Quarantine - Softcover

Crace, Jim

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312199511 ISBN 13: 9780312199517

Publisher: Picador, 1999

Synopsis

A flawlessly presented tale that opens a window on human aspiration and folly, its revelations full of grit and glory. -- starred, "Kirkus Reviews"
A superbly crafted combination of historical and inspirational fiction that is genuinely unique. -- starred, "Publishers Weekly"
This is no simple retelling of an ancient story, but a modern and startling account of the birth and death of faith. In Crace's hands, Jesus is reconceived as Gally, a boy besotted with prayer and visions. "Quarantine" is the extraordinary re-imagining of the forty days Jesus Christ spent in the wilderness being tempted by the devil. Short-listed for the Booker Prize, this is a novel that you ll never forget.

About this title

Review

The story of Jesus's 40 days in the wilderness is surely among the most celebrated and widely diffused narratives in Western culture. Why, then, would Jim Crace choose to retell it in strictly naturalistic, non-miraculous terms? The obvious answer would be that the godless novelist is trying to debunk divinity--to take the entire New Testament down a notch. And at first, this does seem to be the case. Crace's Jesus first got religion as an adolescent, and "was transformed by god like other boys his age were changed by girls." His peers view his spiritual fervour as a youthful eccentricity. Even now, as the thirtysomething Jesus heads out to the Judaean desert for his 40-day retreat, he's perceived by his fellow anchorites as a flighty and impractical Galilean. They even call him "Gally" for short--and what sort of deity answers to a nickname?

Yet Crace is hardly the jeering materialist we might expect. As Jesus takes to his cliff-top cave, the author renders his religious transports without a hint of irony, and with a linguistic elegance that can hardly be called disrespectful: "The prayers were in command of him. He shouted out across the valley, happy with the noise he made. The common words lost hold of sound. The consonants collapsed. He called on god to join him in the cave with all the noises that his lips could make. He called with all the voices in his throat." And while most of the temptations of Christ are visited upon him by humans--by the motley crew of his cave-dwelling neighbours-- he resists them with what we can only call superhuman will. Quarantine does, of course, operate on a fairly realistic plane. Jesus dies of starvation long before his 40-day fast is complete, and his fellow retreatants, who take centre stage throughout much of the novel, are much too confused and brutal ever to figure in any Sunday school pageant. Still, Crace leaves at least the possibility of resurrection intact at the end, which should ensure that his brilliant book will rattle both believers and non-believers alike.

Review

"Remarkable . . . The effect is almost hallucinatory." --Frank Kermode, The New York Times Book Review

"Stunning . . . extraordinary . . . One of the freshest and most inventive novelistic uses of biblical material I have read." --Minneapolis Star Tribune

"A spiritual mystery of the best kind . . . Crace is a master at creating a convincing landscape out of evocative, earthy details . . . The creation of an ambitious imagination . . . A literary miracle." --USA Today

"A superb book . . . It succeeds thanks to Crace's potent, imaginative rendering of the characters and the setting, and because of its distinctive, lilting language." --Time Out New York

"Immensely impressive . . . This novel is a high-wire act, a tour de force, a garment expertly tailored from materials of the highest quality." --Bruce Bawer, The Washington Post Book World

About this edition

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0312199511
• ISBN 13: 9780312199517
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256