JACOB'S HANDS

by Aldous Huxley and Christopher Isherwood

Synopsis: Jacob’s Hands is about a simple ranch worker out West that discovers he has the ability to heal animals with his hands. He then heals the crippled daughter of his employer and ends up running off to Los Angeles with her. She becomes a nightclub singer while Jacob gets set up with a hustler who exploits his healing powers for loads of money. Then, Jacob and his girl are taken in by an immensely rich but sickly young man named Earl, who hires Jacob to stay with him and keep him healthy. Earl ends up stealing Jacob’s girl and then dying and Jacob moves back out to a ranch in the desert.

How it relates to Lost: While not specifically mentioned on the show, other books by Huxley are, and this book has been mentioned in various discussions of Lost on the web. Jacob’s Hands seems relevant in light of all the healing that occurs on the island, especially because the main character is named Jacob. The underlying theme of the book is the healing of souls, not just the physical body. Jacob encourages people to free themselves from the unhappiness in their lives, the misery that we sometimes hold on to and let define us. A key phrase in the book is “Let go”, echoing Christian Shepherd’s words in the Season 3 opener as he tells Jack over and over to “Let it go”. In the epilogue, we see Jacob doing his healing at a shack in the desert, similar to the faith healer Rose and Bernard visit in the Australian desert.