PONTIUS PILATE REFLECTS

This is an account of the last days of Pontius Pilate as revealed by his journals. Dismissed from his post as governor of Judea, living in disgrace in Rome, widowed, alone and ill, the old man fears that he is losing his mind. With a neurotic intensity he compels himself to examine the late tragic events in Judea in the light of his own personality. Effective at times, this German novel more often seems contrived and laborious. Hardly the sort of thing to appeal to the average reader of historical fiction, it is not up to the standards either of the audience that enjoyed I Claudius or Hadrian's Memoirs.