The good man Jesus and the scoundrel Christ

This was just OK for me. The concept is interesting, Mary gives birth to two boys, one she names Jesus the other Christ. Christ represents the church and how it has exploited the “historical” Jesus through out the ages. Like I said, a good concept, but as it was presented in this book, not at all that thought provoking. The novel is pretty short, with short chapters (with all those Bible stories you learned as a child) which makes it an easy read. I wish it had been longer, delved deeper and had not been so blatantly obvious what the author was trying to say.

You have to approach this book with an open mind. It's a total retelling of the Gospels and is entirely subversive. What is interesting is how it raises questions about the truth of the Gospels, and ends with a critique of the church. This is not surprising given Pullman's leanings, but it's certainly interesting to see how he uses the idea that recorded history is always never the truth as a plot device. Not a book for the conservative Christian. It's probably better that you first read the Gospels to get the most out of it.