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A review by stuedb
Quarantine by Jim Crace
3.0
There is no doubt that this is a well written piece of fiction, he manages to describe mundane life in the wilderness with beauty, elegance and humour. Some of the descriptions are a joy to behold.
However that being said I found Musa so despicable that I can’t say I enjoyed it, I just don’t understand why the others didn’t just kill him. It’s not so much a retelling of Jesus’s 40 days and 40 nights in the desert as he was such a small part in the story. But I guess that’s the point (isn’t it?), that it is a fairly common rite of passage. Following in the footsteps of their predecessors, sleeping in caves and living off whatever they can find in the desert. Each pilgrim has a different reason for heading to the desert be it to pray for fertility as is Marta’s case or a cure for illness or spiritual enlightenment. It just so happens that one of the people this particular year is Jesus, not that we see or hear much of him in this novel.
On the whole I found it a bit of a chore to get through despite the excellent writing.
However that being said I found Musa so despicable that I can’t say I enjoyed it, I just don’t understand why the others didn’t just kill him. It’s not so much a retelling of Jesus’s 40 days and 40 nights in the desert as he was such a small part in the story. But I guess that’s the point (isn’t it?), that it is a fairly common rite of passage. Following in the footsteps of their predecessors, sleeping in caves and living off whatever they can find in the desert. Each pilgrim has a different reason for heading to the desert be it to pray for fertility as is Marta’s case or a cure for illness or spiritual enlightenment. It just so happens that one of the people this particular year is Jesus, not that we see or hear much of him in this novel.
On the whole I found it a bit of a chore to get through despite the excellent writing.