The Fire Gospel

The Fire Gospel was a must read for me for two reasons: 1) It's by Michael Faber, who wrote The Crimson Petal and the White, one of my favourite books and 2) It's the newest book in the Myth series that I love so much.

It's based on the myth of Prometheus giving fire to man. Loosely based, I'd say, since the links aren't too obvious - but that's not really a bad thing.

The premise for the novel is that Theo has found these secret fifth gospel while in a museum in Iraq. This fifth gospel essentially emphasizes that Jesus was very human when he died on the cross. When Theo translates the gospel from Aramaic, the book sells like wild fire. And, as the book's jacket says, "Like Prometheus' gift of fire, it has incendiary consequences."

This book was very plot driven, easy to read. Which is different from most of the myth series books I've read so far, like Weight, The Helmet of Horror or Girl Meets Boy. I do love all these books which are suddenly taking re-thinking the bible as a theme (I haven't read DaVince Code.. but the newest Jodi Picoult book talks about the Gnostic Gospels).

I'll say that the book wasn't what I was expecting, thinking about the Crimson Petal and the White, and also based on the other myth books. But it was still pretty good. I really like the idea of it, most.

Favourite line:

"And that is our misfortune, brothers and sisters: we speak of things that cannot be spoken. We seek to store understandings in our gross flesh that gross flesh cannot contain, like a madman who would snatch a moonbeam and put it in his purse. We try our best to tell a story, so that others might be led towards Jesus, but Jesus is not a story. He is the end of all stories."