Customer Reviews

Mary Called Magdalene

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

After reading The DaVinci Code, I became very interested in Mary Magdalene and her place in history. While she is not cast in the same role as in TDC (which I won't divulge here for those who haven't read the book), I almost like her place in this telling better. She is written as a strong woman who after many years of struggling between possession by pagan gods and her faith in God, is healed by Jesus and becomes one of his disciples.

Since no one knows the true story of MM, Margaret George had to create an entire life for her, giving her the roles of daughter in a pious Jewish family, wife of a man she questions her love for, mother to a daughter whom she conceived after making a deal with one of her pagan possessors, and loyal friend to a girl who follows a different branch of Judaism of which her family doesn't approve.

The book starts out slowly laying a foundation for Mary's life, but read on. After she initially meets Jesus when she is a young girl and finds the idol that becomes the source of her possession problems, things begin to pick up speed. The second half of the book is about her life as a disciple of Jesus and the Passion from her viewpoint. It's also about her undying love for her daughter who was taken from her at the age of two after she began following Jesus and her family disowned her.

As usual, George has done an incredible amount of research into her subject and has written yet another fictional biography that will take you to another world.

I absolutely loved the other Margaret George novels; this however is sadly disappointing. I agree with the reviewer who said is is uninspired. It reads like a young adult Sunday School lesson. Mary's dialogue is so unbelievable; the setting is so "clean" and brings to mind 1950's Hollywood Bible stories. I forced myself to read over half way through thinking it would get better, but it doesn't. Margaret - you can do much better!

I love historical novels. I've read everything else Margaret George has written and loved every page, so when I saw _Mary, Called Magdalene_ on the shelf of the local bookstore I bought it without even opening the cover. Boy was that a mistake! This book is so awful, it's hard to believe it was written by the same author. The characters are flat and lifeless, the research is second-rate and the plot is un-moving--and as the book deals with one of the core stories of Western thought (the ministry and passion of Jesus), that's saying a lot. It's as if because the book deals with the topic of faith and religion, the writer's capacity for critical thought went on vacation. There is no real challenge to the story of the gospels as we know it, no new interpretation and no life. Almost every situation Mary meets from the time she becomes a disciple on comes directly--sometimes verbatim--from the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The ones that don't are so boring that it's hard to care about them.

Other things bothered me about this book: the lack of cultural or historical context for the story, the huge emphasis on literal demon possession, which required way more suspension of disbelief than I was able to sustain and the superficial and inaccurate depiction of ancient Judaic religious thought, to name a few. Knowing what I know about these things, George's Jesus affected me not as an enlightened Master, but as a man driven off the deep end by an internal revelation he is unable to communicate, and his followers seemed mindless subscribers to a cult that promises them release from personal pain, much as modern cults do. This is an interesting interpretation, but I don't think it's the one George intended; therefore, I have to say her book didn't work.

Growing up in the home of a minister and Bible scholar, I spent my entire youth surrounded by books, both fiction and non-fiction, that treated Early Christianity and other Biblical subjects with passion and intellect, setting them in an historical context and making them important and real in human terms. _Mary, Called Magdalene_ is not one of them. From the reviews here it seems that a lot of people liked it, but I can't imagine why.

Problem No. 1: The characters,including Mary,are surprisingly flat. In spite of sharing Mary's inner thoughts and feelings,I never felt I really got to know her.
Problem No. 2: Too many important incidents are either downplayed or completely ignored. The raising of Lazarus from the dead is never mentioned,while other incidents,such as Jesus turning the water into wine and the feeding of the multitudes,are dismissed by Mary as having never happened. Worst of all,the miracle of Jesus's divine conception and birth are never mentioned. His mother admits to having had visions of his importance when he was a child, but never once says anything about the visitation from the angel telling her she has been chosen to give birth to the Messiah, the immaculate conception,or any of the miracles and signs at his birth. By it's very ommision,it leads the reader to conclude that Jesus was the biological child of Joseph,not divinely concieved by a virgin mother.
Problem No. 3: Mary seems to be instrumental in far too many places. After Mary and Joanna discover the Garden of Gethsemane,it is Mary who tells Jesus about it when He expresses a desire to find a quiet,peaceful place to meditate. Mary and Joanna also sneak into Herod's palace and disguise themselves as serving women in order to spy on Herod,and thus are there to witness Judas accepting the bribe from Caiphas and Annas to betray Jesus. Once again,it is Mary who tells Jesus of Judas's betrayal, even though in the bible it seems rather clear that Judas's betrayal was foretold to Jesus by God in a divine revelation instead. When Jesus sends the disciples out in pairs, Mary is paired with John.When John attempts to heal a woman and fails,once again it's Mary to the rescue,and not only does she heal the woman,she is also able to cast the demons out of Joanna,while poor, ineffective John stands by. And there are many other places where this type of scenario plays out. Rather than coming across as an every day woman, she seems to be some sort of latter day Wonder Woman, while the rest of the disciples are rather weak and ineffective. It is this biased slant in Mary's favor that makes this book hard to swallow. A more balanced view,letting the other disciples shine, would have been much more believable. While I am glad to see women of the bible and their contributions being made known and applauded, it should not be done by diminishing the men around them, and I felt that this is what this book does,with the exception of Jesus.
All in all this is a very disappointing book. I am quite surprised at this since I read George's Memoirs of Cleopatra,and found it to be rich and vibrant,giving me the feeling I was there and really knew Cleopatra. Sadly,this is not the case here. As long as this book is, I should feel I really know Mary, but instead I come away feeling cheated by a book that has one dimensional characters and a heroine who, far from being an average,everyday woman who finds herself living in an extraordinary time and place, seems instead to be a Super Woman who one ups almost everyone. It is neither realistic or believeable.

Margaret George was once counted among my favorite authors. I've read all four of her books: Henry VIII was outstanding, Mary, Queen of Scots, slightly less so, Cleopatra, less so again, and then this, Mary, Called Magdalene. The trajectory is unmistakable. Surprisingly, George, who did such a remarkable job evoking time and place in her earlier efforts, falls squarely on her posterior with this one. The modern vernacular employed and the contemporary mannerisms of characters render hollow any image of 1st-century Roman Palestine she was trying to create.

One also detects an agenda at work that has less to do with Biblical research and more to do with fulfilling the author's wishes. True, historical fiction is still fiction, and authors of such works may write what they wish, but they should also realize that as their revisionist tendencies subtract from the former and add to the latter, the quality of their effort may wane.

To be fair, the book ends somewhat better than it starts, but it is decidedly not on par with George's earlier efforts. It is the 1st century through the prevailing 21st-century lens. It is, disappointingly, a bit of a masquerade. 3 stars.

Several reviewers have noted the novel's unsophisticated prose, flat characters and perfunctory account of Christ's ministry and Passion. While I agree, the sheer volume of detail does give the reader a clear sense of everyday life in Judea, and the unsustainable separation between a Jewish religious leadership immersed in the form of worship and the Jewish people, who could find no spiritual nourishment in the cold, arcane legality of Jewish tradition. Although George claims to follow the Episcopal and Catholic tradition (whatever that means), her theology certainly doesn't reflect it. At best, she dances around the concept of Christ's divinity and the True Presence, and goes out of her way to reject the notion of an apostolic church. While such views are obviously widespread, I found it very curious indeed that she would make Jesus dependent on Mary: there are a few points in the narrative where Jesus says he must know her visions in order to proceed on his holy mission. Well, for revisionist Christianity, I'd suggest "The Last Temptation of Christ" by Kazantakis-it's far more coherent and provocative. For a taste of the life and times of Jesus, "Mary" is ok, but don't expect much more.

Having read Ms. George's three previous historical novels, I waited eagerly for the release of her fourth effort. Being a huge historical novel fan, especially of people and events occuring in ancient times, I was extremely excited at the prospect of Ms. George's take on Mary of Magdala.

However, I was also extremely disappointed once I began reading this new novel. In the past, I had found Ms. George to be very accurate in her research and her special talent for being able to recreate historical times entralled me. Her writing style in all three of her previous novels pulled me in and held me until I finally finished her epic length books.

In Mary Called Magdalene Ms. George writes in a style much more suited to "young adults" or persons of an age 12-15. Her dialog is stilted and unrealistic. She fails miserably to recreate the mood or setting of an Israel in Roman times. The characters, especially her main characters of Mary of Magdala and Jesus himself were one dimensional at best and the pivotal characters in any story about the life of Jesus Christ might as well have been deleted. Without a bible at hand, I had a hard time keeping straight which disciple was which! Their characters were all paper doll cut outs of each other as was their dialog. I have read numerous fictional "biographies" and this was by far the worst. To have come from such an accomplished author as Margaret George who accomplished great historical writing in the Memoirs of Cleopatria" it was doubly disappointing.

This book was very compelling. The story of Mary of Magdela was moving. I always thought that Mary was a reformed prostitute, but the way she was portrayed made her a very likeable person. I love the way she intertwined her life with Jesus. Sure, I know the biblical story about Jesus but Ms. George put it in a way that left me very sad and understanding for maybe the first time the scope of what happened to Jesus and the pain of the people that he left behind, the confusion and the wonder of what was going to happen now. Sure reading this centuries later it could be "so what another biblical story" but for me to see it from the eyes of Mary and to read her story, I was enthralled. My advice is don't compare this to Ms. George's other books. This is truly a unique read.

You probably know the story, or at least scant details, but you don't know enough for the story to be spoiled and I won't give it away either because in this case, the delight is in the details.

This isn't one of those shameless books that base a premise on a disproved hoax and play up to the conspiracy crowd for sensation and controversy just to make a quick & dirty buck.

No, "Mary Called Magdalene" is based on facts consistent with the New Testament, with the Gospel according to Mary, with the Gnostic texts, and with writings of the early Church Fathers as well as with various historical secular texts.

I agree with Simon Jenkins that "Facts should be taskmasters, and there is no exemption for fiction." As he wrote in "The Guardian" on May 26, 2006 and said: "Historical novelists must not manipulate an audience's veneration for the truth with their phony verisimilitude". I personally found no abuse of dramatic license in this book.

The author, Margaret George is the renowned historical author of "Henry VII" and has thoroughly researched her facts then added details that would be logical consequences of those facts or plausible reasons for them. In addition to all that research, the author completed a seven year course in bible study covering 60 of the 66 books and traveled extensively both in distance and duration through the middle east. There is a great author interview in the back of the book that covers her background and the motivations for her decisions & choices. But wait, that's not all; there is also a great list of in depth questions for discussion.

Yes, this is still a work of fiction, because some of these details can neither be proven nor disproved but they are the basis of the "novel" experience where our beloved characters are developed and rounded out so that they become more real to us and live on in our imaginations.

There is an unusual tension in a book of this kind; will it say something that challenges or risks my faith. Rest assured; this book is a pleasant joyous read that give you a broad overview of our beloved characters, all at once, the just way novels do.
As for whether or not Jesus had younger brothers: that may have been a bit of a liberty, but I can see how it balanced out the story and still it servers as a gentle reminder that this is a work of fiction, truthful enough by those standards, but not a sacred text. The details that were added are not jarring.

A good friend of mine loaned me his copy and I plan to rush out and buy my own as well as get copies for my friends and family as there are so many delightful conversations can come from the text as well as the author interview and the discussion questions. This book is truly a gift that keeps on giving.

This was my first time reading a book by Margaret George. I found the writing to be on roughly a seventh or eight grade level. What I'm looking for in a book like this is to be transported back in time, and it didn't even come close.

I would not recommend this book.