What’s The Jesus Stories all about?:
This short story takes the form of a report about a religious group who are spreading the stories of Jesus in a bid to speed up his Second Coming.
What did I think?:
I have no idea where to start with this story. It is honestly the oddest short story I have ever read and I’ve been doing this challenge for quite a while now! I’m not really a religious person, I think of myself as more of an agnostic – I’m not completely denying anything but I haven’t made up my mind about what I believe. I do believe however that everyone has the right to believe whatever they want as long as they are not hurting other people. Anyway, this story felt like it was a bit more academically written and in that way, the style was interesting to me but I found it very dry and for some reason, it just didn’t hold my interest in the slightest.
The narrator of the story is writing a report about a religious group of people mentioned only as N. and he relates a bit of their historical background from when they were first converted to Christianity by missionaries who were spreading the Gospels of the Lord but it seems to be focused mainly on what they are doing in contemporary times. That is, retrieving new stories about Jesus that haven’t been heard previously like his transformation into a bear by the demons of Hell (??). The group strongly believe that by telling these stories (some 14,000 of them), it will lead to the Second Coming and Bible quotations from the Gospels appear to back up their claim. There is even one story that consists of only one word – Yea. Hmmm.
I apologize wholeheartedly to anyone who has read this story and “got” it or loved it but I really didn’t enjoy it at all. Having read the previous stories in this collection, I’m used to a bit of strangeness from the author and usually enjoy the quirks and peculiarities of his prose but this one was just strange… in a bad way. On a positive note, it’s obvious the author has put a lot of work into the writing and it does read beautifully – I was just bitterly disappointed by the content.
Would I recommend it?:
Not on your nelly.
Star rating (out of 5):
NEXT SHORT STORY: We Were Just Driving Around by Jon McGregor from the collection This Isn’t The Sort Of Thing That Happens To Someone Like You
