Book - 22, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

The Gospel According to Jesus Christ (1991)

by

José Saramago

Book Read: 17-24 July, 2015

Note Written: 28 July 2015

'The Gospel According to Jesus Christ' tells the story of Jesus Christ as a human, not just as the Son of God/fairy-like image that we are used to, through religious texts. I would like to believe that the turn of events of his life could be more like this than the glorious accounts in the Bible Gospels. The book raised a lot of questions in my mind about God and answered almost all of them. God- if there is a power like that- I would like to believe that such a power exists- is not just a single entity. His will is not complete without the 'other side'. 'Good' is never reflected until and unless there is something called 'bad'. God and the Devil are like 'Yin' and 'Yang'- not complete without each other. 

The book gave me a lot of insights on many things, and shocked me at times- especially with the detailed account of the life of Joseph. In the Bible, Joseph is reduced to a character mentioned in just a few lines- he was noble, he helped his wife, he searched his son, that's about it. Mother Mary has been mentioned, thought of, and studied by many people and scholars, not Joseph, I feel. Saramago fills this void and does it great. Mother Mary and Mary Magdalene are characters primarily in conflict with each other but equally in love with Jesus- perhaps Mary Magdalene's is more of a selfless love. 

The narration using long sentences, paragraphs, and most minimal usage of punctuations made my reading a little weird, but interesting, especially since I am a stickler for punctuations. But I enjoyed each and every bit of the book- the flow was amazing and totally new to me. José Saramago is my new favourite author- looking forward to reading all of his works.