Yep, that Lazarus. Lazarus Is Dead is a fascinating novel, counting down until the famous revenant's demise and beyond, reconstructing a wryly humorous, quasi-historical (and not at all blasphemous, always a nice surprise in modern literary fiction!) account of Lazarus's life, death and resurrection. Extrapolating from the Bible, hagiography, fiction, and drama, Beard makes some pretty compelling connections. I loved especially the idea that Lazarus was the son of Joseph's best friend, the only other family to escape Herod's slaughter of the innocents--thus relieving Joseph of the guilt of running off to Egypt and leaving all those other children to die. It works, right? The whole thing works. And it kinda made me wanna go to Mass.[Original post here. And look at that, Espresso Level!!]
Congrats on Espresso level! The book looks so interesting and I can't wait to read it too. Made you want to go to Mass? Oh my!
ReplyDeleteThis does sound fascinating. I wonder how it compares to something like Christopher Moore's Lamb, which was satiric, but I think not unkind in its intention.
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