My amazing little brother Jean-Pierre (Yo2borni Nchalla) has been wondering why I haven't posted any reviews lately. Well honestly, I have several reviews in mind for books that I have read in the past months, and books that I am currently reading but the real reason why I am inactive is because I wanted to re/read this book and review it before anything else and this is why:
Let me just invite all French educated people to read L'Évangile selon Pilate by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt during these two weeks. I mean there's a new Pope and it's almost Easter time, so what better time to reading this book? It doesn't matter if you're Christian or not, if you're a believer or not, this book is written very intelligently. It's like a Sherlock story but even better. I'll review it as soon as I'm done re/reading it. If you read it along too, I think you might enjoy the review even more. But for now just let me tell you the story behind me reading this book for it is a precious one to me.
(Now remember when I talked about the bad choice of cover image of "A thousand splendid suns"? This is totally the opposite. This is the perfect cover for this book where you can see Pilatus presenting Jesus to the people of Jerusalem. The painting is by Antoni Ciseri and is entitled "Behold the man")
In summer 2009, I was on my way to Morocco with my family to spend summer at Dad's. The plane got delayed because Moroccan pilots were on strike to denounce the air company for its unfair treatment and discrimination towards them and to demand to be treated equally to their foreign colleagues. Bottom line is that we had to wait eight long hours at Rafik Hariri International Beirut Airport before we could board our plane. It's while I was waiting there that I saw a very sweet girl (you know who you are :) ) reading this book and in a few words only she got me very excited to reading it too.
Got back from Morocco at the end of the summer and I didn't forget about the book but was postponing it for later because I had a lot of other books in my hand. Then, suddenly, I learned that the author was coming to Beirut for the 16th salon du livre Francophone edition. Beirut was the world capital of the book that year as well. There it was, by pure serendipity I got to read the book and meet the author! Below are pictures of the book signing and the dedication and a few words about the plot of the book because I really want you to read it!
(I know I look terrible, long story :D)
The idea of the book is very original. On one hand, Jesus (Yechoua), is telling his story and on the other you have the Roman prefect of Judaea investigating the disappearance of the body of Yechoua from the tomb. The novelty is that we only know what the Apostles are telling us about Jesus, in this book Schmitt is imagining how Jesus's life would have been like and what feelings and thoughts would have crossed his mind. I really loved this touch. Now for the investigation about the disappearance of the body from the tomb, I personally don't know anything about it. Whether it really took place historically or not, but it is so logical that one gets the feeling that everything written in this book is true. The author really succeeded at deceiving us into believing that what he imagines and is telling us did really happen. This is brilliant! I have read two books by Schmitt (this one and "Lorsque j'étais une oeuvre d'art") and in both I found a brilliant writer who always gives you a lot of new ideas to think about. It wasn't until I read this book for example, that Jesus, Pilatus and other characters from the Bible became fully human to me!
I do remember however that I didn't like that the book was mainly based on dialogues, but I also believe that this was the only way a plot like this could be written.
Now, that's all I remember about the book. The review will come soon. Meanwhile, you all are urged to read it. It's a short and creative book with a special flavor. Try it!
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