Reviews

O Evangelho Segundo Jesus Cristo by José Saramago

val_henderbonks's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

God does not forgive the sins He makes us commit.

[S]ince their first day together behind locked doors this man and this woman have divided and multiplied between them feelings, gestures, spaces, and sensations without paying much attention to the rules and laws.

sbenny's review against another edition

Go to review page

informative reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

outtiegw's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

5.0

michael5000's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

Saramago's "Gospel" has a lot of interesting, amusing, and arresting moments. He "got me" several times, driving me to dive into the New Testament thinking "Surely that's not the Biblical account!" Results were unpredictable; sometimes it was an episode Saramago had created from whole cloth, and sometimes it was a remarkably faithful recasting. For much of the book, most obviously with the Nativity, the story occupies a halfway ground where it doesn't directly contradict the story we know, but is certainly not a conventional recasting of it.

And yet, for as interesting as that sounds, I found this to be the least compelling of the Saramago I've read. And, since Saramago doesn't exactly break his back to make life easy for the reader, you really feel the lack of compulsion.

quercus707's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

Actually a 3.5 star book, but I couldn't quite bring myself to round up. Brilliantly imagined life of Jesus, very rich in detail. For the first half of the book, there was really no supernatural aspect to the story at all, and this part really grabbed me. A later section read like Dostoyevsky's The Grand Inquisitor, and I liked this part, too. A little disappointing in that it spent a lot of time on the early years, but then seemed like it kind of rushed through the conclusion, and ended abruptly. I wished he had taken the time to develop the story more fully.

elemmakil's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

Tämä on hankalin arvostelu kirjoittaa pitkään aikaan. Tässä tapoja joilla halusin alottaa tämän:

Kaikkien Raamatun evankeliumeitten välillähän on ristiriitoja, joten niitä on myös tässä Jeesuksen näkökulmasta kerrotussa versiossa.

tai

Vastentahtoisesti Messiaana oleva ja Jumalan toimintatapoja kyseenalaistava Jeesus, epäuskoinen Maria, Jeesuksen ja Magdalan Marian romanttinen suhde ovat osa tätä kirjaa mutta toisaalta eivät tee oikeutta teoksen sisällölle.

tai

En oikein tiedä mikä tämä kirja on, mutta ainakin siinä on neljännen seinän rikkova pomppiva kertoja ja se on satiiri uskonnoista...

tai

Nämä Saramagon kirjat on vähän sellaisia, että aina puolessävälissä tulee hirveä suvantovaihe, ja tekisi mieli jättää koko homma kesken, mutta onneksi taas jaksoin puskea läpi. Oikeastaan kirjassa oli hyvää ehkä alkupäässä n. 50 sivua, ja lopussa Jeesuksen, Jumalan ja Paholaisen keskustelutuokio soutuveneessä keskellä Galileanjärveä.

Mutta sitten luin arvostelun joka myös kuvaa kirjaa hyvin:

Some of it reads like deleted scenes from Monty Python’s Life of Brian. [...] The rest of it is a whole lot of mumbling, bumbling, fumbling, irritating, rambling, moaning, groaning, huffing and puffing by a narrator who appears to be some ancient old codger who is a shoo-in for the world finals of the Most Boring Man in the World contest. Täältä löytyy alkuperäinen kokonaisuudessaan: goodreads.com/review/show/1341629215

Jotain tuollaista siis luin. Mielessäni vertasin sitä koko ajan toiseen lukemaani vaihtoehtoiseen evankeliumiin, Colm Toíbínin The Testament of Maryyn, jolle tämä ei mitenkään vedä vertoja, vaikka näitä kahta onkin ehkä vaikea laittaa vastakkain.

3,5 tähteä.

anastasiaadamov's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.0

This was a book club pick. I would never take this book to read on my own. The digital edition I was reading needed some editing but as much I understand the writing style of the book is not much different from the constant narrative form.
I did not enjoy reading this book. The ideas this book presented were interesting on their own but as a whole they were a bit stretched for me.
Many interesting ideas that did not a good whole together...

laurassc's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

Sweet sweet irony...

aielardi's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

currently-reading

slele2's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

5.0