BOOKS: NORMAN MAILER: USING THE LORD'S NAME

NORMAN MAILER'S NEW NOVEL PURPORTS TO BE A MEMOIR BY NONE OTHER THAN JESUS OF NAZARETH

Jesus of Nazareth was one of history's most powerful and charismatic teachers, but he never published. Until now. That, at any rate, is the premise of Norman Mailer's The Gospel According to the Son (Random House; 242 pages; $22), a novel that purports to be a first-person memoir written by Jesus. Questions will immediately occur, even to readers most willing to suspend their disbelief for the sake of the narrative to come. When did Jesus write this story, and for that matter, where? Why did he wait nearly 2,000 years to present his own Gospel? Why did he choose Random House...

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