Customer Reviews

The Gospel of Judas: A Novel

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Life is what we make of it, and (Father) Leo Newman (the story's protagonist) has made a botch of his. And just as his religious faith begins to fall prey to his mounting doubts, Madeleine Brewer ("Maddy" - Mawer's choice of character names is subtly clever) enters the scene, and away they go; displacing thought for action, the cerebral for the physical. Mawer conflates this love triangle - Maddy is married to a British diplomat; Leo is married to his faith and religion - with the discovery of another gospel, this one by Judas Iscariot. What Leo, as translator of the parchment, learns about Jesus Christ and the birth of Christianity causes him to view the religious and the secular in a different light...

This book's marketing can create some confusion: is it a dialectic about faith, a thriller, a love story? It is each of these, and more. Simon Mawer has managed - artfully, gracefully - to ensnare the reader into entertaining even enjoying the questions (and some answers) that transcend our individual lives.

*The Gospel of Judas* is, quite simply, an astounding novel - perhaps the best novel I have read in several years! Admittedly, it does include ALL of the topics and issues that *I* find so thrilling: faith, religion, history, and language. Mawer's love of language mimics his love for the quotidian, and allows him to tell a tale for all.

But don't take my word for it, on faith; check it out for yourself. You must see, smell, feel, and read this novel, to believe it. Highest recommendation.

Near the Dead Sea, a new scroll from the time of Jesus has been discovered. The church sends Rome teacher-scholar Father Leo Newman to investigate and translate the newest find. Leo is going through a difficult period as he has doubts about his chosen avocation ever since he met and sinned by having an affair with Madeline Brewer. Still, Leo immediately travels to Jerusalem to join an international team inspecting the rich find, but his assignment is to concentrate on one particular papyrus.

Leo quickly realizes that the document the Church sent him to inspect apparently contains the Gospel accordance to Judas Iscariot. Instead of supporting the other Gospels, this scroll denies much of what has been claimed. Leo begins to comprehend how Judas felt when he condemned his best friend to death.

THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS is an insightful look at the Judas betrayal but in a modern text and through Leo's break in faith. The story line is fast-paced especially in an allegorical manner that compares Leo to Judas. The flashbacks to World War II are cleverly written, but the story belongs to the Leo-Judas relationship that, in turn, proves how talented Simon Mawer truly is.

Harriet Klausner

"The Gospel of Judas" is a novel containing three skillfully woven storylines, all sharing the theme of betrayal. The events are recounted in flashbacks to a time a few years before the present, and to a period during WWII in Italy. Underlying the entire narrative is the theme of Judas Iscariot. When I hear the name Judas, I immediately associate it with the word "betrayal." Some of the questions this novel poses are, who was Judas? Did he betray? Has religious history given Judas a bad rap?

Father Leo Newman, a Roman Catholic priest, is a biblical scholar working in Rome for the World Bible Center. He is an expert at deciphering, translating and interpreting the bits and pieces of ancient papyrus discovered in Near Eastern archeological sites that deal with biblical history, especially those pertaining to New Testament writings. Newman is lonely, middle-aged, and somewhat ascetic. When the novel opens, he finds himself at a crossroads of sorts, questioning the value of his passionless existence, his life's work in the Church and his faith in God. He thinks, at one point, "And indeed, what kind of faith was it? A poor, dried-out thing, a construct put together of habit, defiance and anxiety." For the first time since his adolescence Leo finds himself attracted to a woman, Madeline Brewer, the wife of a British diplomat. Madeline, (and the author is quick to point out the similarity in the names Madeline and Magdalene), senses that the attraction is mutual and overtly pursues a friendship with the priest - and then a stronger emotional relationship, and then...much more.

It is during this relationship between Madeline and Leo that papyrus fragments are discovered, in a dig near the Dead Sea, which may be the writings of Christ's disciple, Judas Iscariot. This potential "Gospel of Judas" could, if proved to be authentic, blow apart the foundation of Christianity and also the foundation on which Father Leo Newman has built his life. Newman is called upon to study the parchments for validation and interpretation.

While Leo is taxing his emotional limits, dealing with the Judas Gospel and his adulterous relationship with Madeline, Simon Mawr takes us back further in time to Italy during the war years. He seeks to explain Leo's troubled past by giving the reader a glimpse of his German parents' lives, and their characters, during the years prior to his birth. What is revealed here is astonishing in itself, as a story of terrible pain, conflict and betrayal, and also in the parallels to the emotional upheavals that Leo Newman is experiencing in the present.

Simon Mawr masterfully intertwines his stories as his characters cope with issues of faith, identity, responsibility, love, betrayal and loss - and what it means to believe. Betrayal permeates the narrative, beginning with relationships, events and lies which occur before Leo's birth, and continuing with his own, and Madeline's. The question also arises of whether to betray the truth - the facts of the new incendiary text, and perhaps, even the person who Judas was.

Mawr's prose is extraordinary, as usual, his characters sensitive and believable, their development is solid, and his research is impeccable. I was left, however, with a feeling of dissatisfaction at the novel's conclusion. I grew to care about the people Mawr created, especially Leo Newman. I found myself drawn into their lives and psyches. Mawr's ending left me hanging. His intelligent narrative built considerable tension as the novel's various scenarios played out, but I was left feeling that many of the issues were never resolved adequately enough to dispel the tension. Nor did Mawr answer many of the questions the novel posed. After such a glorious telling, the tale ended on a flat note.
JANA

I suppose I should be grateful that The Gospel of Judas
hadn't been written until well after I published The Sparrow and Children of God. I wouldn't have bothered trying to write my own novels if I'd been able to read Simon Mawer's. I haven't been this enthralled with a writer since Dorothy Dunnett died. If you liked my books, you'll be glad I told you about Mawer's. He is a wonderful writer, interested in themes I also find fascinating: science, religion, faith, and character.

"If you cant dazzle them with brilliance baffle them with bull." This seems to have been Mawer's modus operandi as he undertook to write about ideas and themes that apparently are too grand for him to handle. This novel has a great many flaws which seem to have escaped most reviewers I have read. Perhaps they were confused by his writing, and thought they were dazzled when they were actually only baffled.

The greatest flaw in this novel is that nothing, and I mean NOTHING, actually happens until well after 100 pages. After all, the title of the novel is "The Gospel of Judas", but it takes Mawer 131 pages to get around to it. In other words, the first 50% of the novel is meandering fluff and digression. Yes, it does help set up Leo's crisis of faith that follows, but half a novel of backstory? A more skillful author would have introduced the gospel much earlier and let Leo's crisis of faith and his affair with Madeline slowly unfold side by side. Mawer seems to be capable of only running a single thread in his story, because almost immediately after the gospel is found Mawer has Madeline commit suicide for no apparent reason. But then, there are many things in this novel that are either pointless or "just happen" for no reason.

The next greatest flaw is the atrociously BAD writing itself. The reader is constantly bludgeoned with the "authorial interruptions" that Mawer just cannot get away from. He isn't skillful enough to let his characters and his story carry themselves. He instead has to interject awkward statements that tell the reader how to think, how to feel, how to react to the particular situation (e.g.; when Leo is on the airplane he keeps telling us to "picture" how torn he is. For crying out loud, don't TELL the reader how to feel about Leo, SHOW the reader how LEO feels!! Duh!!) He also interjects out-of-place statements of explanation that seem only to serve to let us know just how much smarter Mawer feels he is than the rest of us (e.g., the meaningless "7Q5" reference). There is absolutely no consistency in his use of tense or voice, they are just simply muddled together. How in the world did this manuscript get past the editor?

Mawer also makes great use of a thesaurus throughout this novel, in a vain attempt to sound intelligent and eloquent, but leaves only long, empty, and meaningless descriptive passages that do little to evoke a mood, reveal character, or move the plot.

This novel is really nothing more than a case study in poor writing that should have not been published as is. However, I will have to give it one more star than the minimum allowed because Mawer does show some creativity, and in a few places the writing actually isn't all that bad. It was an ambitious undertaking for him to explore these ideas, but as a whole, "The Gospel of Judas" fails miserably.

The Gospel of Judas is a splendid novel on several levels. First of all, it's exceedingly well written. The descriptions of Rome and the natural world are quite striking, as are those of the protagonist's interior life and interaction with other characters. I think The Gospel will appeal to those who liked The English Patient (the novel, that is). The author employs shifts in perspective (third person to first person narrative), shifts in the time period (present day to 1943), and a particularly intersting twist in the plot -- all with great skill. Mawer also does well in handling the conflict between faith and logic, dogma and reason. A novel of this type will never satisfy everyone (the reasons for that are amply demonstrated in the controversy over the scrolls in the plot), but I found it immensely satisfying and thought-provoking. I also enjoyed and "bought" the relationship between the priest and the two women in the story. Obviously, someone else may not. And I absolutely loved Mawer's explanation of the derivation of various words and the turbulent beginnings of Chrisitian precepts. We take what came to be so much for granted. There are very few books that I feel I could begin again right at the end and enjoy even more. This is one of them. I gave copies to several friends and I'll read Mendel's Dwarf just on the basis on this fine piece of writing. Highly recommended.

Simon Mawr is ambitious. In his *Gospel of Judas*, he wants nothing less than to paint a portrait of post-Christian doubt. The main character, Father Leo Newman, is an everyperson who represents those of us in the earlier 21 century who can no longer believe in the old religion and are forced to create new identities for themselves (the name "Newman" isn't accidental). As such, the novel is a kind of spiritual fin de siecle.

Although this theme isn't exactly a new one, the spin that Mawr puts on it is quite wonderful: what happens to a man--to a culture--already on the religious edge when a new "gospel" is discovered that claims to have been written by Judas Iscariot and gives eyewitness testimony AGAINST the Resurrection?

The good news, then, is the exciting concept that inspires the novel. The bad news, I fear, is that Mawr couldn't quite pull it off. The novel reads as if there are two books crammed into one: Newman's unhappy love affair with Madeleine Brewer, and Newman's involvement in the discovery and translation of the Judas Gospel. Either tale is a stand-alone novel. Shoved together, neither quite comes off. Too much time is dedicated to the love affair, too little to the gospel, such that the last 50 pages are breathless, as if Mawr is furiously trying to tie all the loose ends together. Nor does it help that Mawr tries to weave together two different sets of flashbacks into the story line.

One of the casualties of this shaky structure is Father Leo himself, who comes across as a curiously wooden figure. We never quite understand who or what he is. Nor is his enigmatic nature, I believe, intentional on Mawr's part. It comes from the fact that Newman isn't fully developed as a literary character, and that in turn comes from the fact that the novel is either too long or too short, depending on your perspective. Either separate its two tales, or extend the narrative far enough to do justice to them both.

Still, Mawr is a wonderful wordsmith who can do beautiful and sometimes breathless things with the language. Moreover, the female characters in this novel are masterfully portrayed, particularly Magda. *The Gospel of Judas* is flawed, but it's well worth a read.

An excellent founding idea, the lost Gospel of Judas (an authentic text that refutes the Resurrection) is lost in a self-indulgent swamp of pointless extraneous subplots. The most important thing with this idea is the world's reaction: the weakening of Chrisendom and the strengthening of Islam. Instead we get a hackneyed rendition of the adulterous priest-cliche, a pointless set of flashbacks to WWII, and a general abandonment of realism for the sake of a lazy, trite story that dribbles off into a stupid and inconclusive ending. The only reason I bothered to finish listening to this as a book on tape was to see if the ending was going to be as bad as the rest, but it was even worse. Don't buy this flaccid ineffectual screed with its pseudo-Dostoevskian airs.

This is a well-written, intelligent and sensitive work of the imagination in which issues of fidelity and faith are examined by a close analysis of several interlocking stories.

The overarching narrative of betrayal by Judas of Jesus, frames the story of betrayals by Gretchen of her husband; by Madeleine of hers; by Leo Newman of his vows as a priest. Francesco (Gretchen's Jewish lover), is tortured and probably killed -- pretty much as Jesus was in ancient Judea. The theme of Christian anti-semitism is delicately placed on the table and left for the reader to pick up.

Leo Newman is an aging priest and scholar, undergoing a crisis of faith, as he meets the middle-aged wife of Jack, an American diplomat, who is named Madeleine (the reference to "the beloved apostle," Mary Magdaleine, of the scriptures is obvious) -- who has a history of infidelity and suicide attempts. The results are predictably tragic. This occurs as a new discovery of a "Gospel by Judas," predating the synoptic gospels, is made in Israel.

The issues raised have to do with whether the "new man" who is Leo Newman, besotted and without faith, can cope with loss, the pains of love, suffering and come to terms with his own complicity in evil and mortality. The result is ambiguous.

The text suggests that a first century account claiming that Jesus did not rise physically from the grave would somehow defeat the Christian faith. I disagree. Although I am not a believer, many sophisticated Christians today read the resurrection story symbolically. Others might question the veracity of a witness who was hardly unbiased.

Christianity, or any of the great religions, cannot be undermined by such a text.

The novel is ambitious and brave, but fails to make the most of all of its materials, which would have required several books. Mr. Mawer was got himself a reader, anyway, for making the effort. I look forward to reading his other books, especially his novel about Mendel, since Mr. Mawer is both a geneticist and a writer, which alone may be a curious genetic mutation.

I really bought this book for two reasons: The first being that I loved Mawer's first book "Mendel's Dwarf". The second being that the premise was interesting even though it had been used before. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find enough of a story to support the premise and had to wade through chapter after chapter of Fr. Leo's past which I found hard to relate to what was going on in his present. The parts dealing with Judas and the archeological find was well done and kept me reading. If he hadn't failed so with the subplots and flashbacks it would be a 5-star read.
Read "Mendel's Dwarf" for Mawer at his best.