- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks (Sep 7 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0345434080
- ISBN-13: 978-0345434081
- Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 1.5 x 20.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 227 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,044,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
In the two millennia since Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote their separate biographies of Jesus, only a handful of other authors have attempted renditions--Charles Dickens, Leo Tolstoy, and D. H. Lawrence have tried their hands at it; scholars E. P. Sanders and Raymond Brown have produced academic treatises on the historical Jesus. Perhaps the best-known fictional account of the life of Jesus is Nikos Kazantzakis's The Last Temptation of Christ, which explores the Son of Man's all-too-human side. Norman Mailer joins these ranks with The Gospel According to the Son.
Not content to chronicle Jesus' life in the form of an apocryphal gospel, Mailer has the chutzpah to crawl inside his title character's head and tell the story from the first-person point of view. Here we get the Prince of Peace's personal account of his temptation by Satan, his three-year ministry, and his agony on the cross. Mailer presents an entirely new kind of passion play, one that remains faithful to the shape of Jesus' life as outlined in the gospels, while daring to imagine the inner life of this most elusive historical figure. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
This novel is exactly what it sounds like: the gospel story retold from Christ's point of view. Although Mailer treats his New Testament sources with respect, Jesus turns out to be just the sort of character one would expect to find in a Norman Mailer novel. He is embarrassed by his Jewish mother and complains that God the Father barely speaks to him. He questions his success in healing the sick and struggles with his growing celebrity. Worse, he waffles on crucial issues like voluntary poverty, alienating Judas and other hardcore revolutionaries. Of particular interest is the central role Mailer assigns to Satan. Jesus believes that God and Satan are equally matched and that neither one will ever get the upper hand. In short, Mailer has concocted a profoundly heretical "gnostic" gospel. The problem is that few readers will have much interest in Mailer's theology, and, taken simply as a novel, the book leaves much to be desired. Recommended mainly for comprehensive collections of Mailer's work.
-?Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch., Los Angeles
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
-?Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch., Los Angeles
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
A Very Mixed Bag,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Gospel According to the Son (Mass Market Paperback)
I really wonder if Mailer only wrote this after a bet, a dare, or a few beers, or all three. It's a sometimes adequate....at times very insightful and moving....rewrite of a Gospel. But, gees, Norm, this is a damn serious subject about a very complex guy.... couldn'ya have tried just a little bit harder? The characters (especially Jesus) are flat and dull. The overall story is dead boring. Where Mailer has a flash of insight, the dialogue and monologues are good....where he doesn't, he simply quotes the Gospels literally....those parts are intensely irritating. Come on, Norm. Next time you want to do a serious work, stay away from your mates and stay off the piss. And do a bit more thinking and research.
3.0 out of 5 stars
It was so-so,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Gospel According to the Son (Mass Market Paperback)
Normally, I like books about this subject. So naturally, I picked up a copy of "The Gospel According to the Son". I'm not saying it was absolutely awful, but it wasn't exactly a gripping page-turner either. It was straight out of the Gospels in the Bible. It was interesting, however, to hear Christ narrate His own life. Still, I would skip this one if you're looking for something you want to read over and over.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Doesn't add enough to the Bible,
By jsiebrits@yahoo.com (South Africa) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Gospel According to the Son: A Novel (Paperback)
This book has some merit, but does not add enough to the portrayal of Jesus in the gospels to make it deserving of more than two stars. I liked Mailer's simple prose, which displays little of the show-offishness of The Fight, and the way in which he links the familiar events of the gospels, but otherwise I found the book slightly uninspirational. Jesus is portrayed as very human, and as grappling with the problem of how to handle his status of Son of God and the powers that go with it, but this is not a remarkable insight on the part of Mailer. I would think that anybody who has read the Bible with a sense of curiosity would have considered this as well.
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