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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