Sarah's Reviews > The Big Fisherman

This companion and pseudo-prequel to Douglas’ best-seller The Robe chronicles the ministry of Jesus from His calling of the first inauspicious Apostles to the Church that rose and grew so rapidly in the first few years following His death, resurrection, and withdrawal from the world.

We see these events unfold through the eyes of Simon, known to history as St. Peter, the Big Fisherman himself, who was such a majestic and comforting presence in The Robe. He shares point-of-view duties with Fara/Esther, the apparently fictional daughter of Herod Antipas and Phasaelis (called Arnon in the novel) an Arabian princess whom he was forced to marry for political reasons and divorced in favor of his older, cougarish sister-in-law Herodias.

Of the two protagonists, Fara has the more adventurous life. At age twelve, she swore to avenge her mother’s honor, and when her mother dies young of a mysterious illness four years later, the girl takes off for Judaea, disguised as a boy for her safety, aiming to assassinate her faithless father. Near the start of her quest, she runs into John the Baptist, finding him sympathetic and inspiring but frightened by his vision of the future.

She is followed after several months by her boyfriend, Voldi, who becomes friends with the Roman Mencius (who also appears in The Robe) and both become embroiled in the events of Passion Week, but neither to the same extent as Peter or Fara.

Peter, born Simon, is just a fisherman of Capernaum with little education and no use for religion. He hears of an itinerant preacher with apparently magical healing powers from his young friend John, son of Zebedee. Annoyed that someone has taken John’s attention away from his job fishing, Peter storms off to one of Jesus’ sermons, and witnesses the Man of Galilee give eyesight to a toddler who was clearly blind before. His whole worldview shaken, Simon spends the next several weeks irritable and depressed. Meanwhile, Fara, under the alias Esther, seeks refuge in Simon’s mother-in-law’s house, and gets a day job as a maid at Antipas’ palace, where she hopes to eventually carry out her oath.

Then Jesus calls Simon to follow him, and the miserable man only feels right in the presence of the Carpenter, so he obeys Him. His brother Andrew and his friends James and John soon join them. As Jesus travels across the country, trailing miracles in His wake, His following swells. After Jesus heals Simon’s mother-in-law with Fara as witness, He convinces her to follow Him, and she does.
We witness the dance of Salome and the execution of John the Baptist (all handled with the utmost discretion); the Feeding of the Five Thousand (which diverges a bit from Scripture, but nothing really alarming); the raising of Jairus’ daughter; the Last Supper; the sham trial, torture, and execution of Jesus; the Resurrection; the meeting on the road to Emmaus; the Ascension; the Pentecost; and finally the events immediately leading up to Peter’s execution in Rome.

There are fleeting references throughout to Marcellus, Senator Gallio, Demetrius, and other characters from The Robe, which was fun. Mencius is an important supporting character in both.

The Big Fisherman is not quite as good as its predecessor—it feels rushed in parts, and Voldi’s arc is a lot more melodramatic than anything in The Robe. This book is also a bit more didactic in the religious department, which might have been inevitable since Jesus is actually a character this time, rather than a permeating invisible presence. But The Robe was a sky-high bar to clear, and I can forgive Douglas if he can’t quite vault it this time.

The character development for Simon/Peter is obviously quite good; he seems ready to step off the page by the end. Fara/Esther is not quite as developed, but she has spirit and gives up everything for her beliefs and the safety of her loved ones, making her a truly heroic character.

Douglas’ Jesus is very gentle, gracious, and wise. The book makes a point of contrasting Him with His spitfire cousin John, a ploy which unfortunately makes His outburst at the money-changers in the Temple seem far out-of-character, but overall is quite effective. Douglas also makes a point of showing Jesus doing His day job—He was a carpenter, remember?—and doing it exceptionally well.

I wish as a Catholic that Douglas could have made the Virgin Mary part of the story. It is strange that Esther was a female disciple but never met either her or Magdalene. Oh well. Douglas was a Protestant, so his avoidance of the subject is understandable.

This book seemed to play loosely with history at times (for instance, Herod Antipas died in exile but was probably not assassinated as shown here) but a story set this far back in time, with so few complete records of anything, has a lot more wiggle-room in this regard than something from the Renaissance onwards.

The violence (except for the Passions of the Baptist and Jesus, neither of which is gorily portrayed) is nonexistent, the sex (just some insinuations regarding Herodias, Herod, and Salome) is also nonexistent, and there’s only the mildest of language and drunkenness. It would make a fine addition to the library at your church or upper-grade parochial school.

It would also make a fine addition to your home library.

Be sure to also read:
The Robe , also by Lloyd C. Douglas
Dear and Glorious Physician by Taylor Caldwell