Don DeLillo's "Libra" vs. José Saramago's "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ"
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ.
I haven't read this book. I've read, and enjoyed, several of the recently deceased Saramago's works, including Balthasar and Blimunda, Blindness and The Double. All these books I loaned out to people never to have them returned, which speaks, I think, to the quality of the writing.
But this book I've never read. Oh, I've started it and it was not that I disliked it, other book just distracted me. I did get far enough to read a horribly gruesome crucifixion scene (not Christ's). While depressing, this was great.
The book apparently caused a stir when first published, being censored and all that. It's a book I want to read and one I want to say, for reasons of vanity, that I have read.
Libra
This book I have read, but it was never a book I wanted to read. Though a DeLillo fan, a fictional account of the JFK assassination did not interest me. I'm of the generation that just accepts the CIA killed Kennedy, so I found the premise boring.
I was ridiculously wrong. This book rocks. I read it for a book club at the aforementioned Newtonville Books and could not put it down, nor keep myself from reading entire chapters, not just for intricate conspiracy woven, but also in an attempt to unravel DeLillo's perfectly constructed prose.
If anyone is a fan of the movie "JFK" by Oliver Stone don't read this book because, as it's so much better, it will ruin the movie.
The basic question: to I take a book already read or one I want to read? I'm not sure I will have sentimental attachment to The Gospel as I now do to Libra, but should one keep books around simply for sentimental attachment? It strikes at the question I am not ready to answer: why keep any of these books?
Back on the Shelf: Libra
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