Et si ?

Et si Jésus n’avait été qu’une espèce de petit bandit minable manipulé qui se serait retrouvé pris à son propre jeu ?

Rigolo, avec des longueurs et quelques bonnes tranches impies de grasseries blasphématoires. Et quand je dis ça…

Et quelques piques anticléricales, athées, agnostiques ou antireligieuses assez bien senties ( )

This is a very interesting take on how the Jesus in the Bible came to be. It can be a bit difficult, as the story is written in the style of Latin translated to English. But the story is well told and the explanations of major evens is inventive. I found the handling of the crucifixion a bit convoluted, but overall its a good book. After thinking about it a while, it reminded me of the movie "A Face in the Crown" with Barbara Stanwick and Andy Griffith. ( )

UPDATE
I read Phillip Pullman's "The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ" recently and both books deal with very similar topics but in vastly different ways. If this book interests you at all, be sure to check out Pullman's book as well.

***

I'll assume that if you are at all interested in this book, then you understand that is wildly sacrilegious and blasphemes the story of Jesus Christ at every turn. If one looks past that or isn't inclined in that direction, there's a wonderfully written book about the nature of truth and meaning. The book does a wonderful job examining how the effects of our actions might be separate from the intentions of our actions. This whole notion of intention and examination and attention is held up to the blackest of lights.

Seems like many reviewers dislike the style but I believe they forget that the conceit is that this is a translation of 1st century epistle or even diary entry by a learned writer. He should also be seen as an unreliable narrator who while seeming to be examining his own motivations at some points is also clearly disguising his motivations at another point. The narrator is also clear that he's only guessing at the motivations of the Jesus character. That, to me, is the crux of the book.

This truth we might think we are reading is at least thrice removed from any capital-T Truth we might want to examine. There's a lot here about authorship and who owns the words we remember. It's really fascinating to think through all the layers being pierced in this novel.

In the end, I found myself wanting to see the Jesus character find redemption but Tosches does not grant that reprieve. He is found to be profoundly human and I think there's beauty in that. ( )

Gaio Fulvio Falconio era il ghostwriter di Tiberio, ma quando le crisi di pazzia dell'imperatore crebbero e Seiano divenne il suo facente funzione cadde in disgrazia e fu esiliato in Palestina. Ma anziché presentarsi al legato di Roma, tale Ponzio Pilato, notando come la popolazione locale stesse aspettando un messia gli venne un'idea. Prese un ladruncolo che però aveva uno sguardo penetrante e gli propose un affare: gli avrebbe scritto i discorsi da pronunciare al popolo per ottenere così tante offerte da tornare entrambi a Roma da nababbi. E così... In questo libro Nick Tosches prende in giro i vangeli e la religione con virtuosismi estremi; dal discorso iniziale con il monsignore della curia vaticana che per caso trova il manoscritto di cui il romanzo sarebbe la traduzione dal latino, alla pomposa prosa iniziale che deve aver fatto impazzire l'ottimo Stefano Tettamanti. I testi evangelici sono in buona parte presenti nel testo, anche se in un ordine un po' strano, ma la loro genesi è del tutto diversa, come potete immaginare. Le avventure del duo e della crescente congrega di discepoli sono sicuramente spigliate; quello che lascia un po' perplessi è come Tosches fa terminare la storia. Non tanto per il tradimento, anche se i traditori non sono chi pensate (o no?) quanto per le aspirazioni messianiche, e per l'anticlimax finale. ( )

During my years of reading, the number of books that I, for one reason or another, have not finished have been few. There's just something about starting a book and not finishing it that bothers me. Of late, with so many reading options available, I've reassessed my "Die Hard" attitude, and have adopted a more "What the Heck Am I Doing" philosophy. Under Tiberius fit neatly into this last category.

I waited weeks for this title to become available through my local lending library. I was so enthralled by the plot summary, and extremely high Goodreads ratings that I was literally checking the availability list daily. When I was finally notified that it was available, I was giddy.

To say that this book is slow is a complete misnomer. To say that I found it difficult to read is like saying some of the theories put forth by Stephen Hawking can be difficult to understand. Quotes in Latin, Italian, Greek , Hebrew, and more, it's all here. References to every biblical location I have ever heard of and hundreds that I haven't. The list of ingredients on a typical microwave fast food entree are easier to follow. It just goes on and on and on. I made it to chapter 21, and I give up.

As far as I'm concerned, this book is an example of "Literary Politically Correctness". People are giving it high ratings because they think they should, or because professional critics tell them they should, and not because they really think it was good.
( )