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trevoryan's review
4.0
Provocative, to say the very least. If The Da Vinci Code pissed you off, just wait until you read this!
sohva's review
funny
informative
fast-paced
3.25
This book is an interesting and entertaining adaption of a few stories from the Bible. The notes provide a lot of context. However, I found the author's reasoning a bit flimsy sometimes. He claims that the reason the four women were added to the genecology of Jesus were to make a point that Mary was a prostitute, and I couldn't help but to find this a bit far-fetched. Many of the women in the stories weren't even prostitutes. Also, women hardly made appearances in the Bible without it somehow relating to sex, so sex centering in their stories is hardly an interesting common thread. An interesting interpretation regardless!
kellyd's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
very interesting but peculiar choice of medium (I.e. half of the book and some of the best stuff is in the notes and afterword which are not in graphic novel format).
erincataldi's review
4.0
A quick, thoughtful, and interesting comic series on prostitution and religious obedience in the bible. Chester Brown does a fantastic job bringing to life the stories of Ruth, Mary, and other famous prostitutes mentioned in the Bible in a comic format that is engaging and well drawn. There is a lengthy afterward and notes section where he talks about his appreciation of prostitutes, the stigma behind them, and the inspiration for the creation of the comic. A fun read, even for those who aren't super practicing Christians. It may offend some, but hey, it's in the Bible.
taniguchi's review
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.0
This idiosyncratic book is essentially a polemic arguing a) that Jesus's mother was a prostitute, and b) that Jesus's teachings do not condemn prostitution. More broadly speaking, Brown makes the case that Jesus consistently taught that radical love and acceptance of others is the essence of God, and that God Himself did not want human beings to slavishly follow his laws.
Recommended for anyone with an open mind, and especially for anyone with an interest in the uses and misuses of scripture.
Recommended for anyone with an open mind, and especially for anyone with an interest in the uses and misuses of scripture.
plapp's review
5.0
Super odd and I couldn't put it down. Brown makes a bunch of logic leaps and assumptions and projections, but his point of view is so fascinating and I'm really glad I read this and got to see how he put all these pieces together to form his view.
Some of the critical reviews openly admit they didn't read or skimmed the Afterword / Notes, and then said that nothing connected the stories. The Afterword and Notes ARE the book! They connect everything! Brown used illustration and the comic medium to represent the stories he found relevant to his argument, but he used the actual text in the Notes and Afterword to bring it all together.
This is the first book I've read in a long time that made me want to do more research on the topic and form my own opinions. I grew up very religious and have been trying to get down to the bones of the actual text of the Bible for years now, so this was fascinating to me. For all its quirks and biases, I'm really glad I read this.
Some of the critical reviews openly admit they didn't read or skimmed the Afterword / Notes, and then said that nothing connected the stories. The Afterword and Notes ARE the book! They connect everything! Brown used illustration and the comic medium to represent the stories he found relevant to his argument, but he used the actual text in the Notes and Afterword to bring it all together.
This is the first book I've read in a long time that made me want to do more research on the topic and form my own opinions. I grew up very religious and have been trying to get down to the bones of the actual text of the Bible for years now, so this was fascinating to me. For all its quirks and biases, I'm really glad I read this.
megthegrand's review
4.0
This book was interesting, not only because of the illustrated panels, but also because of the pages and pages of notes the author drew from to tell this story.
fernbomb's review
2.5
While interesting, and a great primer for deconstructionists, the author didn’t touch on the ethics or conversation about consent required for a discussion on sex work in any valuable way. Most scholars can agree that Mary would have been a teenager when giving birth to jesus- be so for real if your entire conjecture is that she could have been a consenting sex worker. This book would have been far more interesting if it was written by someone who actually works in the sex industry, not just a consumer of the goods. An absorbing read though!