On the second-to-last page of his very slim book, Charlie Trimm recognizes that some of his readers "might even feel worse about the problem [of the destruction of the Canaanites] now than when [they] began this book" (93). Such a statement is funny, ironic, and (potentially) true. Rather than providing nice, tidy, and easy answers to the difficult ethical problems surrounding Israel's destruction of the Canaanites, Trimm simply lays out four different ways in which most Old Testament scholars (as well as some theologians and philosophers) have tried "to deal with the problem of the destruction of the Canaanites": (1) by reevaluating God; (2) by reevaluating the Old Testament (put differently, the Old Testament must not be a "faithful record" of what happened); (3) by reevaluating the interpretation of the Old Testament (in other words, "the Old Testament does not describe anything like a genocide"); and (4) by reevaluating violence in the Old Testament (meaning, "the mass killing of the Canaanites in the Old Testament was permitted for that one point in history") (Trimm, 50).

Rather than landing on a specific view that he finds the most acceptable or reasonable, Trimm simply lays out each view, describing both the benefits and the drawbacks of each view. (Trimm does reject the first view ["reevaluating God"], though, because he refuses to discard both God and the Bible altogether, due to his Christian convictions; 94).

Trimm's knowledge of contemporary (and ancient) approaches to dealing with the destruction of the Canaanites is impressive, and this book serves as a great resource for those interested in the wide array of different opinions and approaches. Some readers, I'm sure, will be upset that Trimm does not state what he thinks is the best approach to the problem—many of us want to be told what to think and what to believe (especially when it comes to difficult topics)—but I found Trimm's reluctance to prescribe a certain approach to be refreshing (and I think we can all learn from it). The one response that Trimm recommends in his conclusion is that of lament; he encourages Christians (both individually and communally) to lament with the psalmists, "How long, O Lord?".

One last advantage of this book is that it is impressively small; Trimm gets straight to the point, providing some helpful background in the first three chapters, and then evaluating each view thoroughly, yet concisely, in the remaining chapters. The book is easy to read and understand; scholars, students, and casual readers alike would greatly benefit from this book.