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savaging's review
2.0
As long as Mary Magdalene was shouting down Jesus and blessing the mud from which she came, I found this an engaging book. A bit rhapsodic and over-exuberant in its wording, but at least with a fairly perverse view of Jesus and a spirited defense of the mud.
But soon Mary gets domesticated into a sniveling neo-virgin, destined to perpetual, weepy foot-washing, and the book falls flat for me. Every female is this way in the book (not surprising, since the spoken philosophy is that all women are just different masks on Woman). They are all overjoyed to have man-Jesus in their house, to take care of. ("But tonight, what an unexpected joy! With quivering nostrils they smelled the air. how it had changed; how perfumed it was -- not with basil and mint but with the odor of a man!"). Jesus' divine task is to consistently ignore women with their temptations of physical, mundane pleasure and instead get himself crucified.
Kazantzakis has some brave ideas in here, especially in the very last chapters. But I think his heresy only scratches the surface: he still deeply believes in the kind of neo-platonic disgust of bodies, the earth, and women that has caused tremendous suffering to all three.
But soon Mary gets domesticated into a sniveling neo-virgin, destined to perpetual, weepy foot-washing, and the book falls flat for me. Every female is this way in the book (not surprising, since the spoken philosophy is that all women are just different masks on Woman). They are all overjoyed to have man-Jesus in their house, to take care of. ("But tonight, what an unexpected joy! With quivering nostrils they smelled the air. how it had changed; how perfumed it was -- not with basil and mint but with the odor of a man!"). Jesus' divine task is to consistently ignore women with their temptations of physical, mundane pleasure and instead get himself crucified.
Kazantzakis has some brave ideas in here, especially in the very last chapters. But I think his heresy only scratches the surface: he still deeply believes in the kind of neo-platonic disgust of bodies, the earth, and women that has caused tremendous suffering to all three.
corsanglais's review
2.0
A definitely worthwhile read; it made me think. At the same time the prose was difficult to pull through and often too vague for my taste. Definitely could have been shorter than 500 pages if more concern toward pace had been given.
sam_vimes_75's review
5.0
Looking for a challenging read to help celebrate Banned Book Week? It's a very moving and well-written story, written with much love from the author for his subject. Far from damaging anyone's faith by reading it, I can't see how anyone can walk away without having their faith enhanced and renewed. Certainly a far more inspiring story than all of the blood-soaked Passion plays or movies that have been done over the years.
elvatikan's review
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
ivaelo's review against another edition
4.0
Дадох 4 звезди, защото книгата представи една гледна точка, която не е нова за мен. А тя е, че Исус е бил обикновен човек, който се страхува, съмнява, чуства и пр. Книгата проследява познатата история за Исус, както и това какво би се случило, ако той откаже да носи бремето.
willthesecond's review
3.0
When this book was first released it received a lot of backlash for just how human Jesus is portrayed. I think it’s important to remember that Jesus was human and suffered in every respect in which we suffer; that is why I picked up this book. However, some ways in which Jesus is portrayed crosses some lines that didn’t sit right with my spirit. However, there were some aspects that made me smile and some that made me tear up because this book did do a great job with showing my weaknesses within a human Jesus and how he overcame them. Jesus laid down his life for me and I appreciate this book for showing me a picture of what that could have looked like. If you read this book refer back to the source material because this is the most important story ever told.
Finished reading on Good Friday.
“At every opportunity he had to be happy, to taste the simplest human joys - to eat, sleep, to mix with his friends and laugh, to encounter a girl on the street and think, I like her - the ten claws immediately nailed themselves down into him...”
Finished reading on Good Friday.
“At every opportunity he had to be happy, to taste the simplest human joys - to eat, sleep, to mix with his friends and laugh, to encounter a girl on the street and think, I like her - the ten claws immediately nailed themselves down into him...”
naleagdeco's review against another edition
3.0
This book (translation) is about two thirds awesome with a middle that is either contradictory or requires an awareness of (Greek Orthodox?) Catholicism that is well above my head.
Based on the beginning and much of the end, I'd much rather take this book as a relevant gospel than the source materials. Jesus is a much more relatable character as someone who struggles with his destiny (which is very much what the author wanted to explore.)
It's once Jesus accepts his destiny that the book starts to get weird. There's a lot of mood whiplash between Jesus speaking violently and Jesus speaking of love. In the earlier moments Jesus subverts a lot of God's angry tone, but throughout the middle both are happening simultaneously, seemingly contradicting each other. This is to me where the book really shows its seams. I don't really understand or relate to Jesus in the middle, rather than being someone who fears for and struggles to comprehend his nature and fate, he does one thing and says another, with little justification.
The end becomes interesting again, but can't recover from that fatal flaw. The concept is amazing, and the idea of Jesus dreaming of a normal life during his Crucifixion is really compelling, but given how he seems to have eagerly accepted his role beforehand, it no longer makes sense. His feelings towards Magdalene, Mary, Martha and his Mother are unexplored, especially the death of the former and easy replacement with other wives, all evidently by God's hand.
His renunciation of the last temptation seems mostly from being guilt tripped by his disciple buddies having been screwed over, not by any higher ideals or motives.
It's possible there is a concept of Jesus I don't understand, being a post-Vatican II baby and not particularly devout or scholarly. The motivations of God and Jesus in the middle don't make any sense to me, despite the intention of the author.
--
Other things: I love the writing style, and the way the author paints the episodes and the people. The characters are engaging and very relatable. I enjoy the seeming fan-fiction nature of bit characters showing up in relation to others, and parables being hinted at in random asides.
I don't get why the author seems to pick on Thomas and Simon Peter; his use of Judas Iscariot is incredibly daring, but dare I say the inversion of usual respect granted to the disciples seems mostly a 'darker and edgier' device from my vantage-point.
--
All in all, I thought this book did a good job of connecting me to Jesus and his times, but the actions of God and a divine Jesus still were incredible unrelatable and cut through an otherwise compelling portrait like swiss cheese.
Based on the beginning and much of the end, I'd much rather take this book as a relevant gospel than the source materials. Jesus is a much more relatable character as someone who struggles with his destiny (which is very much what the author wanted to explore.)
It's once Jesus accepts his destiny that the book starts to get weird. There's a lot of mood whiplash between Jesus speaking violently and Jesus speaking of love. In the earlier moments Jesus subverts a lot of God's angry tone, but throughout the middle both are happening simultaneously, seemingly contradicting each other. This is to me where the book really shows its seams. I don't really understand or relate to Jesus in the middle, rather than being someone who fears for and struggles to comprehend his nature and fate, he does one thing and says another, with little justification.
The end becomes interesting again, but can't recover from that fatal flaw. The concept is amazing, and the idea of Jesus dreaming of a normal life during his Crucifixion is really compelling, but given how he seems to have eagerly accepted his role beforehand, it no longer makes sense. His feelings towards Magdalene, Mary, Martha and his Mother are unexplored, especially the death of the former and easy replacement with other wives, all evidently by God's hand.
His renunciation of the last temptation seems mostly from being guilt tripped by his disciple buddies having been screwed over, not by any higher ideals or motives.
It's possible there is a concept of Jesus I don't understand, being a post-Vatican II baby and not particularly devout or scholarly. The motivations of God and Jesus in the middle don't make any sense to me, despite the intention of the author.
--
Other things: I love the writing style, and the way the author paints the episodes and the people. The characters are engaging and very relatable. I enjoy the seeming fan-fiction nature of bit characters showing up in relation to others, and parables being hinted at in random asides.
I don't get why the author seems to pick on Thomas and Simon Peter; his use of Judas Iscariot is incredibly daring, but dare I say the inversion of usual respect granted to the disciples seems mostly a 'darker and edgier' device from my vantage-point.
--
All in all, I thought this book did a good job of connecting me to Jesus and his times, but the actions of God and a divine Jesus still were incredible unrelatable and cut through an otherwise compelling portrait like swiss cheese.
studeronomy's review
3.0
By turns ponderous, cartoonish, and weird. The dialogue is comically bad. The imagery, full of dense metaphors and similes, are sometimes gorgeous, sometimes laughable (one character has "rabbit-like lips," whatever that means...a lot of fun zoomorphic imagery). Worth it for the hallucinatory sequences in which the miracles occur, some of which approach magical realism. The novel becomes more and more preoccupied with its existential themes as it approaches the Last Temptation, which gets a little tiring. Glad I read it, glad I'm done with it.
funkeymonk88's review
5.0
Very different from the Martin Scorsese movie. But still really good and asks a lot questions
vasilisdaltas's review
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0