NOTICE: (Updated March 5, 2010)

Beginning December 19, 2009, Books 'N Border Collies will be posting but only intermittently while I pursue personal goals. I plan to share some reading I'm doing, but there will be no reviews. I will, however, be sharing my exploration of vegetarian cooking and the cookbooks and websites I use to educate myself. I hope you enjoy it!

Lezlie



Monday, August 11, 2008

THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS

by Simon Mawer



Multiple story threads slowly reveal a lifetime of questions, betrayals and resurrections for a priest questioning his faith and his life.

This book wasn't what I expected. I had set myself up for a story about some discovered scrolls that throw the Christian faith into turmoil. While that was a part of the plot, it was very, very minor. The Gospel of Judas finds enough opportunity in the everyday life of it's characters to cast an uncomfortable smog of doubt. The parallel stories of loss and the attempt to find a "resurrection" that love was the most striking of the many themes in this multi-layered novel. This book is one that would be fun to dig into for symbolism and thematic analysis. There is a lot to work with here!



For any who may be interested in looking into this book for their book club, click here for a Reader's Group Guide. And I swear I wrote my review before I even knew this guide existed! It's good to know I was on the right track though! :-)

4 comments:

Darlene said...

This novel sounds like an involving read-maybe good for a book club. It seems like there would be a lot here to spark discussions.

Lezlie said...

Dar ~ It would be a great book club book! I was expecting something so different that it took me a while to get past my distraction of waiting for the story I *thought* was going to be told. I wasn't real into it at first. But once I got my mindset realigned, I really started to like what the author was doing. I know I missed things at the beginning, so it is a book I would like to come back to sometime in the future.

L.

Andi said...

Oooh, this one sounds interesting. I'm always intrigued by biblical historical fiction (is that even a genre?). Ya know what I mean. lol

Lezlie said...

Andi ~ I like them, too. It's a genre in my little world. :-) I haven't been playing around in it too much this year, but I always find myself looking at them at the bookstore and the library.

L.