Book Review: Jesus, a Novel by Paul Wangerin

This book is basically what it says it is, the story of Jesus in a novelized form. You know the characters and the story, so I'll skip the summary. I think the point was humanize some of the central figures of the New Testament to make them easier to relate to, but to be honest, the book fell flat. Mary was portrayed as the stereotypical Jewish mother and Simon Peter was made into a big oafish clown. I found the book really difficult to finish, and I think partly because I already knew the end. We talked about this in book club, and one of the members said she thinks the lack of tension was really the fault of the author; there are a lot of stories whose end we already know, but who manage to make you hang on the edge of your seat regardless. Overall, I'd say this book was just blah, and I wouldn't recommend it.
For those of you (yeah I know this phrase is a little presumptuous because I think I have all of about three readers, one of whom I'm married to) who are wondering why my book club would pick this book, a word of explanation: I'm actually in two book clubs, one at work (which would not have picked this book) and another with my uncle, grandmother, and some friends in which we read books about Catholicism or faith in general. Although some of the Catholic books are total duds, kind of like this one, I'm immensely enjoying the opportunity to talk about issues of faith with a group of smart, thinking grown-ups. (In contrast to my smart, thinking child who asks me questions about God like, "could God eat a whole house?" or "how many eyeballs does God have? Does he have infinity eyeballs?")