Compared to the 10 Commandments

Answer: Yes, it's a fable, and hopefully people will take it as an important one. From its very inception, as you put it, the novel was that way. I wanted it to sound the way it came to me in the swamp. It's a very simple message, really. A very simple story. I think the problem these days is that many important messages and concepts are written in language that is so complex as to be misunderstood or deliberately misinterpreted. In Richard Attenborough's epic film, Gandhi, there is a scene after the violence of Muslim/Hindu riot, when a guilt-ridden Hindu comes to the mahatma, falls to his knees, and fervently pleads something like, "O, Great soul, help me. I'm going to hell. I've killed a child!" And Gandhi responds in a gentle voice something like, "There is a way out of hell. Go into the streets where there are many children whose parents have been killed in this violence. Find a boy who is the age of the one you killed. Take him into your home and raise him as your own." When the kneeling Hindu murderer nods his agreement and begins to rise, Gandhi stops him with a stern admonishment. "But, it must be a Muslim child! And you must raise him as a Muslim!" There is power in simplicity. If we lived by those simple words, there would be no more war. Go back and look at the "Ten Commandments." Simple words. People understood them. People knew what they had to do to be good; people knew what they had to do to be bad. Compare the Commandments to the many chapters devoted to the hundreds of laws and corollaries and addenda to the laws of Moses in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Their number and complexity make our tax code look like a nursery rhyme. Now compare them to the simple parables of Jesus. I'm not preaching. I'm just saying. Like I said before, I knew immediately how the book would sound. Furthermore, I was prepared for this sound by my upbringing in the holiness church of my childhood. I often joke that I'm bilingual as are most of us who grew up in the black church. I speak English and King James Bible. The real difficulty (wink, wink) was in keeping the everyday speech in All or Nothing and especially Jesus Boy from slipping into the King James. Bible stories, fairy tales, parables, fables, and this novel all contain important lessons told in simple language. They follow the KISS principle. Keep It Simple, Stupid!