Persuasive evidence that a writer as gifted as Ricci can tackle almost any subject and succeed with it. Better than Mailer,...
The life of Jesus, most recently fictionalized by Norman Mailer and Jim Crace, now imagined by the Italian-born Canadian author of a highly praised autobiographical trilogy (Where She Has Gone, 1998, etc.).
Ricci tells the familiar story in four separate narratives that echo (even as they depart from) the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The first is that of Yihuda of Qiryat (a.k.a. Judas Iscariot), a member of an underground political movement dedicated to liberating Palestine from Roman occupation—and a self-appointed gadfly who challenges the Nazarene (here named “Yeshua”) frequently and vigorously. Miryam of Migdal (Mary Magdalene) next testifies to Yeshua’s charisma as teacher and leader, and as her lover. Yeshua’s mother Miryam, whose quiet testimony evokes her unconventional son’s meditative and abstracted temperament, also reveals that he is the child of her rape by a Roman military officer. Finally, the shepherd Simon of Gergesa (who has no counterpart in the traditional gospels) offers commentary on the aforementioned conflicting versions, while offering his own skeptical eyewitness account of Yeshua’s crucifixion and resurrection. This complex portrayal of an only-too-human Jesus will undoubtedly offend many, both for its occasional anachronisms (the use of the word “solidarity” in a political context, for instance, seems jarringly contemporary) and for its reductive treatment of what are for many unquestionable miracles. This Jeshua is strictly a healer (for example, he sets bones). Ricci’s Lazarus was not dead, only unconscious. And Yeshua’s “rise” from his tomb was accomplished by followers who bribed the soldiers guarding it. On the other hand, Ricci’s spare, eloquent prose renders Yeshua’s simple determination to deliver his people from foreign oppression, and especially his embattled and agonizing final days, with impressive clarity and power.
Persuasive evidence that a writer as gifted as Ricci can tackle almost any subject and succeed with it. Better than Mailer, not as good as Crace.Pub Date: May 14, 2003
ISBN: 0-618-27353-0
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2003
An illuminating read for anyone interested in the inner workings of the Catholic Church; for prelate-fiction superfans, it...
Harris, creator of grand, symphonic thrillers from Fatherland (1992) to An Officer and a Spy (2014), scores with a chamber piece of a novel set in the Vatican in the days after a fictional pope dies.
Fictional, yes, but the nameless pontiff has a lot in common with our own Francis: He’s famously humble, shunning the lavish Apostolic Palace for a small apartment, and he is committed to leading a church that engages with the world and its problems. In the aftermath of his sudden death, rumors circulate about the pope’s intention to fire certain cardinals. At the center of the action is Cardinal Lomeli, Dean of the College of Cardinals, whose job it is to manage the conclave that will elect a new pope. He believes it is also his duty to uncover what the pope knew before he died because some of the cardinals in question are in the running to succeed him. “In the running” is an apt phrase because, as described by Harris, the papal conclave is the ultimate political backroom—albeit a room, the Sistine Chapel, covered with Michelangelo frescoes. Vying for the papal crown are an African cardinal whom many want to see as the first black pope, a press-savvy Canadian, an Italian arch-conservative (think Cardinal Scalia), and an Italian liberal who wants to continue the late pope’s campaign to modernize the church. The novel glories in the ancient rituals that constitute the election process while still grounding that process in the real world: the Sistine Chapel is fitted with jamming devices to thwart electronic eavesdropping, and the pressure to act quickly is increased because “rumours that the pope is dead are already trending on social media.”
An illuminating read for anyone interested in the inner workings of the Catholic Church; for prelate-fiction superfans, it is pure temptation.Pub Date: Nov. 22, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-451-49344-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2016
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
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