how i was going to like it, not being a practicing catholic and all, but even if it doesnt keep to scripture 100%, it gives you enough of an eye-opener....

I remember thinking, wow. If this really happened, i would be one of the ones suffering through all this. And what would it take for me turn and accept ...more

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Apr 18, 2009 Joshua Nomen-Mutatio rated it did not like it

Recommends it for: Satirical Critique

Recommended to Joshua Nomen-Mutatio by: Jesus, my mom

Shelves: from-ages-past, fiction, religion

I'd totally forgot that my mom actually paid me 50 dollars to read this book when I was about 11 or 12. Yeah, she's pretty religious. She wanted me to read the second and third books of the series as well. I think I may have lied about reading the second one in order to get another payment. The memory's a bit fuzzy on this. The whole thing is actually kind of unsettling the more I think about it. It's a bit of a drag having parents that really believe in Jesus and heaven and hell.

Oh, and obvious ...more

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Sep 13, 2008 Kelly H. (Maybedog) rated it did not like it

Recommends it for: no one

Shelves: what-sf, what-religion

I gave it a go, I really really did. The series is so popular and my ex really enjoys the books (ok, they're the only books he ever read, so maybe that should have told me something) so I thought I'd be open-minded and try it. After all, I did like the movie The Rapture and I love religious science fiction.

This, however, is thinly disguised right-wing propaganda. I can respect people who think differently than I do as long as they respect me back. This book does no such thing. They manage to twi ...more

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Jun 07, 2007 A Rye rated it did not like it

Recommends it for: no one

Shelves: fiction, crap

This...should not be considered literature....
This...is eschatological pornography...

The narrative and dialogue within this series is simply pedestrian.

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Jan 09, 2009 Trent Mikesell rated it really liked it

I think whether or not you enjoy this book depends on what you consider a "good" book. If you think all good books are well written, then this is probably isn't for you. If you think good books have to be 100% accurate, then this book probably isn't for you. However, if, like me much of the time, you think good fiction books should make you WANT to keep reading (even to the point of staying up late), then you may enjoy this book.

I remember when this book came out and it sounded interesting. I f ...more

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Jan 19, 2008 Robert Beveridge rated it did not like it

Shelves: finished

Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, Left Behind (Tyndale, 1995)

So I figured after nine years, it was time for me to get around to reading the first book in the bestselling Christian fiction series in history, Left Behind. I had always avoided it, not because of the subject matter, but by and large books that break records tend to be writ large by those with the wit, talent, and grammatical skill of overly enthusiastic six-year-olds. Dame Barbara Cartland, Danielle Steel, Tom Clancy, John Grisham, S Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, Left Behind (Tyndale, 1995)

So I figured after nine years, it was time for me to get around to reading the first book in the bestselling Christian fiction series in history, Left Behind. I had always avoided it, not because of the subject matter, but by and large books that break records tend to be writ large by those with the wit, talent, and grammatical skill of overly enthusiastic six-year-olds. Dame Barbara Cartland, Danielle Steel, Tom Clancy, John Grisham, Sandra Brown, you get the idea. Why should Christian fiction be any different?, I wondered. But despite all that, I dove into it.

Expecting the worst may not have been enough. To call the book naïve would be, perhaps, too kind. It uses the conventions of satire without being in any way satiric, treats its readership like total idiots, has all the spelling and grammar mistakes one could possibly want from a mass-produced piece of claptrap, and various other things, all of which I will attempt to make sound as tactful as possible below. But the bottom line, for those who would rather stop reading now, is this: plot's not bad, but execution is some of the worst I have seen outside self-publishing. Ever.

Without getting into the theological aspects of the book, it is impossible to write a comprehensive review of Left Behind without at least glossing over some of the more interesting (and less Biblical) assertions made by the authors, the most notable being the Rapturing (for lack of a better term) of everyone under the age of puberty. Hmmmmm. Including the ones in juvenile detention for murder? Okay, we'll drop the point. After all, our society is based (wrongly) on the idea that people can't make up their minds until they reach the magic age of eighteen. At least LaHaye and Jenkins dropped the magic age to twelve, for which they must get grudging respect.

But little niggling theological concerns are perhaps less galling than LaHaye and Jenkins' complete and utter inability to ascribe a mote of intelligence to any of their characters, and by inference any of their audience. Not being a Christian and a regular attendee at church, I can't say for certain what the average joe learns about the end times. But even without regular church attendance for the last number of years, I remember enough of the Revelation of St. John from Bible study back in the day to have seen all the major twists coming at least a hundred pages before they actually do. And yet his characters, including the wife and daughter of a fundamentalist, are completely oblivious. Writing a book like this as a mystery/thriller, it seems, was not the way to go. Or if it were, perhaps adding a couple of extras who might have looked like they, too, could be the Antichrist might have helped with the suspense angle. (They do attempt a move exactly like this, but way too late and way too ineffectively.)

(review too long; read it in full at Amazon, review date June 7, 2004) ...more

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Sep 05, 2007 Matt Mazenauer rated it really liked it

I thought at first that I wouldn't be who this book was aimed at, but instead, I found the opposite. Since all the devout Christians have been taken by the Rapture, the protagonists are a mix of atheists, agnostics, Christmas Christians, even seemingly devout Christians who could have been truer. This means that no matter where you fall on the devout scale you have someone to follow through the tribulations fo teh Rapture. There's fun semi apocalyptic planes falling from sky disaster movie after ...more

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Sep 13, 2007 Lauren rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: believers and non-believers alike

if you grew up in church like i did, this first book of the series will terrify you. the rest will keep you spell bound.

i would recommend these books to anyone though, they are fantastic and very well written.

they reference scripture a lot and i like to book mark those places and go back and read the scripture later. its amazing.

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Jun 24, 2008 Jason rated it did not like it

It would be unfortunate enough were the prose this book's lone problem. But as knuckle-headedly indelicate (Jenkins describing Carpathia as "not unlike a young Robert Redford" on 114 and later Jenkins's character describing Carpathia as "a young Robert Redford" on 232) and heavy-handed ("you might be asking Carpathia to turn against his own angels" on 231) and weirdly unfunny when attempting to be funny (the entire flirtatious cookie exchange between Buck and Chloe: 365-367 and 372-375) and crin It would be unfortunate enough were the prose this book's lone problem. But as knuckle-headedly indelicate (Jenkins describing Carpathia as "not unlike a young Robert Redford" on 114 and later Jenkins's character describing Carpathia as "a young Robert Redford" on 232) and heavy-handed ("you might be asking Carpathia to turn against his own angels" on 231) and weirdly unfunny when attempting to be funny (the entire flirtatious cookie exchange between Buck and Chloe: 365-367 and 372-375) and cringingly pedestrian ("He knew Hattie was not a bad person. In fact, she was nice and friendly" on 89) as the prose is, the book suffers most, perhaps, from its shameless pushing of agendas amidst token attempts to convince the reader that pushing agendas couldn't be further from its intent. At one point in the novel, we learn that Buck had always thought "born-again" to be synonymic with "ultraright-winger" - Jenkins seems to be telling us, in this instance, that such isn't the case, that the two are distinct ideological phenomena or positions. And yet, earlier in the novel, Jenkins forces a disgusting critique of the pro-choice perspective into the narrative, suggesting that doctors and counselors who work in abortion clinics cannot but long for women to decide to abort their babies. The novel is explicit that we needn't subscribe to ultra-conservative ideology in order to be Christians even as it implies that ultra-conservative ideology and Christianity are inextricable bedfellows. (Another example of the novel containing this contradiction can be seen in its sympathy with "stand[ing] up [...] to bigotry" on 429 alongside its subtle bigoted dig at homosexuals on 103: "[Rayford Jr] wasn't effeminate, but Rayford had worried that he might be a mama's boy...")

It's just a thudding collapse devoid of imagination, this novel. The characters are cardboard cut-outs. There are flashes of bizarre homoerotic subtext, from the naming of characters (Buck, Rayford Steele, Dirk, Steve Plank) to double entendric prose (e.g. "to stoop to something as tawdry as paying for sex. Had Irene known how hard he was..." on 144, "and the milk making him long for his boy. This was going to be hard, so hard" on 101, "Dirk and Buck had become closer than ever, and it wasn't unusual for Buck to visit London on short notice. If Dirk had a serious lead, Buck packed and went. His trips had often turned into excursions into countries and climates that surprised him, thus he had packed the emergency gear" on 86-87). In the end, the story is little more than a stencil clumsily cut to fit a rigid (and therefore uninspired) reading of Revelation.

I'll be taking breaks between books for the duration of the series, lest I develop a need for antidepressants, or a vomit bag (thanks to gooeyness of the burgeoning relationship between Buck and Chloe). (I'm reading them in research.) There must be better fiction than this coming out of the Christian publishing houses?

*page numbers in this review are from the hardcover edition... ...more

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Aug 16, 2007 Rachel rated it really liked it

I read the whole series but I can't remember which book was which at this point. So I'm rating the series overall as a 4.

The story begins the day after the rapture. Everyone who was "left behind" has to figure out what happened. Was it aliens or a terrorist attack? The story unfolds over the books and you get to watch people come to terms with the reality of the situation. You get to see the rise of the antichrist and how so may people don't understnad what's really going on.

The series as a who ...more

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Jun 18, 2007 Mont'ster rated it really liked it

Shelves: got-it, fiction

First thing (this is very important) This book is a novel. LaHaye has very premillenial viewpoints in all of his writing and he doesn't apologize for that. Read this book for what it is - entertainment, not an eschatology textbook. LaHaye has written many books explaining his views on the end times - if you want the "why" on this subject, almost anything by Tim LaHaye will do; here he is just having fun.
This is a fast paced novel so if you read this book expecting a lesson in eschatology, you w ...more

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Apr 30, 2008 Melvina rated it did not like it

Not worth the paper it's printed on, what a piece of shit, I couldn't even finish it. It is THAT BAD. If there was a 1/4 star I would give it that. I read it (or tried to) when it first came out and was causing such a buzz in the Christian community, I wanted to see what it was all about. It was a difficult slog from page 1. It's SO poorly written, the characters are as one dimensional as possible, the dialogue is SO bad, there aren't enough words to describe how B-A-D this book is. The most ala ...more

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Jul 06, 2009 Jon added it

Recommended to Jon by: Brad Simkulet

Shelves: religion-spirituality, fiction, read-in-my-40s, apocalyptic, liked-it

3 stars

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Oct 18, 2007 Terence rated it really liked it

One of my managers at work actually reccomended this book to me after I told I had read 'The Road'. I have to admit that I was skeptical going into this book only because I knew some of the background due to publicity surrounding the movies. I didn't feel much like reading a bunch of quoted Bible scripture - but I was happy to discover that there wasn't much of that in the book.

The story focuses primarily around a core group of characters all tied together following a mysterious worldwide disapp ...more

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Feb 25, 2013 jess rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, 2013

Basically, I thought this was one of the most mind-numbingly idiotic books I have ever read. It was.... a fast read. That is the kindest thing I can say. Oh, wait. No! The kindest thing I can say is that this fulfilled a reading challenge. I basically read it on a dare.

If you are ever like, "I am so far removed from religious evangelist people. I wonder exactly how people get sucked into completely illogical, mind-numbingly stupid, culty shit like Christianity End Times Rapture Prophecies, etc" Basically, I thought this was one of the most mind-numbingly idiotic books I have ever read. It was.... a fast read. That is the kindest thing I can say. Oh, wait. No! The kindest thing I can say is that this fulfilled a reading challenge. I basically read it on a dare.

If you are ever like, "I am so far removed from religious evangelist people. I wonder exactly how people get sucked into completely illogical, mind-numbingly stupid, culty shit like Christianity End Times Rapture Prophecies, etc" then you can read this book and imagine that you are a person who is such a shallow empty vessel that this book can fill you up.

At no point was I ever thinking "Wow, if The Rapture happened in my lifetime, here's how I would react to that situation." or "If this happened to me, here are the people I think would disappear, and here's who would be left, and here's how society would cope." I mean, there was literally never a single moment where I could relate to the plot or characters on any level -- and I want to be perfectly clear, I emotionally relate to many kinds of fiction. Every aspect of the book is a transparently shallow effort to drive home the point of just how HARROWING it would be to be a sinner in the eyes of God, and how much you need to get on your knees and crawl toward redemption.

Beyond the whole religion thing, which I cannot emphasize enough how stupid that aspect is on its own, this book is written extremely poorly. It's as if the authors themselves are not only barely literate, but also dumbing down their writing for a far-stupider audience. Dude, there is a scene where someone rewinds a DVD and then takes it out of the VHS player. Seriously. The dialogue could not be worse. I mean, there is literally no way in Heaven or Earth that a book could have worse dialogue than this one. Maybe in Hell, the books have worse dialogue. Oh, maybe reading this book is supposed to simulate the eternal punishment one experiences in Hell. That's the only explanation. The characters are flat, unrelatable, annoying pawns. The internal monologues of the characters are so breathtakingly idiotic, any reasonable person would want to bludgeon these people to death with a Bible, VHS player or any handy, heavy object, and not as a merciful killing to help them find their way to Heaven. What can I say except that the writing is of a lower caliber than free internet erotica, but there is no sex.

I wish you could give a book zero stars. Or negative stars. I am stupider for having read this book. It was every bit as terrible as I expected it to be. ...more

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Aug 29, 2007 Julia rated it really liked it

Shelves: series, novels

The concept is great: what would the Biblical end times prophecies really look like if they happened today? How could the ancient words of Isaiah and Revelation actually play out in today's world? What if the rapture occurred right now?!!

While some elements are admittedly intriguing (the anti-Christ's rise to power, the underground believers' economy, the covert operations) one frustration for me is the characters' glaring lack of depth. With maybe a few exceptions, these are flat, unrealistic s ...more

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Jun 23, 2008 Julie rated it did not like it

some of the worst books, ever, god bless them!

i derive a sort of masochistic pleasure in reading them. i actually didn't read them, i listened to them. i couldn't actually spend that time simply reading....i was reading and doing yardwork, or knitting, or something productive.

these books suck! oh god, do they suck.
they had potential for excellent apocalyptic death, disaster and destruction...but they were too heavy on the finding-jesus part, and too light on the destruction part. stephen king s ...more

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Sep 30, 2008 Rachel L rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: christians and people curious about the bible

Recommended to Rachel by: my mom

Left Behind is a book based biblically on the interpretation of what the end times could be like. It begins with the calling of all the Christians to join Christ in Heaven. All of the people that are "Left Behind" have to go through the tribulation. Buck Williams experiences what happend when he is flying on an airplane and people disappear only leaving their clothes. The pilot is also a main character who has to try and calm people down when their loved ones have simply disappeared off an airpl ...more

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Apr 24, 2008 Rachel rated it really liked it

Shelves: christian-fiction

I'll use this one review for all the books of this series I've read (just to save time)and that's inclusive of 1-10. I truly enjoyed them, some a little more than others, but that's probably more of a reaction to my over indulgence than anything on the authors part (I was averaging three or four a week around school, yeah too much, kind of like a kid having too much candy and getting ill) These books are creative, action packed, display the gospel credibly and made me care about the characters. ...more

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Apr 26, 2017 BAM The Bibliomaniac rated it it was ok

Shelves: library, biblical-fiction, audiobooks

I started this series years ago when it was first released, but never finished. For some reason I feel like reading it now.

Yeah, this book was so cheesy. But I really want to read the next one for some reason. I just smh at myself. Is that possible? Can I do that?

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Jan 26, 2008 Bill rated it did not like it

I really tried to like these books. I actually forced myself to read 6-1/2 of them before I finally gave up in disgust. They are just so badly written as to be unreadable. It's not the subject matter. It's the handling. The characters aren't even two-dimensional. The plots are so implausible that I found myself groaning out loud many times. These guys really REALLY needed to hire a ghost writer!!! Avoid at all costs. If you are like me and kept hoping the books would get better as the series pro ...more

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Mar 25, 2014 Denise rated it it was amazing

Left Behind by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins is one of those books that has become a Christian fiction classic. I've read and enjoyed this book several times. It seems like many of the negative reviewers of this book treat it like it's supposed to be a nonfiction, completely accurate description of the end times. I think the best way to look at this book is as it is written - a fictional book. I take it as more of a "what if?" scenario of the end times. Of course we can't know exactly what is ...more

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Nov 10, 2009 Emily rated it did not like it

Shelves: 2002

A few months ago, as a part of my overall campaign to read anything and in particular things I don't necessarily expect to like, I read Left Behind, the bestselling Christian thriller that took major publishers by major surprise. I thought it would be a good insight into the reading interests of what less restrained New Yorkers call "the flyover states." And maybe it would upend my expectations, as did The Communist Manifesto in 1992, sparking my short but irritating socialist phase.

The surprisi A few months ago, as a part of my overall campaign to read anything and in particular things I don't necessarily expect to like, I read Left Behind, the bestselling Christian thriller that took major publishers by major surprise. I thought it would be a good insight into the reading interests of what less restrained New Yorkers call "the flyover states." And maybe it would upend my expectations, as did The Communist Manifesto in 1992, sparking my short but irritating socialist phase.

The surprising thing about Left Behind was the way it juxtaposes opinions and events that seemed entirely normal to me with elements that were baffling or alien. For example, the first onslaught of confusion after the "Rapture" is totally in keeping with your typical thriller, despite its divine cause. In fact, the most unique characteristic of this book's opening is that the cause of the chaos is known to many of the characters and they're trying to explain it to others, not fix it. Also typical is the way the story proceeds from one scene to the next, putting pieces of the puzzle together in different cities at different times; there is no omniscient narrator, the reader figures out what's going on. But just when you're getting used to the book, something strange will happen, like the shocking multi-page discussion of how sorry abortion providers are that there are no unwanted pregnancies to terminate.

The mechanisms by which the characters meet are very familiar, but the characters themselves aren't. Relations between men and women struck me as unrealistically and creepily old-fashioned. The protagonist's smart, loving daughter Chloe is a skeptic, but her lack of traditionalism extends only to religion: in every other aspect of her life she already acts in a much more dutiful, wife-y manner than any non-fictional Christians I know. The conversions of the originally non-Christian characters may ring true to those who cannot conceive of anyone not being Christian in the first place, but to me they seemed psychologically unmotivated, conditioned only by the story's need for them to convert at a certain point.

The book has a pleasing momentum but it doesn't really have any conclusion, unless you count the characters' resolution to fight evil. To find out more you're just going to have to read more volumes, but I decided I wasn't cut out for that when I realized that suave, multilingual, globally-minded Nicolae Carpathia, by far the most intriguing character in the book, is going to turn out to be the Antichrist. When you're sympathizing with the bad guy so thoroughly, you know you're in trouble -- though I'm sure I would sympathize less if I read further into the series, where he reportedly does some pretty bad stuff. Anyhow, I think I've gotten all that I can out of the books, so I won't be reading any more of them. It was very illuminating to read one, and it only took about 2.5 hours, so chalk up another success for the campaign to read books I don't necessarily expect to like. ...more

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About Tim LaHaye

Timothy "Tim" F. LaHaye was an American evangelical Christian minister, author, and speaker, best known for the Left Behind series of apocalyptic fiction, which he co-wrote with Jerry B. Jenkins.

He has written over 50 books, both fiction and non-fiction.

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“Dear God, I admit that I’m a sinner. I am sorry for my sins. Please forgive me and save me. I ask this in the name of Jesus, who died for me. I trust in him right now. I believe that the sinless blood of Jesus is sufficient to pay the price for my salvation. Thank you for hearing me and receiving me. Thank you for saving my soul.” — 5 likes

“The Bible says that to those who receive him, he gives the power to become sons of God. That’s what Jesus is—the Son of God. When we become sons of God, we have what Jesus has: a relationship with God, eternal life, and because Jesus paid our penalty, we also have forgiveness for our sins.” — 3 likes

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