Review: The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by José Saramago

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I rate this as a 3 because 3 means I liked it. When I look at the overall ratings for this book I find myself wondering how many people who rated it 4 or 5 did so mostly because they finished it. I think there's probably a bias that direction in overall ratings, anyone else? Especially if it's supposed to be great literature. This book took me months to commit to, with a page here and there until just last month. I guess the early pages took a lot of acclimatizing.

Anyway, I know I was tempted to rate it 4 or 5. The in-the-moment of the reading made me notice aspects of the standard story in new ways, and there were some really enjoyable moments of irony that make great sense. I don't think it will change the way I think about people the way Saramago's [b:Blindness|2526|Blindness (Blindness, #1)|José Saramago|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327866409s/2526.jpg|3213039] did, and it won't change the way I think about God the way [b:Book of J|357579|The Book of J|Harold Bloom|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1389449240s/357579.jpg|347731] or [b:Purity and Danger|667203|Purity and Danger An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo|Mary Douglas|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1397423597s/667203.jpg|653252] did. But there were some striking moments--especially in dialog--and the overall humanizing parallel between Joseph's guilt complex and Jesus' was absolutely interesting to follow, just to see how it played out. I didn't mind some of the artistic license with the standard events because literature that involves gods as characters begs to be understood in terms of power. What does a story with a god as a character help us think who we are and what we are about?

In the end the genius was in the writing style. Saramago was so careful about pacing the book, making it linger extensively on that long missing story of character development that has so many careful threads laid out for it, even in just the canonical text. His youth, like real youth, stretched out willfully. Then in the last pages the narrative dropped over a waterfall, the way time starts to rush after 30, then cascaded out quickly to the end. I thought that was a deft way to emphasize that the beginning and middle of a story are more important than the end.

PS I don't know how these reviews get tagged 'spoiler alert'. As if I told how the story ended here? And as if everyone in the world doesn't know how this story is likely to end?



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Review: The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by José Saramago

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I rate this as a 3 because 3 means I liked it. When I look at the overall ratings for this book I find myself wondering how many people who rated it 4 or 5 did so mostly because they finished it. I think there's probably a bias that direction in overall ratings, anyone else? Especially if it's supposed to be great literature. This book took me months to commit to, with a page here and there until just last month. I guess the early pages took a lot of acclimatizing.

Anyway, I know I was tempted to rate it 4 or 5. The in-the-moment of the reading made me notice aspects of the standard story in new ways, and there were some really enjoyable moments of irony that make great sense. I don't think it will change the way I think about people the way Saramago's [b:Blindness|2526|Blindness (Blindness, #1)|José Saramago|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327866409s/2526.jpg|3213039] did, and it won't change the way I think about God the way [b:Book of J|357579|The Book of J|Harold Bloom|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1389449240s/357579.jpg|347731] or [b:Purity and Danger|667203|Purity and Danger An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo|Mary Douglas|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1397423597s/667203.jpg|653252] did. But there were some striking moments--especially in dialog--and the overall humanizing parallel between Joseph's guilt complex and Jesus' was absolutely interesting to follow, just to see how it played out. I didn't mind some of the artistic license with the standard events because literature that involves gods as characters begs to be understood in terms of power. What does a story with a god as a character help us think who we are and what we are about?

In the end the genius was in the writing style. Saramago was so careful about pacing the book, making it linger extensively on that long missing story of character development that has so many careful threads laid out for it, even in just the canonical text. His youth, like real youth, stretched out willfully. Then in the last pages the narrative dropped over a waterfall, the way time starts to rush after 30, then cascaded out quickly to the end. I thought that was a deft way to emphasize that the beginning and middle of a story are more important than the end.



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Review: Back to Blackbrick

Back to Blackbrick by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I enjoyed how this story played with narrative and memory as two sides of a coin. Exploring loss in general via dementia and a very down-to-earch time travel story was a fascinating patchwork of writing ideas. The themes and issues were nicely displaced and then emphasized by having most of the story within the fantasy time frame. It didn't feel like an 'issues' book, but it clearly worked with current realistic fiction issues. If the plot threads were predictable, it was still fun to watch Fitzgerald unfold them in clean understated writing. Some of the transitions and pieces of plot didn't fit as nicely as others, but it was still good reading.



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Review: Caminar

Caminar by Skila Brown

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I have a hard time deciding whether the poetry added to this narrative or felt more gimmicky. In a story that was about the same length as a children's novella (something like [b:Sarah, Plain and Tall|106264|Sarah, Plain and Tall (Sarah, Plain and Tall, #1)|Patricia MacLachlan|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327254558s/106264.jpg|2674739]) the style of writing small episodes into poems was interesting for sure. There are two things the poetic style clearly did for me during the reading: 1. It helped me make prosody decisions for the reading voice in my head, with most of the poetic devices being used to control pace and phrasing; 2. It helped me see and feel the narrative in clear segments. Some of these segments were meant for character development, not just plot. Poetry was good for expressing this, and I enjoyed the imagery and sounds when I was supposed to understand what Carlos felt. The poetry would also give clear segments to discuss interpretations with a group.

The shaped and chiasmic poems were interesting because they drew me out of thinking in linear narrative for that episode. There were fewer of these types of poems, so either they were more work or too many of them would have been difficult to read the narrative? Not sure. This also begs the question of what it would take to present the whole narrative with a more circular rather than linear feel.

As far as young people being dragged into war, this was a very small one-sided chunk. In other narratives of this type, the young person trying to travel cross country would be forced by chance into traveling or serving with one side and then as travel continued get conscripted into the other side. This feeling of no clear 'sides' was clearly represented in the poem Voices I Heard. I would have liked to see that theme drive the plot a bit more, because the plot was really just a 'from here to there' story. It was great to see Carlos' actions save his grandma and her village, because it showed a young person as capable, in control, and taking charge of decisions.



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Review: All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom

All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom by Angela Johnson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



A very nice example of complementary text and illustrations. While the two modes crossed over into 1-1 correspondence part of the time, the story being told by [a:E.B. Lewis|104923|E.B. Lewis|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1273604805p2/104923.jpg] on the whole adds clear narrative elements and character to the story presented in words. Johnson's poetic language could absolutely stand on its own, as could Lewis' storyboard. With the visual and verbal stories put together, it made for a beautiful experience.

Lewis' watercolors are spare and articulate. I noticed his use of the blank white of his paper for contrast (a black cheek bathed in sunlight, a field of brown faces against a field of cotton).

Also, I loved that Johnson zoomed in on this vital moment in history, a day, a single event when things changed--through the eyes of one unnamed girl who showed us what the experience was like. A perfect slice of history, with no need to drag out the whole timeline. The timeline is always there, but with kids we don't get a lot of chances to make history feel real, feel human.

There's a good amount of context in the back matter. I would have liked to see a more thorough list of research sources, rather than a glossary.



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Review: The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus

The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus by Jennifer Fisher Bryant

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Bryant and Sweet have something going on here! This is the third biography in their collaboration, and I look forward to the next one. I started out worried that the style was too much the same as [b:A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams|3238642|A River of Words The Story of William Carlos Williams|Jennifer Fisher Bryant|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347836624s/3238642.jpg|3273289], but it's really a broad style and palette that seems to be consistent across this series.

For this book, [a:Melissa Sweet|427613|Melissa Sweet|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1377800536p2/427613.jpg]Sweet made a powerful effort to illustrate concepts again and this puts her squarely in the complementary rather than corresponding relationship to the words--a mark of quality! Concepts: what it means to be consumed by lists and categories, what it means to be fascinated by data and scientific processes of collection. Her use of ephemera from the sciences was brilliant, and the busy pages are fun to look at on their own, adding a full and rich visual narrative to Bryant's writing. She provides a visual experience that shouts out the partners' research and use of primary sources!

I think the text suffers from the full timeline approach to biography. I understand that for a children's book there's this desire and maybe need to provide the full arc of the lifetime, but [a:Jennifer Fisher Bryant|500077|Jennifer Fisher Bryant|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1261105300p2/500077.jpg]Bryant clearly mentioned in her afterword some rich narrative threads that she merely hinted at in the writing. I would have liked to see one of these focused on and developed instead of the full timeline. Give me a deeper feel for who he is as a character, not just the timeline! If you're going in for round 4, gang, would you consider this slice of life approach? I still give it four stars despite my misgivings, because this is one of the top writer/illustrator partnerships working right now!



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Review: Under the Egg

Under the Egg by Laura Marx Fitzgerald

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I really enjoyed this thriller story with its background in art history and the current art world. Fitzgerald tipped a hat early on to Salinger by putting her loner protagonist in an old, decaying NYC house (direct reference to [b:Franny and Zooey|5113|Franny and Zooey|J.D. Salinger|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355037988s/5113.jpg|3118417]). I enjoyed how Fitzgerald unfolded the specifics of this special art puzzle. The resolution happened very quickly, and I almost missed it because I was reading that chapter while trying to get kids to brush their teeth before bed, but it was something she had led up to through the whole book. Not a complicated plot, but enough so that it was nice to see her bring all the threads together by the end. Librarians were at first an object of fear, but then emerged to become heroes who were given enough air time to develop a romantic side-narrative.

What was most fun was seeing in this book some of the very facts about Raphael that Nancy had been bringing home to me all semester long from her art history class at UNC. This is a good pleasure read for anyone interested in art history.

Another interesting thing was seeing the digital divide represented so well. Theo's friend Bodhi is digitized, but Theo is almost a Luddite. This is so true from person to person these days--one person is deeply immersed in technology, and the next one never uses it. The nice moment with this was when Bodhi was reading from a wikipedia page, and Theo was filling in the conversation with details she knew. At first this just seemed like a clever way to do exposition, but then I realized it was a character having a dialog with wikipedia--very current!



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