Recently, I received a review copy of Joseph Incardona's Holy F*ck, a novel about a 19-year-old prostitute who can heal the sick and cure the crippled by having sex with them. It isn't a very good book, but it reminded me of a book I'd read more than 40 years ago: The Second Son, a book I bought on a whim from a book club in my teens.

I was a little surprised to find the book still nestled on one of my shelves after all these years, so I decided to give it a try to see how they compare. Overall, I'd say Charles Sailor has a better take on the premise of a modern-day saint who runs afoul of a powerful but corrupt organization -- in Incardona's book the Catholic Church, in Sailor's the U.S. government and, to some extent, the church as well.

Sailor's protagonist is a high-rise construction worker in New York City, rather than a low-rent hooker in the American Southeast. Joseph Turner is a good man, taking care of an elderly neighbor, helping a single mother with her rent, smoothing out disagreements between workers and management, and risking his own life to save a friend's. In fact, the latter is the good deed that should have killed him, but he survives a 24-story fall to the streets of Manhattan unscathed.

By page 16, which is where Joe plummets from a great height, we already know the protagonist far better than we get to know Incardona's Stella in an entire book.

From that moment, Joe's life takes a dramatic turn. After recovering from the shock of the event -- and escaping the attention of the media -- Joe is caught up in a police raid on a drug deal in his building and inadvertently heals a young pusher who'd been gut-shot by an over-eager cop. A few days later, he runs into a burning building and saves two trapped children, escaping on a nonexistent stairway and healing the children's severe burns on his way out. As the media once again descends on his home and his friends, Joe flees the state, finding refuge with an old friend, a preacher on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, and reconnecting with his ex-girlfriend, a high-priced prostitute from Florida.

Then the Catholic Church, fueled by the Nicholas Prophecy foretelling the coming of the Second Son of God, kidnaps Joe and takes him to Rome for testing and "guidance" under the thumb of the Pope and various cardinals. Various world governments, most especially in the United States, try to court Joe's favor or coerce his support. Joe, meanwhile, just wants to go home and do the work he's called to do in a more personal, lowkey manner.

And there's an explosion of nuclear waste in Colorado.

Although the story is, by its very nature, somewhat religious in tone, this is not a "for Christians only" kind of book. Joe Turner is not defined by dogma, and in fact he resists all efforts to confine his message to any one faith. He seeks to reach people at their heart, not their wallets, and he refuses to profit off of his growing body of followers' desperation and need. He strives to help people by teaching them to find the means within themselves and to reach out to other people in need for the common good.

He's a good man, given great power. His message is deeply moving and meaningful. Of course, when he starts to spread his message in the United States, the government takes a dim view of his interference.

Not to belabor too much the comparisons to Incardona's book, but both feature a working-class protagonist who performs miracles, a prostitute with a good heart, and a hopeful journalist who puts his life and career on the line despite a pregnant wife at home. Both prominently feature the Catholic Church, but where Incardona's is simply evil in its desire to eliminate a threat to its authority, Sailor's is complex, layered and divided in its response.

If nothing else, I want to thank Incardona for getting me to read The Second Son again. I would definitely recommend it.