What Would Jesus Not Do?

All the time I find co-incidences with my reading selection and Choke and The Idiot are no exception.  Both have a Christ-like theme.

Victor believes he may be the son of the Son of God in Choke.  He slowly comes round to the idea that he brings peace to the old people at the nursing home.  He believes he can perform the miracle that will save his ailing mother’s life.  But, Victor is brought back to reality when his mother dies and Nurse Paige, who was his biggest supporter turns out to be a lunatic! 

This novel is most definitely one of the strangest that I have read, but I loved it, and couldn’t put it down.  I loved the short snappy sentences, the scenarios and the characters.  This was genuinely funny and compulsive reading.

Prince Myshkin, The Idiot of Dostoyevsky’s novel is a Christ like character.  He is described as being fair (light) whilst his nemesis Rogozhin is dark and brooding.  The prince is prepared to marry a fallen woman, not because he loves her (as Rogozhin does) but because he wants to redeem her as she has suffered in the past.  His goodness is taken advantage of when he comes into an inheritance and he is hounded by fraudsters.

There is a lot of dialogue in this novel, and it is just wonderful to read, the Princess Myshkin has the best lines.  She is so funny but also very perceptive.

The thought of reading a Russian novel has always been a bit off putting to me, but I loved Crime and Punishment and I am enjoying this one even more. I guess I’ll have to move Anna Karenina up the list a bit – although a different author may not be as enjoyable…?

Anyway, some good news – Mary Danby’s 65 Great Tales of the Supernatural arrived (way ahead of schedule), and so I shall be reading Ringing the Changes tonight when I go to bed.  I did sneak a few pages in my lunch break but I decided that I need to get the full impact of it's creepiness closer to the witching hour. I hope it’s as good as I remember it!

So, my next 1001 read will be One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest by Ken Kesey and if you want to know what Jesus would not do, then you’ll have to grab a copy of Choke (and be prepared to be shocked!).