The Story

So, the book of Jonah is super short–only four chapters–but packs a whallop. God orders the prophet Jonah to go to Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire (Israel's sworn enemies who were famously brutal and violent) and deliver a message: “Repent or you're toast in 40 days.” But Jonah has zero interest. Instead, he gets on a ship heading the other way to Tarshish. Big mistake. A freak storm hits, the pagan sailors are terrified, and they eventually figure out Jonah is the reason. He tells them to throw him overboard. They do, and a huge fish swallows him up. Inside the fish, Jonah finally prays for help, and the fish pukes him onto dry land. He then says a real half-hearted, grumpy 'fine' and goes to Nineveh, shouts his one-sentence prophesy, and the entire city (including animals!) actually repents. Then God forgives them. But Jonah is furiously angry that his enemies get let off the hook. The book ends with God trying to teach a cranky Jonah a comic lesson about mercy using a plant and a worm.

Why You Should Read It

I've always thought Jonah is one of the most brutally honest books in the entire Bible. It's a protest literature. Sure, it’s a story about God's power, but—and this is what blew me away—it’s also the story of a prophet who *hates* his assignment. Jonah is not a hero. He’s racist, stubborn, sulky, and smugly patriotic about his own people’s chosenness. The one piece of dialogue he gives God (out loud) is a complaint about God showing grace. That scared me because too often we're all into love and mercy as long as it’s for *our* tribe. This book shows the divine as a bit of a trickster, arguing with a master manipulator of His own books. If nothing else, it helped me think less piously and more directly about how sticky and weird and open our concepts of inner peace and other people's well-being really are.

Final Verdict

This is far from a children's story with a cute whale. This is a subversive, funny, unsettling look at a man and his God. Perfect for:

• Anyone trying to sort through what 'forgiveness' really means—especially for someone you consider a total loss: ISIS, gang members, people who literally get buried for good measure.
• Fans of Existentialism if you want to start small (and maybe annoyed you can be mad the worst bully sees the good.

A short strong force of nature of a book.