Reading list for August 2005

Lots of good reading last month. Don Juan was excellent, if you like Handke (many find his affectless style offputting). The Don is one of the most fascinating recurring figures in Western literature, and Handke's is a worthy addition to the canon. Recommended (though much would depend on the quality of the translation).

Biting the Moon was a surprising change of style, and a delight. Much tougher than the Richard Jury stories, with the eyes-wide-open lucid horror of a nightmare. The setting (midwestern USA) is immediately believeable, the characters realistic. Also recommended.

'Tis was a disappointment after Angela's Ashes, largely because of the person whom Frank McCourt reveals himself to be (or grows into): his absentee drunkard father. My sympathy peaked early, then dwindled to a mild dislike. I would probably walk a fair distance to avoid meeting him in a bar.

But the book of the month is without any doubt Der Fall Judas (roughly "The Case for Judas"), which presents the theory that Judas should rather be canonized than reviled:

Without Judas [there would be] no cross; without the cross God's plan for salvation could not be fulfilled. There would be no Church without this man: no salvation without the betrayer... A rebellious Judas could have saved Jesus' life - and would have doomed us all. A tiny movement of his head, shaken instead of nodded, as Jesus said "That thou doest, do quickly" - and God's plan would have been brought to naught. The prophecies of the Old Testament: a mockery... in the face of the old carpenter of Nazareth, who - because Judas had refused to betray him - lived out a comfortable old age in Galilee, not crucified but carving crosses, long since forgiven for the fiery speeches of his youth.

(my translation)

The name of Walter Jens was unknown to me, but having once registered it, he is everywhere. He and Hans Küng were among the liberal intellectual theologians who shaped the young seminarian who is now the less-than-liberal Pope Ratzinger. Finding the book will be tricky (it's twenty years out of print), but is well worth the effort. Noorster, my dear, I am deeply in your debt for recommending this wonderful book.

Currently reading
William Gibson, Pattern Recognition
Walter Jens, Der Fall Judas

Recently read
Martha Grimes, Biting the Moon
Peter Handke, Don Juan
Donna Leon, Wilful Behaviour
Frank MacCourt, 'Tis

Next month's list
Last month's list