Rating: 
Summary: A gorgeous jewel of a book
Review: "Mary, Called Magdalene" is a beautifully written, well-researched fictional account of the life of Mary Magdalene. It starts out with a seven-year-old Mary who goes on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem with her family. On the way back, the family goes through Samria, and Mary, two of her cousins, and a friend named Keziah that she meets along the way, decide to go exploring and meet some of the families from other towns. They meet a particular family from Nazareth, and learn that Joseph, the father, is a well-known carpenter in his town. (hmmm....I wonder whose family this is? could it, perhaps, be Jesus' family?) Sure enough, they end up meeting Jesus as a thirteen-year-old.The story goes on to describe how Mary finds an old pagan idol made of ivory. The idol turns out to be hiding a demon, which posesses Mary and brings along six other demons over time. And yes, eventually, Jesus cures her almost twenty years later and she becomes his loyal disciple. Everyone should read this book. It is absolutely amazing, no matter how long it is (630 pages).
Rating: 
Summary: It was okay.. but long
Review: Ok.. so I read this book and it was pretty good.. only problem is that towards the end I found myself skimming through the pages in order to just hurry up and finish the darn thing..Its a pretty decent protrail of what "COULD" have actually happened.. My only Grip is that Jesus (and please I am not religious) was portraited in my opinion almost as a flakey recluse..sorry.. anyhow.. read the book its decent.. but like a said.. long
Rating: 
Summary: Listen to these reviews
Review: I too loved the other three books, and snapped this one off the shelf as soon as I found it. I had to push myself to keep going and barely made it to the end. Main weaknesses: the all-too-familiar narrative pattern of starting in early childhood (six-year-old Mary doesn't sound too different from 25, 35, 75 or 90 year old Mary), inconsistencies in many characters (especially Mary's family and Jesus's mother--a big one there), startlingly few references to the misogyny the historical Mary Magdalene must have faced from the other apostles, especially Paul. VERY simplistic--no twists (straight out of the gospels), and even the miracles are dulled and blurred so we can't really see them happening. Worst of all, commits the cardinal sin of any novel: it's boring. Oh, and by the way, the author treats demonic possession as absolutely 100% totally, literally real, both in the novel itself and the afterword. If you are expecting the sumptuous glitter of George's previous books, the passionate emotions, the vivd breathing to life of the past, you'll be disappointed. Even reading the Bible yourself would be a more literary experience.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This is a wonderful book!
It is was well written and hard to put down. I just wanted to keep reading. A real tribute to Mary Magdalene..... Thank you Margaret, for getting the word out that Mary was a true aspostle of Jesus.
Rating: 
Summary: woefully western
Review: The author takes he words of Jesus, some of the historic facts of scripture and totally misapplies them in this novel. She completely misses the cultural context of the first century, but rather imports what she has read into a very western, rather twenty-first century mindset. She completely ignores the honor-shame implications of the first century, totally misappropriates the role of a woman in those days into what she might imagine it being, and does very little to advance the plot of her novel beyond her living room. We never are brought to an understanding of Jesus within the world in which he lived nor an appreciation of the eastern, non-linear, mindset. She does use some easily known facts regarding the 1st c. Judaism, but never explores or applies these to her novel.
I was terribly disappointed in the verbosity, the lack of realism, and the cultural inadequacy of this novel. I would never recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: A Mixed Bag at Best
Review: Several reviewers have noted the novel's unsophisticated prose, flat characters and perfunctory account of Christ's ministry and Passion. While I agree, the sheer volume of detail does give the reader a clear sense of everyday life in Judea, and the unsustainable separation between a Jewish religious leadership immersed in the form of worship and the Jewish people, who could find no spiritual nourishment in the cold, arcane legality of Jewish tradition. Although George claims to follow the Episcopal and Catholic tradition (whatever that means), her theology certainly doesn't reflect it. At best, she dances around the concept of Christ's divinity and the True Presence, and goes out of her way to reject the notion of an apostolic church. While such views are obviously widespread, I found it very curious indeed that she would make Jesus dependent on Mary: there are a few points in the narrative where Jesus says he must know her visions in order to proceed on his holy mission. Well, for revisionist Christianity, I'd suggest "The Last Temptation of Christ" by Kazantakis-it's far more coherent and provocative. For a taste of the life and times of Jesus, "Mary" is ok, but don't expect much more.
Rating:
Summary: An absolutely gorgeous book!
Review: "Mary, Called Magdalene" is an amazing novel about the life of Mary Magdalene. It starts out when Mary is seven. She and her family go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and Mary, her couisins and friend Keziah meet Jesus (who is thirteen at the time)and his family from Nazareth. The story picks up later when Mary is ready to be married. She ends up marrying Joel, a young man who works for her father. Mary, however, becomes possessed with demons from an ivory idol that she found years ago. The family tries all they can to exorcise the demons but nothing works. Eventually, Mary goes to a rabbi who tells her to fast in the desert. She does this but eventually becomes so exhausted that she has to find her way back to civilization, still possessed with demons. She stops and sees John the Baptist preaching by the River Jordan. She meets Jesus for the second time here and he gets rid of the demons. Mary becomes one of his closest disciples and follows him until his death and resurrection. Then she goes on preaching to people until she dies. There is a lot of intrigue and even some romance in this book. It is gem in my opinion. Apart from being a great read it also gives some insight into what the Jewish and Christian were like. It's interesting to see how the early Christian rituals presented in this book are so similar to those of today. You should definitely read this book no matter what religion you are. It's wonderful and well worth reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Henry beats Mary Again!
Review: Trained by the wonderful Autobiography of Henry VIII, I expected a lively attack or an imaginative twist in MG's treatment of the mysterious saint. But Mary Magdalen may have scared MG, because the saint was treated with a pious coldness and drifty sentimentality that tries not to offend anybody, but ends up likely offending Mary Magdalen herself.
Rating:
Summary: Very boring
Review: I found this book very dull. It has taken me two weeks to read this book (I have a tendency to skim also and it still took two weeks) and I am still not finished and I dont think I will finish it to be honest. I can read a book in a day or two if I am kept interested.
Rating:
Summary: Not George's Usual
Review: I must add my disappointment to the list of others. If you have read any of Margaret George's other books, this one isn't much to rave about. The story seemed to be a very long journey for both the characters and the reader. Her other books are nearly double the length, yet the pages flew past. While reading this one, I was a "page number watcher" starting midway through the book. I anxiously await her next book...I read somewhere (possibly on the author's web page?) that the character explored next will be Joan of Arc and is due out in 2005
***** UPDATE ***** Helen of Troy is the next Margaret George book, due out in 2006.
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