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Norman Mailer

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The Gospel According to the Son Paperback – January 28, 1998

by Norman Mailer (Author)

4.3 107 ratings

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For two thousand years, the brief ministry of a young Nazarene preacher has remained the largest single determinant of Western civilization's triumphs and disasters. Now, Norman Mailer has written a novel about Jesus's life. Is God speaking to me? Jesus asks. Or am I hearing voices? If the voices are from God, why has He chosen me as His son? And if they are not from God, then who gave me the power to perform these miracles?

It soon becomes evident that we are being told the story of a skilled and most devout carpenter who is living with prodigious questions. The result is an intimately readable account of a man thrust forward by the visions he receives, the sermons he offers, and the miracles he enacts until he comes to the apocalyptic end of his powers.

The Gospel According to the Son vividly recreates the world of Galilee and Jerusalem two thousand years ago. In a time of uneasy stability, the Holy Land is governed by a complacent but fearful establishment who rule over a despairing underclass -- it is a time of great change, open to comparison with our own. Mailer's signal accomplishment is to create for us a man wholly unlike others who is nonetheless filled with passion and doubt, strength and weakness; a protagonist divine and human, a son of God who shares our condition.

In The Gospel According to the Son, one of America's greatest living writers has brought us a remarkable book -- by turns bold, thoughtful, poetic, tragic, passionate, and, to our surprise and pleasure, suspenseful.

From the Hardcover edition.

Length

256
Pages
Language

EN
English
Publisher

Ballantine Books
Publication date

1998
January 28
Dimensions

4.0 x 0.8 x 7.3
inches
ISBN-10

0345421329
ISBN-13

978-0345421326
See all details

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A STAGGERING WORK."--The Philadelphia Inquirer

"BOLD . . . DARING."--The New York Times Book Review

"A TRIUMPH."--Publishers Weekly

"A REMARKABLE TESTAMENT TO THE HUMANITY OF A MAN WHO TROD THE DIVINE."--The Philadelphia Inquirer

"[A] BRAVE, BEAUTIFUL, AND AMBITIOUS NEW NOVEL . . . Only a novelist as daring as Mailer would attempt to retell the story of Jesus in Jesus' own words. . . . Its penetration into Jesus' human heart rivals Dostoyevsky for depth and insight. Its re-creation of the world through which Jesus walked is as real as blood. Ultimately, Mailer convinces, more than any writer before him, that for Jesus the man it could have been just like this; and that is, in itself, some sort of literary miracle."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"QUIETLY PENETRATING . . . FRESH . . . FERVENT . . . His gospel is written in a direct, rather relaxed English that yet has an eerie, neo-Biblical dignity."--John Updike, The New Yorker

"A BOOK OF CONSIDERABLE INTELLECTUAL FORCE . . . The writer's powerful mind works in a specialized way, not by theological argumentation but by telling or retelling a story."--The New York Review of Books

From the Trade Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

"A REMARKABLE TESTAMENT TO THE HUMANITY OF A MAN WHO TROD THE DIVINE."
--The Philadelphia Inquirer

"[A] BRAVE, BEAUTIFUL, AND AMBITIOUS NEW NOVEL . . . Only a novelist as daring as Mailer would attempt to retell the story of Jesus in Jesus's own words. . . . Its penetration into Jesus's human heart rivals Dostoyevsky for depth and insight. Its re-creation of the world through which Jesus walked is as real as blood. Ultimately, Mailer convinces, more than any writer before him, that for Jesus the man it could have been just like this; and that is, in itself, some sort of literary miracle."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"QUIETLY PENETRATING . . . FRESH AND . . . FERVENT . . . His gospel is written in a direct, rather relaxed English that yet has an eerie, neo-Biblical dignity."
--John Updike
The New Yorker

"A BOOK OF CONSIDERABLE INTELLECTUAL FORCE . . . The writer's powerful mind works in a specialized way, not by theological argumentation but by telling or retelling a story."
--The New York Review of Books

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ballantine Books; 1st Ballantine Books Ed edition (January 28, 1998)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0345421329
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0345421326
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4 x 0.75 x 7.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #7,525,847 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #37,158 in Psychological Fiction (Books)
- #148,329 in Religious Literature & Fiction
- #244,463 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.3 107 ratings

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About the author

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Norman Mailer

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Norman Kingsley Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007) was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, film-maker, actor and political activist. His novel The Naked and the Dead was published in 1948. His best-known work was widely considered to be The Executioner's Song, which was published in 1979, and for which he won one of his two Pulitzer Prizes. In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, his book Armies of the Night was awarded the National Book Award.

Along with Truman Capote, Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe, Mailer is considered an innovator of creative nonfiction, a genre sometimes called New Journalism, which uses the style and devices of literary fiction in fact-based journalism.

Mailer was also known for his essays, the most renowned of which was "The White Negro." He was a cultural commentator and critic, expressing his views through his novels, journalism, essays and frequent media appearances.

In 1955, Mailer and four others founded The Village Voice, an arts- and politics-oriented weekly newspaper distributed in Greenwich Village.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Carl Van Vechten [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

107 global ratings

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Best Of All

A Sweeping Exploration of the Past, Valuable Lessons for Today

Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2008

Verified Purchase

With impeccable scholarship and poetry of prose, Norman Mailer takes a novel approach in exploring the life of Jesus; a novel from the perspective of Jesus, in his words.

The 242 pages contain some of the strongest writing by Mailer, with not a wasted word in this highly-convincing look into story-telling, traditions and the never-ending struggle with the ego contained in the self & the games of attempted manipulation by others to gain advantages in the arena of personal power.

Not only a sweeping exploration of a history that changed the world, there are urgent lessons for today that emerge from this universal story of love, life and betrayal.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

John R. Hunt Sr.

The Gospel according to the Son

Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2007

Verified Purchase

Norman Mailer takes us on a journey with Jesus in a new and enlightening way. It drops the mask of divinity given to us by the church leaders and endears us to Jesus in all facets of his life. I find this new slant invigorating,refreshing, and more honest. It brings to life a character that I CAN believe and admire. I heartily recommend the purchase of this book by all. I bought it for me but since reading it, I will buy it for others. Get it,read it, and pass in on. (Just don't let someone take YOUR COPY). Thanks Norman for this truly insightfull look into Jesus's life!!

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Paul Burdette

Missing the mark in an interesting book.

Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2013

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Mailer is a wonderful writer and makes this very interesting but........It misses the mark if you are a devout Christian.

2 people found this helpful

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PaganDeva2000

Thought Provoking

Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2014

Verified Purchase

For those who are open minded enough to think that maybe...just maybe, Jesus actually did think as an average human on fleeting occasions. Followed his path on instinct rather than as depicted...I loved it.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Alex Hicks

An Interesting Novelization of the Evange!ists' Life Jesus Christ

Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2023

"The Gospel According to the Son" narrates the Gospels in the voice of Jesus.. The voice crafted by Mailer speaks to quote John Updike, "in a direct, rather relaxed English that yet has an eerie, neo-Biblical dignity." This very empathetic Christ story is perhaps best read in counterpoint to the strikingly pre-Judaic-Christian "Ancient Evenings." However, what Mailer's " Gospel" gains from its straightforward style, familiar structure and content and tidy closure will form some readers be greatly offset by its lack of the stylistic and inventive exuberance of Mailer enormous Egyptian creation. Much inferior to Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago's "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ."

Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2016

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Nice flow, great dialogue, true to prior writings on the subject. Very thoughtful, probing, intelligent. I recommend this to believers and non believers alike.

2 people found this helpful

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Glakhmed

One of my fav Mailer novels.

Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2015

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Loved this book so much when it first came out, I had to buy it again!

Helpful

Cletus Jones

The Gospel according to Mailer.

Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2018

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I find Mailer an arrogant writer. Perhaps my opinion of the man has clouded my opinion of his work.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer

A very interesting take on the gospel story

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 20, 2023

Verified Purchase

Read it years ago was great to read again

Mauricio S Jardini

It’ not that great

Reviewed in Brazil on July 4, 2019

Verified Purchase

If you have read just one of the gospels you know the story. In this case it is told by the son himself what makes not a great difference.

The text should be revised because there is a lot o repetition.

R Range Cloyd Jr

Gospel According to the Son

Reviewed in Germany on July 19, 2013

Verified Purchase

A wonderful book. Should be read by anyone interested in Jesus - Christians, atheists, agnostics. Whereas the Bible is "dry reading", this book illuminates the life of Jesus in a way that makes Him understandible. As an agnostic myself, I now feel closer to what "real" Christianity could be.

Range Cloyd