The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Phillip Pullman

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Phillip Pullman (2010)

Read (kindle): August 2011

Another book that has been on my to-read list for a while. Obviously I really enjoyed the His Dark Materials trilogy and enjoyed reading one of his Sally Lockhart books too, but this was something a little different as it was aimed at an adult audience, but with religious undertones (well, overtones I guess here!) rather than aimed at the teenage reader. When it was first published there was a lot of controversy about the book and its narrative of Jesus having a twin brother. After Pullman’s criticisms of organised religion, and with this central premise, the book looked promising.

I have to say that I was a little underwhelmed by the book all in all. Yes it had an interesting premise, but it didn’t take it much further than that. I’m not hugely familiar with all the stories in the bible, but I recognised most of the tales being retold. Their retelling was often quite true to their original form, the only variation being that Jesus was being followed by Christ watching and recording what his brother was doing from the wings. As the retelling didn’t change the story much I wasn’t sure if Pullman really achieved much with the book. The twist was good (spoiler alert) with Christ being cagouled into take the role of the Judas and handing in his brother to the authorities. Having the two characters also allowed for some comments about the Jews and Romans being concerned about this new man leading a new religion, but that was about it.

Reading it on the kindle was new for me as this is just the second booked I have kindled (the first being the HP series). As this was a proper kindle title it meant that the progress bar at the bottom showed where the chapter markers were. I’m enjoying reading on the kindle – it is easier than having to hold back the pages of a book (but you still have to hold it in a certain way to have the ‘next page’ button handy) and without being back-lit it means it is so much closer to reading an actual book rather than a computer screen. Will I completely convert to the kindle? Well I’ve got a whole shelf worth of books I’m yet to read at home, so I can’t totally change sides yet!