The Gospel According to Jesus Christ
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4.3 • 6 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A fictional account of the life of Christ “illuminated by ferocious wit, gentle passion, and poetry”—from the Nobel Prize-winning author of Skylight (Los Angeles Times Book Review).
For José Saramago, the life of Jesus Christ and the story of his Passion were things of this earth: a child crying, a gust of wind, the caress of a woman half asleep, the bleat of a goat or the bark of a dog, a prayer uttered in the grayish morning light. The Holy Family reflects the real complexities of any family, but this is realism filled with vision, dream, and omen.
Saramago’s deft psychological portrait of a savior who is at once the Son of God and a young man of this earth is an expert interweaving of poetry and irony, spirituality and irreverence. The result is nothing less than a brilliant skeptic’s wry inquest into the meaning of God and of human existence.
“Enough to assure [Saramago] a place in the universal library and in human memory.”—The Nation
“Fiction that engages the mind as well as the spirit.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Mixes magic, myth, and reality into a potent brew.”—Booklist
Praise for José Saramago
“The greatest writer of our time.”—Chicago Tribune
“A literary master.”—The Boston Globe
“Saramago is the most tender of writers . . . With a clear-eyed and compassionate acknowledgment of things as they are, and a quality that can only be termed wisdom. We should be grateful when it is handed to us in such generous measure.”—The New York Times
“Saramago’s fiction operates in a realm not far from fable: the territory of Kafka, Gogol, and Borges.”—Los Angeles Times
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Like other earthy fictionalized accounts of the life of Jesus, this loose interpretation of the Gospel provoked an outcry: published in the author's native Portugal, it was subsequently withdrawn from consideration for the 1992 European Literature Prize. Saramago ( The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis ) explores the psychological motivations that led Jesus to become a prophet. Joseph overhears a conversation that allows him to save his fledgling family from the slaughter of the innocents. Because he lacks the courage to warn others in Bethlehem, God turns him into a spiritual pariah and, as part of God's justice, he is mistakenly crucified. Tormented by his earthly father's guilt, Jesus leaves his family, wanders around in the wilderness with a freethinking Devil, is told of his destiny by God, performs some miracles and, in a fast summing up, ends up dead. Saramago, who takes some pointed digs at both the Catholic church and monotheism generally, seems too uneasy with his material to enjoy his tongue-in-cheek portrait. The work is frequently static and halfhearted, a far cry from the riveting passages of the New Testament, and though often amusing (his conversations between Jesus, God and the Devil may remind Anatole France aficionados of Revolt of the Angels ), the work never achieves the irony the author seems to have intended.
