Rating: 
Summary: The most entertaining book that I've ever read
Review: "Gospel" is fascinating! The story is one heck of a romp through
Europe, The Middle East, Africa and the early Church. I learned so much about Christendom and how our traditions that we take for "Gospel" came from that I've read it three times and have given the book to scores of friends, none of whom has disappointed. The footnotes, while they may bog down the narrative a bit, are so illuminating and compelling that you have to stop at each one and absorb them carefully.Do yourself a favor. Read this!
Rating:
Summary: The most entertaining book that I've ever read
Review: "Gospel" is fascinating! The story is one heck of a romp through
Europe, The Middle East, Africa and the early Church. I learned so much about Christendom and how our traditions that we take for "Gospel" came from that I've read it three times and have given the book to scores of friends, none of whom has disappointed. The footnotes, while they may bog down the narrative a bit, are so illuminating and compelling that you have to stop at each one and absorb them carefully. Do yourself a favor. Read this!
Rating: 
Summary: Bad News
Review: Any equation between the writing of Mr. Barnhardt and Charles Palliser is pure fantasy. Palliser, Yes; Barnhardt, a resounding, No. After plowing like a dog through 650 pages of the 773 pages of this awful book, I broke all my own rules and concluded, "I don't need this." The end. I don't care what happens. Probably nothing. The characters are complete stereotypes - the proverbial, massive, drunken Irish scholar a la Robertson Davies, a dweebie and pathetic female Irish graduate student a la nobody (appropriately), a Brooklyn Jewish Rabbi ("hey, little goil!"), a few lightweight CIA-types, Jim and Tammy Bakker stand-ins, etc., etc. I reached that point where Mr. Barnhardt has a senile Ronald Reagan conspiring with Fundamental Christians to set off the Apocalypse in the Middle. Seriously. Oh, give us a break, Wilton! Sprinkled throughout the action are brief parenthetical dialogues with God (? Karl Malden? Joyce Brothers? ) who refers to Himself as 'We' to reflect - I suppose - that it's time for us all to get in touch with God's female side, or our mothers, or something. Oh, brother. And sister. Of course, others will disagree. "A robust mix of prodigious scholarship and engaging plot" says the Chicago Tribune. Simple strokes for simple folks, I guess.
Rating: 
Summary: Great till the End
Review: Barnhardt does perhaps make the book a bit too long, but scholarly approach he takes is engaging. The footnotes were extremely fascinating and added, rather than detracted, from the novel. That said, I just did not buy Lucy's decision at the end of the book. Not so much that she made the decision, but rather the relative ease by which she made the decision. The character agonized over so many things, but this, one of the most important choices one could make, she appears to do it easily. And this is coming from a pro-choice reader. I can understand that Barnhardt wanted to make a statement about the issue, but he could have done so with more believability if he developed her character's decisionmaking further.
Rating:
Summary: Do-Si-Do through the Labyrinth
Review: Come along on a wild, intellectual ride, careening from Chicago to Ireland to Italy to Greece to Israel to the Sudan to Ethiopia, following the reprobate religious scholar, Dr. Patrick O'Hanrahan, and the semi-hapless perpetual grad student, Lucy Dantan, as they try to track down a lost 1st-Century Gospel, written by one of the Twelve Disciples...and enjoy fine living, abject poverty, attempted murder, theft, intellectual rivalry, religious theorizing, and spiritual agonizing along the way, plus the periodical, parenthetical Voice of God commenting on the action...Wilton Barnhardt (author of Emma, Who Saved My Life, also a grand book) has written a meaty and challenging mystery, whose characters are unafraid of the Big Questions, a book far more accessible than The Name of the Rose but with that same attractive flavor of the mysteries of scholarship and ancient manuscripts. Conspiracies and counter-conspiracies are revealed, characters grow in self-knowledge, and the reader gets to follow along in amazed pleasure (or pleasurable amazement?) as the plot twists and turns to its unexpected, emotionally-gratifying conclusion. I'd recommend this novel to anyone who loves a good academic mystery---it's really well-written, the intrigue nevers stops.
Rating:
Summary: A great book and he used to write for S.I.
Review: From the opening words, "I had lost my faith, Josephus.", to the final page, GOSPEL is a high action, high suspense, high humor chase across Europe, Africa, and North America. The characters are lovingly developed and intelligently written. Father O'Hanrahan is representative of all that is wrong and in many ways right with organized religion. And, you feel all the growing pains Lucy Dantan feels as she is drug along, or tags along, on a great adventure. In the past three years, I've read this book as many times and I'm in the middle of it again right now. What other book could keep you turning page after page while teaching you religious history and which saints had what cut off. Barnhardt's new gospel is truly an inspired work.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable, but flawed
Review: Gospel is an enjoyable story going back and forth between 20th Century and First. I especially enjoyed the footnotes oto the "gospel", but I'm not sure many people would get much out of them. There are some minor mistakes in the footnotes, e.g., some misspelled Greek words or Greek nouns translated as verb. But the biggest flaw is what seems to be a anti-Catholic bias in the writting. (For the record, I'm not Roman Catholic, but the fact that it seemed so anti-Catholic to me may strengthen my argument.) Relics, virgin saints, and popes all are targets of ridicule -- not a few times, but over and over. Other religions and other branches of Christianity have foibles brought to light, but nowhere near as strongly as Catholicism is flogged. The key issue dealt with is faith -- what it means, how fragile it may be or how strong people can be with it. It is about losing faith and finding faith. It is about running from faith and living faith. My favorite device in the book is the comments made by God to O'Hanrahan and Danton. God speaks with them (and they speak back). God prods them towards understanding of the world and self-understanding. God leads them through their loss of faith to recovering their faith.
Rating:
Summary: The Only Book I Ever Read Twice
Review: Gospel is possibly my favorite book of all time. I most desperately didn't want it to end. I laughed aloud many times. It has everything the jacket says it has...and more. I loved it. I have given it to several friends, all of whom have given it five stars. If I could give it ten stars, I would.
Rating:
Summary: An Astounding Find
Review: I don't know how I missed this book when it first came out. I don't recall having read anything quite like it. It is simultaneously entertaining and educational. Even the footnotes are compelling. The plot is basically a mystery in the form of a search for a lost synoptic gospel. Each section of the book travels to a new destination and explores a new form of religion. The critiques of the religions are inciteful and entertaining without being hostile or demeaning of the religion being analyzed. The book is bright and witty, without being off-putting. I would go on and on about how erudite and intelligent the writing is, but that would risk taking away from how much fun it is to read this book. A Gem!
Rating:
Summary: mostly awesome
Review: I have always loved Eco's books and have searched for other works of there kind. I found this in "Gospel". As a biblical scholar I find his historical knowledge top notch. The only thing that keeps it from that coveted 5th star is the part at "TPL". If you read it you will understand. Otherwise an inpressive work, both entertaining and educational with a lot to think about.
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