The Gospel According To The Son - Hardcover

Mailer, Norman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316641685 ISBN 13: 9780316641685

Publisher: Abacus, 1997

Synopsis

For 2,000 years, the brief ministry of a young Nazarene preacher has remained the largest single determinant of Western civilisation's triumphs and disasters. In THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE SON, Norman Mailer gives the protagonist of one of the greatest tragedies of all time a chance to tell the story of his life in his own words. 'Is God speaking to me?' Jesus asks, 'or am I hearing voices? If the voices are from God, why has he chosen me as His son? and if they are not from God, then who gave me the power to perform these miracles?' This is a gripping account of a man thrust forward by the visions he receives and the miracles he enacts until he has come to the very limit of human possibilities. In THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE SON, one of the world's greatest living writers has brought us a remarkable book - by turns poetic and tragic and, to our surprise and pleasure, suspenseful.

About this title

Review:

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 audacity 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

Review:

It's penetration into Jesus's human heart rivals Dostoyevsky for depth and insight (PUBLISHERS WEEKLY)

A compellingly beautiful performance (- IRISH TIMES)

Hypnotically engaging (- TLS)

Mailer has studied the gospels with great care, and his imaginging of Jesu s' story is both respectful and respectfully inventive. Most compelling, he has tried to make sense of Jesu s' full humanity, shrewdly giving us a son of God whose evolving unders (BOSTON SUNDAY GLOBE)

About this edition

• Publisher: Abacus
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0316641685
• ISBN 13: 9780316641685
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 242