From Publishers Weekly
Like other earthy fictionalized accounts of the life of Jesus, this loose interpretation of the Gospel provoked an outcry: published in the author's native Portugal, it was subsequently withdrawn from consideration for the 1992 European Literature Prize. Saramago ( The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis ) explores the psychological motivations that led Jesus to become a prophet. Joseph overhears a conversation that allows him to save his fledgling family from the slaughter of the innocents. Because he lacks the courage to warn others in Bethlehem, God turns him into a spiritual pariah and, as part of God's justice, he is mistakenly crucified. Tormented by his earthly father's guilt, Jesus leaves his family, wanders around in the wilderness with a freethinking Devil, is told of his destiny by God, performs some miracles and, in a fast summing up, ends up dead. Saramago, who takes some pointed digs at both the Catholic church and monotheism generally, seems too uneasy with his material to enjoy his tongue-in-cheek portrait. The work is frequently static and halfhearted, a far cry from the riveting passages of the New Testament, and though often amusing (his conversations between Jesus, God and the Devil may remind Anatole France aficionados of Revolt of the Angels ), the work never achieves the irony the author seems to have intended. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
This thoughtful, provocative study of Jesus' self-understanding as both son of God and an all-too-human family member caused debate in the Portuguese parliament and is likely to generate discussion here. Saramago reveals a deep knowledge of scripture, theology, and Christian history, but his true gift may lie in evoking the physical world. Christian writers have often downplayed the earthier aspects of the Incarnation, but here Jesus is "identified as a shepherd by the smell of goat." God says that it is "dissatisfaction, one of the qualities which make man in My image and likeness," which led him to desire a son on Earth. "There will be a church," God tells Jesus, giving a lengthy martyrology as evidence. Jesus dies as do many of us, lamenting "a life planned for death from the very beginning." For serious religious collections.- Kathleen Norris, Lemmon P.L., S.D.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
As provocative as The Last Temptation of Christ and already as controversial in its native Portugal, this fictional life of Jesus is as haunting as a dream and as real as a baby's cry. From the opening scene, in which an angel, dressed as a beggar, comes to announce the birth of Jesus, to the last moment of Jesus' life when the voice of the Lord seems to mock him as Jesus' blood drips into a bowl, Saramago mixes magic, myth, and reality into a potent brew. Among the most eyebrow-raising depictions in the book is that of Mary Magdalene as a prostitute to whom Jesus surrenders his virginity in a scene that is both erotic and tender. More than his mistress, Mary becomes the catalyst that allows Jesus to see the world in a new way. With little paragraphing and no quotation marks, the text is at times difficult to follow. But there is method to Saramago's formlessness. This is a book that can't be read quickly. The typographical density forces us to reread sentences and conversations, and in the course of rereading, we find multiple levels of meaning in the narrative, leading us in turn to ponder the larger questions Saramago's tale elicits. Ilene Cooper


From Kirkus Reviews
Now making its US debut, a novel from noted Portuguese writer Saramago (The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, 1990) that-- despite its provocative conclusions and sometimes irreverent tone- -is a profoundly different but no less significant life of Christ. Here, the Christian story is told from the point of view of Jesus, a young man very much of his time and place in spite of his great destiny. And it is this emphasis on Jesus's appreciation for the ordinary joys and virtues of human life--sexual love, family, nature, friendship, honor--that make the conflict between the desires of God, here indeed His father, and what He himself perceives to be earthly virtues, so tragic. All the familiar stories--the Annunciation, the Slaughter of the Innocents, the Miracles, and the Crucifixion--are related with a nod to postmodern sensibilities, but they're secondary to Saramago's main purpose--to suggest that Jesus had to live and die as much for the benefit of God as for the Devil, both of whom appear in person. Saramago's God, who resembles a successful CEO, wants to use Jesus and the church He will found to expand His dominions; and when Jesus wants to know, ``How much death and suffering Your victory over other gods will cause?'' God answers with a long list of martyrs, wars of faith, and institutions like the Inquisition. Even the Devil, an ambivalent figure who often intervenes positively in Jesus's life, is moved to repentance, but God rejects his offer: ``Because I cannot exist without the evil you represent. Unless the Devil is the Devil, God cannot be God.'' Jesus goes on to His destiny, but with a caveat: in the hope of averting the bloodshed implicit in the founding of Christianity, he asks to be crucified as King of the Jews, not as the Son of God. Fiction that engages the mind as much as the spirit as, in eloquently supple prose, it seeks to understand faith. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Book Description
This is a skeptic’s journey into the meaning of God and of human existence. At once an ironic rendering of the life of Christ and a beautiful novel, Saramago’s tale has sparked intense discussion about the meaning of Christianity and the Church as an institution. Translated by Giovanni Pontiero.



Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Portugese

FROM THE PUBLISHER

For Jose Saramago, the life of Jesus Christ and the story of His Passion are things of this earth. A child crying, a gust of wind, the caress of a woman half-asleep, the bleat of a goat or the bark of a dog, a prayer uttered in the grayish morning light. The adolescent Jesus is very much an adolescent: questioning, uncompromising, troubled by the world and by his body. His mother, like any mother, is devoted, fearful, resentful. The Holy Family has the complex frictions of any family. Yet this is not simple, debunking realism, for Saramago also fills his pages with vision, dream, and omen. And the defiance of the authority of God the Father, the righteous indignation on behalf of man, the anger - is still not denial of Him.

FROM THE CRITICS

Kirkus Reviews

Now making its US debut, a novel from noted Portuguese writer Saramago (The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, 1990) that—despite its provocative conclusions and sometimes irreverent tone—is a profoundly different but no less significant life of Christ. Here, the Christian story is told from the point of view of Jesus, a young man very much of his time and place in spite of his great destiny. And it is this emphasis on Jesus's appreciation for the ordinary joys and virtues of human life—sexual love, family, nature, friendship, honor—that make the conflict between the desires of God, here indeed His father, and what He himself perceives to be earthly virtues, so tragic. All the familiar stories—the Annunciation, the Slaughter of the Innocents, the Miracles, and the Crucifixion—are related with a nod to postmodern sensibilities, but they're secondary to Saramago's main purpose—to suggest that Jesus had to live and die as much for the benefit of God as for the Devil, both of whom appear in person. Saramago's God, who resembles a successful CEO, wants to use Jesus and the church He will found to expand His dominions; and when Jesus wants to know, "How much death and suffering Your victory over other gods will cause?" God answers with a long list of martyrs, wars of faith, and institutions like the Inquisition. Even the Devil, an ambivalent figure who often intervenes positively in Jesus's life, is moved to repentance, but God rejects his offer: "Because I cannot exist without the evil you represent. Unless the Devil is the Devil, God cannot be God." Jesus goes on to His destiny, but with a caveat: in the hope of averting the bloodshed implicit inthe founding of Christianity, he asks to be crucified as King of the Jews, not as the Son of God. Fiction that engages the mind as much as the spirit as, in eloquently supple prose, it seeks to understand faith.