From the time of Matthew and Luke unto this day, there is a longstanding tradition of rewriting the life of Jesus and putting your own spin on it. Nikos Kazantzakis did it, Gore Vidal did it, Christopher Moore did it and so surely did many others who aren’t springing to mind, not to mention all the pious devotional fiction about the life of Christ drekking up the place at your local Christian bookstore. With all these various reimaginings knocking around it can be tricky to really stand out, but Pullman quite nearly pulls it off.
He does this mostly by writing superlatively, but in terms of substance over style he’s got also two major plot twists going for him. Firstly, he incorporates an idea arguably derived from one of the Gnostic gospels – the idea that Jesus had a twin. This frees up Pullman to portray the ‘real’ Jesus to be a stand-up guy, suffused with compassion for the suffering multitudes, while still getting his licks in at the Church through the character of his scoundrel brother. The second plot twist is somewhat more original and innovative, that is, the condensation of the future church establishment and hierarchy into a single mysterious figure who counsels Jesus’ brother along the way, looking forward to the day when an organized religion can be founded in the name of the healer from Galilee.
Bascically, if you’re into creative reconceptualizations, and you had to read the Christian gospels at some point, you’re probably going to enjoy this book.
EDIT: Came across an old lo-fi audio recording of my friends discussing this book in some detail. Spoilers galore!
