A review by tasharobinson
The Fire Gospel by Michel Faber

3.0

Interesting premise, about a venal, flawed man who stumbles across a series of perfectly preserved scrolls from Jesus' time, including an eyewitness account of Judas' betrayal and Christ's crucifixion that completely contradict the existing gospels. But the execution is brief and minor, skipping across a lot of key connective material to draw some elaborate but disjointed sketches about the books' reception and its effect on the man who found it. It feels like so much is missing here — any attempt to verify the scrolls, or protect them (the protagonist leaves them unprotected in his fleabag apartment, and the point is made that this is phenomenally insecure, but nothing comes of it), or any attempt for the country where he stole them to reclaim them. The book jumps from the days where the author is a crank doing awkward appearances on local news to the point where he's a mega-bestselling author whose phenomenally gorgeous, capable, accomplished liaison on one of his book-tour appearances sleeps with him apparently just as part of the perks of selling books. (Another character I was sorry to see disappear after one scene—the publisher who first takes on the book back when no one believes in it. What happens to him?) This book feels vaguely satirical, reminiscent of Christopher Moore's Lamb, but while the individual scenes are well-drawn and Faber's writing is terrific, this feels like an aborted novel, a bunch of well-realized but disconnected pieces that don't add up to a whole.