The Gospel According to the Son
The Gospel According to the Son is a 1997 novel by Norman Mailer. It purports to be the story of Jesus Christ, told autobiographically.[1]
Plot summary
The novel employs first person story-telling from the perspective of Jesus. It stays nearly entirely true to the text of the four canonical gospels. Jesus tells his own story, from his birth to a teen-aged virgin named Mary to his execution by crucifixion at the hands of the Romans. Just as in the gospels, he is resurrected from the dead, and ascends to heaven.
Critical reception
Critical response to Mailer's novel was mixed. Jack Miles, writing for Commonweal, found the book "a quiet, sweet, almost wan little book, a kindly offering from a New York Jew to his wife's Bible Belt family." He noted that there was "something undeniably impressive about the restraint" of the style that Mailer undertook in composing the novel. He concluded that the novel was neither one of Mailer's best works, nor would it stand out amongst the bibliography of books inspired by the life of Christ, but that it had received unfairly harsh reviews from other critics.[2]
Critics such as Reynolds Price, writing for The New York Times, pointed to a "lack of inventiveness", based upon the fact that Mailer took so few liberties with the biblical text.[citation needed]
David Gelernter, writing for the National Review, cited the "sheer arrogance" of the very premise of Mailer's book. Yet he went on to agree with Miles that much of the criticism of the book had been "unfair." Gelernter called the book "strikingly orthodox" in its basic view of the character of Christ.[3]
Mailer had largely anticipated some of the savage reviews he would receive for the book. He noted in an interview with Bruce Weber of The New York Times, "The book will get a fair share of bad reviews, but that I take for granted. I call a fair share between 65 percent and 75 percent bad reviews."[4]
Sales history
On May 11, 1997, The Gospel According to the Son entered the New York Times Best Seller list at #13.[5] It peaked at #7 on May 25 of that year, and spent six weeks in the top 16.[6]
References
- ^ Mailer, Norman (1997). The Gospel According to the Son. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-679-45783-6.
- ^ "The Gospel According to the Son-Review", by Jack Miles, for Commonweal, 18 July 1997.
- ^ "The Gospel According to the Son" a review by David Gelernter, for National Review, 28 July 1997.
- ^ "Yes, His New Book Is Biblical, but Don't Call Him God ", by Bruce Weber, for The New York Times, 24 April 1997.
- ^ New York Times Best Seller List, from Hawes.com, 11 May 1997.
- ^ New York Times Best Seller List, from Hawes.com, 15 June 1997.
- v
- t
- e
- The Naked and the Dead
- Barbary Shore
- The Deer Park
- An American Dream
- The Short Fiction of Norman Mailer
- Why Are We in Vietnam?
- A Transit to Narcissus
- The Executioner's Song
- Of Women and Their Elegance
- Ancient Evenings
- Tough Guys Don't Dance
- Harlot's Ghost
- The Gospel According to the Son
- The Castle in the Forest
- The White Negro
- Advertisements for Myself
- "Superman Comes to the Supermarket"
- "In the Red Light"
- The Presidential Papers
- Cannibals and Christians
- The Bullfight
- The Armies of the Night
- The Idol and the Octopus
- Miami and the Siege of Chicago
- Of a Fire on the Moon
- King of the Hill
- The Prisoner of Sex
- Existential Errands
- St. George and The Godfather
- The Faith of Graffiti
- The Fight
- Genius and Lust
- Of a Small and Modest Malignancy, Wicked and Bristling with Dots
- Pieces and Pontifications
- The Spooky Art
- Why Are We At War?
- Marilyn: A Biography
- Oswald's Tale
- Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man
- Norman Mailer's Letters on An American Dream, 1963-1969
- The Selected Letters of Norman Mailer
- Beyond the Law
- Wild 90
- Maidstone
- Town Bloody Hall
- Tough Guys Don't Dance
- The Executioner's Song
- American Tragedy
- Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story
- Strawhead (play)
- The Deer Park (play)
- Deaths for the Ladies (and Other Disasters) (poetry)
- Some Honorable Men (anthology)
- The Time of Our Time (anthology)
- Modest Gifts (poems and drawings)
- The Big Empty (conversations)
- On God (conversations)
- Lipton’s: A Marijuana Journal (journal)
adaptations
- The Naked and the Dead
- An American Dream
- Marilyn: The Untold Story
- Adele Morales (second wife)
- Jeanne Campbell (third wife)
- Beverly Bentley (fourth wife)
- Norris Church Mailer (wife)
- Kate Mailer (daughter)
- Michael Mailer (son)
- Stephen Mailer (son)
- John Buffalo Mailer (son)
- Norman Mailer Prize
- Stabbing of Adele Morales by Norman Mailer
- New York City: the 51st State
- In the Belly of the Beast
- J. Michael Lennon (biographer)
- The Norman Mailer Society
- Norman Mailer bibliography
- The Mailer Review
- River of Fundament