Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Never read anything quite like this. Thought Nikos Kazanzakis in his "Last Temptation of Christ" was fairly daring when he wrote the usual story of Christ--but made Mary Magdalene and Jesus, if not quite lovers, then tempted. Thought various scholars who put forth the idea that Mary Magdalene was the Beloved Disciple were on to something. Thought those who actually posited she was the disciple John "himself" were also on to something. But this book, with its astonishing scholarship combined with truly masterful storytelling has, as they used to say, blown my mind. It's all from Mary's point of view. And this Mary is a real woman. She's an extraordinary person worthy of the extraordinary man called Jesus. A brilliant woman. A thinker. A questioner. She even has a sense of humor. And so does Jesus! Add to this the exceedingly clever weaving of historical facts, some obscure, some very obscure, some known by everyone--or at least we think we know them, until they're presented in this new and startling way, making the mind leap through ahas! and oh dears! and my gods! You think as you read: parts of this could be true. Great heavens, all of it could be true, it could really have happened this way. It's so plausible, so well thought out. And the stories based on the gospels! Each and every one of them are turned inside out so that we see them from a completely new vantage point and in a truly different and exciting way. The "secret" of this Magdalene is not something so, by now, utterly expected, as Mary being the bride of Christ (ancient symbolism, all this) or bearing his children, or even being the Beloved Disciple (which she was and is)...no, the secret is the original teachings. The secret is the Gnosis that the Church has long hidden from us knowing no Church that wished to hold great power could get very far with the individual being allowed direct access to the God within. (What? No priests? No Popes? No ministers? No rules and laws? Never!) Longfellow's Magdalene is the most wonderfully realized companion-teacher-philosopher-beloved disciple-"woman" I've ever encountered. She is unforgettable. Just like the Goddess who will not be silenced. What a feast for the mind. What a treasury of ideas. But the best of all is that this whole book is not only a character study of a stunning human being, it's the study of the birth of Gnosticism. Gnosticism is what was taught first, before Christianity as we know it today. It seems to be what Jesus Christ actually taught and what the later Church tried to hide from us. Time and again I've attempted to "get" what it is the very early Gnostics believed...and why. This book lays it out so clearly even I can grasp it. But maybe best of all is the story. It's a page turner. It's compulsive reading. Did I like it? I absolutely loved it!