Gospel

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable, but flawed
Review: Gospel is an enjoyable story going back and forth between 20th Century and First. I especially enjoyed the footnotes oto the "gospel", but I'm not sure many people would get much out of them. There are some minor mistakes in the footnotes, e.g., some misspelled Greek words or Greek nouns translated as verb.

But the biggest flaw is what seems to be a anti-Catholic bias in the writting. (For the record, I'm not Roman Catholic, but the fact that it seemed so anti-Catholic to me may strengthen my argument.) Relics, virgin saints, and popes all are targets of ridicule -- not a few times, but over and over. Other religions and other branches of Christianity have foibles brought to light, but nowhere near as strongly as Catholicism is flogged.

The key issue dealt with is faith -- what it means, how fragile it may be or how strong people can be with it. It is about losing faith and finding faith. It is about running from faith and living faith. My favorite device in the book is the comments made by God to O'Hanrahan and Danton. God speaks with them (and they speak back). God prods them towards understanding of the world and self-understanding. God leads them through their loss of faith to recovering their faith.

Rating:
Summary: Not Finished, yet.
Review: I just bought this book a week ago, today. I am only on page 250, but wanted to get in my two cents worth. Wilton Barnhardt is an amazing writer! The places he writes about come alive and are vividly described. What really grabs me is the fact that I bought the book on a whim after reading the cover blurbs and the first page. I have just planned a sabbatical with my dear friend Father Michael and we are going to Assisi and Florence! In reading "Gospel", I almost feel as though I will be visiting these places again, instead of for the first time. Thank you, Wilton for such a wonderful introduction to these two marvelous Italian locales. I am savoring every word on every page of this delightful book. To the reviewers that have had a negative reaction, I can only say that I am sorry you weren't open to the "magic" of the prose of this extremely talented writer. I am just amazed at the amount of research that went into the details in this book. I look forward to reading Barnhardt's other works.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: I though this book was a great read. Particularly clever is the scholarly annotated version of the new gospel, which will entertain anyone who has had exposure to Bible scholarship, and many who haven't. The zany side characters in the plot are great- reminiscent of Foucault's Pendulum by Eco.

Rating:
Summary: On the greatness of Gospel and Barnhardt
Review: I know of no other novel of the 90s that delivers the astonishing richness of GOSPEL, and of no other novelist who matches the breadth of gifts Barnhardt has. Barnhardt produces one chapter after another that, for a more meager writer, would suffice for an entire novel. (This was also true of his first novel, EMMA WHO SAVED MY LIFE.) He has the gushing inventiveness of the best nineteenth-century novelists, coupled with the world-view of a 21st century observer. I think he's expert at almost everything -- he creates rewarding three-dimensional characters, settings of immense depth and reality (in GOSPEL these include locales as diverse as Oxford, Jerusalem, Northern Ireland, Ethiopia and more), fascinating erudition, humor, compellingly intelligent dialog, and, binding everything in GOSPEL, a dazzling plot. I do believe that among the BIG novelists writing in English today, there is no one better.

Rating:
Summary: An Astounding Find
Review: I don't know how I missed this book when it first came out. I don't recall having read anything quite like it. It is simultaneously entertaining and educational. Even the footnotes are compelling. The plot is basically a mystery in the form of a search for a lost synoptic gospel. Each section of the book travels to a new destination and explores a new form of religion. The critiques of the religions are inciteful and entertaining without being hostile or demeaning of the religion being analyzed.

The book is bright and witty, without being off-putting. I would go on and on about how erudite and intelligent the writing is, but that would risk taking away from how much fun it is to read this book.

A Gem!

Rating:
Summary: Gospel is brilliant...
Review: This brillinat and epic book takes the reader across continents and centuries. Our guide, the ex-Jesuit Patrick O'Hanrahan is failing in the faith and in his health; both are restored in the search for the lost gospel of Matthias the thirteenth of the twelve disciples. A delighful read for anyone who enjoys history, religion, mystery and comedy all bound together in one book.

Rating:
Summary: The Only Book I Ever Read Twice
Review: Gospel is possibly my favorite book of all time. I most desperately didn't want it to end. I laughed aloud many times. It has everything the jacket says it has...and more. I loved it. I have given it to several friends, all of whom have given it five stars. If I could give it ten stars, I would.

Rating:
Summary: Bad News
Review: Any equation between the writing of Mr. Barnhardt and Charles Palliser is pure fantasy. Palliser, Yes; Barnhardt, a resounding, No. After plowing like a dog through 650 pages of the 773 pages of this awful book, I broke all my own rules and concluded, "I don't need this." The end. I don't care what happens. Probably nothing.

The characters are complete stereotypes - the proverbial, massive, drunken Irish scholar a la Robertson Davies, a dweebie and pathetic female Irish graduate student a la nobody (appropriately), a Brooklyn Jewish Rabbi ("hey, little goil!"), a few lightweight CIA-types, Jim and Tammy Bakker stand-ins, etc., etc. I reached that point where Mr. Barnhardt has a senile Ronald Reagan conspiring with Fundamental Christians to set off the Apocalypse in the Middle. Seriously. Oh, give us a break, Wilton!

Sprinkled throughout the action are brief parenthetical dialogues with God (? Karl Malden? Joyce Brothers? ) who refers to Himself as 'We' to reflect - I suppose - that it's time for us all to get in touch with God's female side, or our mothers, or something. Oh, brother. And sister.

Of course, others will disagree. "A robust mix of prodigious scholarship and engaging plot" says the Chicago Tribune. Simple strokes for simple folks, I guess.

Rating:
Summary: Great till the End
Review: Barnhardt does perhaps make the book a bit too long, but scholarly approach he takes is engaging. The footnotes were extremely fascinating and added, rather than detracted, from the novel. That said, I just did not buy Lucy's decision at the end of the book. Not so much that she made the decision, but rather the relative ease by which she made the decision. The character agonized over so many things, but this, one of the most important choices one could make, she appears to do it easily. And this is coming from a pro-choice reader. I can understand that Barnhardt wanted to make a statement about the issue, but he could have done so with more believability if he developed her character's decisionmaking further.

Rating:
Summary: A fantastic fun read - one of the best books I have read
Review: I imagine the low ratings of this book are by people who may be turned off by the view of christianity put forward by some of the characters and the plot... I found it fresh and engaging.