Rating: 
Summary: Interesting exercise of Biblical imagination
Review: This book is fascinating - and in an odd way in the line of the Ignatian Exercises of the Jesuits. Jim Crace has picked a small piece of the Biblical Gospel narrative - the 40 days in the desert - and developed it into an imaginative book length narrative. This is not an attempt to recreate the story of Christ - rather Jesus dies in the desert in this reconstruction. However, the book is a reflection on humanity - the other 4 in quarantine and a trader and his wife - copes with pain, disappointment, injustice ... The book is well written with the description of landscape reinforcing the emotional thread of the story. This book is well worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, thought-provoking read
Review: Lured by the cover and the topic I was not disappointed. QUARANTINE by Jim Crace is exciting reading, nourished by a brilliant idea (40 days fast in the desert) and a half dozen of memorable characters. Musa will probably stay longest in mind, the Badu and blond Shim are great supporting roles, with Marta and Miri a captivating and convincing female cast. Aphas is the only one who remains undeveloped. And Jesus? Yes - Crace handles him beautifully, and even if his view of Christ is controversial, this is by no means flat characterisation. I especially liked the recurring links to the biblical - the Emmaus encounter for example. Well written, dramaturgically convincing - could probably be turned into a gripping play!
Rating: 
Summary: Dispiriting
Review: Workmanlike and well written in a self-conscious way, this book repelled me with the morally ugly cast of characters, and unrelieved seething anger and fear harbored in every breast. The dry, sun swept, and wind swept landscape was the only presence with any dignity. I was glad when the characters all finally left and the caves and mountains and plateau was cleared of their defilement. The sun could burn away their presence.
Rating:
Summary: Intelligent and emotional
Review: "Quarantine" presents the story of a group of people who are changed by their experiences in the harsh desert of the Middle East. Fascinating from a historical and religious standpoint, this novel succeeds in creating a cast of unique characters and infusing the story with a compelling, complicated group dynamic. While Jesus is not the main character, his deep conflict and physical struggles are fascinating, as is his final transformation from child prophet into the son of God. Still, he is just one of a number of truly compelling characters which make up the heart and soul of this novel. The conclusion is wonderful. Each of the characters is (in one way or another) freed from the troubles that have haunted them, and their journey continues in another direction. This is a slow book, but it is definitely worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Not for those who take their Bibles literally
Review: In the beautifully written _Quarantine_, Jim Crace takes one of the least edified Gospel stories - Jesus' temptations in the desert - and throws it on its proverbial ear. The Jesus who is portrayed here is all too human, but prays to be something more, wrestling with his own demons - and only wins his heart's desire by losing the ultimate battle. All of the characters in the book go through a transformation at the end, although it is left up to the reader to choose what those transformations are and what they mean. While the pacing is definitely slower than most other modern novels, it is well worth the effort. If you engage the book it will certainly make you think. A satisfying read for the open-minded.
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Summary: Jim Crace's Dark Adapted Eye
Review: Jim Crace reminds me of De Niro in Raging Bull. He will go to any lengths to get it right, go to any extreme. Hardened readers crumble in amazement as the excruciating experience of starving to death is gradually enacted at the crossroads of history, curiously off set by the morbid misdeeds of an unlikely Satan and his band of captives. The writer must submit to such extremes, be a visionary, a master conjuror. This is a visceral historical parable that unrolls effortlessly in an unobtrusive blend of idiom and cinematic imagery. Not since Ancient Evenings (though Mailer's Jesus book seems puny by comparison) has any writer of historical fiction I have encountered used the language with such wizardry and finesse. The psychological interplay and characterisations are unforgetable, utterly convincing.
Rating:
Summary: Something happened in the desert
Review: It is a story of five quarantiners (Jesus is the fifth one) who appeared in the desert for fast and prayers, of devilish dealer Musa (sadist and raper) and his poor pregnant wife who were abandoned in the desert by their treacherous relatives. Jesus healed Musa on the first day and died on the 30th day of his strict fast. Musa received everything he wanted. It seems that the mankind represented in its vices and good intentions by four quarantiners and the pregnant woman was subjugated by Devil and forsaken by Savior. But something happened in the desert during the night Jesus died. Something extraordinary that foretell great hereafter. Vanquished human beings regain their potency to oppose illness, despair, evil. They see Jesus alive. Even Musa takes off his apparels of nearly absolute evil and appears as a corrupted man who against his own will dreams of his preaching about marvelous healer instead of his ordinary market dealer's haggle. It is impossible to estimate this book from a standpoint of orthodox religion, it will be full of heresies. It is also impossible to give such estimate to the evangelic chapters of Bulgakov's "Master and Margarita". Both books differ from New Testament in details. But both perfectly harmonize with the spirit of the Gospel. I'll recommend this book to my friends if I have its Russian translation. It is a very good book and I give only four stars (I prefer to give 4 1/2) in comparison with my favorite Roy's "The God of Small Things".
Rating:
Summary: Morbid, but accurate
Review: Musa, the protagonist, wins both respect and money by his salesmanship. He is extreme in his lack of integrity, as he must be to make the novel's point - that we give our money and our bodies to attractive personalities; integrity does not count. We saw it vividly in the OJ Simpson trial, and we see it again in "Quarantine." Musa and OJ survive and flourish by winsome tactics, while Jesus and Marta die and suffer rape in their integrity. It is the way of things. The man, Jesus, in "Quarantine" does not ring true with Jesus of the Bible. Mr. Crace should have given him a different name. The book is excellent in its development of Musa's character. It loses verisimilitude toward the end where many details seem forced.
Rating: 
Summary: Jesus Christ, Supersnore
Review: Sonewhere in California, 1998---YOU ARE THERE!! "So, dude, like what do you think Jesus, like, actually DID for 40 days in the wilderness, man?" "I don't know, dude. Like, what would you do? For 40 days, c'mon man, like who would know?" "No, I mean it...wait a minute, wait a minute. Like, suppose there were like other dudes there, too. Y'know?" "Dude! That's awesome! Like a really awesome chick or something. And a total stone stud blonde guy!" "Yeah, and a bad guy, too...a Jabba the Hutt kind of guy." "Cool! Like we should write a book or something. Y'know?" Too late, dudes! Jim Crace beat you too it!! What a disappointment this book is! It strikes me as a classic case of it seemed like a good idea at the time. As a concept, the idea is interesting, but I couldn't care less about the characters as written. Even Jesus' struggle with his divinity just doesn't engage. I give it two stars for some beautifully written passages which are, alas, few and quite far between. Too bad.
Rating:
Summary: Unfulfilling novel, a real let-down
Review: After reading mostly positive comments, then receiving the book through mail and seeing the rich cover with its warm golds and browns and many glowing back-cover praises, I expected a minor masterpiece. I expected to be challenged by an attempt either to stretch or to refute my own religious beliefs, and that never happened. The author's gift lies in making the reader hungry for more, eager to turn the page and find out how the pitiful characters will prove themselves to be examples of the triumph of the human spirit. Even to see the characters fail to grow or learn about themselves would have been a satisfying enough conclusion. Unfortunately, we never see results, just unresolved, dangling and untied ends (like the unfinished birth-mat). The storytelling, descriptions, all those elements others have praised are indeed good, but the book does not have spiritual depth, just as all characters but Jesus in the story have no spiritual life - they are undergoing quarantines for selfish and worldly reasons. Aren't the characters (or the author) missing the point of such a 40-day isolation?. You can't judge this book by its cover. I will NOT be recommending this book to my friends.
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