四十日 [単行本]

炎熱と酷寒の荒野に無垢の情熱の行方を追い、イエスと断食者たちの四十日を描いて、生の充実と救済を問う。透明な詩情と超越性の感触。神なき地平の美しい冷然。混沌の現代に静かな福音を告げ、深い感動を呼ぶ奇蹟の名作。1997年度ウィットブレッド文学賞、E.M.フォースター賞を受賞、ブッカー賞最終候補作となる。

炎熱と酷寒の荒野に無垢の情熱の行方を追い、イエスと断食者たちの四十日を描いて、生の充実と救済を問う。混沌とした現代に静かな福音を告げるとともに、宗教という現代的主題を描く。

The story of Jesus's 40 days in the wilderness is surely among the most celebrated and widely diffused narratives in Western culture. Why, then, would Jim Crace choose to retell it in strictly naturalistic, non-miraculous terms? The obvious answer would be that the godless novelist is trying to debunk divinity--to take the entire New Testament down a notch. And at first, this does seem to be the case. Crace's Jesus first got religion as an adolescent, and "was transformed by god like other boys his age were changed by girls." His peers view his spiritual fervor as a youthful eccentricity. Even now, as the thirtysomething Jesus heads out to the Judean desert for his 40-day retreat, he's perceived by his fellow anchorites as a flighty and impractical Galilean. They even call him "Gally" for short--and what sort of deity answers to a nickname?

Yet Crace is hardly the jeering materialist we might expect. As Jesus takes to his cliff-top cave, the author renders his religious transports without a hint of irony, and with a linguistic elegance that can hardly be called disrespectful: "The prayers were in command of him. He shouted out across the valley, happy with the noise he made. The common words lost hold of sound. The consonants collapsed. He called on god to join him in the cave with all the noises that his lips could make. He called with all the voices in his throat." And while most of the temptations of Christ are visited upon him by humans--by the motley crew of his cave-dwelling neighbors--he resists them with what we can only call superhuman will. Quarantine does, of course, operate on a fairly realistic plane. Jesus dies of starvation long before his 40-day fast is complete, and his fellow retreatants, who take center stage throughout much of the novel, are much too confused and brutal ever to figure in any Sunday school pageant. Still, Crace leaves at least the possibility of resurrection intact at the end, which should ensure that his brilliant book will rattle both believers and non-believers alike.
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This extraordinary novel, a sometimes realistic, sometimes hallucinatory account of the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness, is the latest by England's Crace, a writer of great gifts (The Gift of Stones, Continent), and was reportedly the runner-up to The God of Small Things for the Booker prize. It is a remarkably successful attempt to put a story known by everyone into a convincing physical and historical context. The beauty and precision of Crace's writing, as well as his store of knowledge about such arcane matters as weaving two millennia ago and the fauna of the Judean desert, give what could have been a fey experiment an air of overwhelming authority. For a start, Jesus, portrayed as a rather callow youth befuddled by prayer, is not at the center of the canvas. That spot belongs to Musa, a stout, lecherous, bullying merchant with a beguiling tongue, whose skinny and long-suffering wife, Miri, has left him for dead in his tent as the story begins. Then, Jesus is not the only pilgrim essaying a fast in the desert. Setting about their vigils in their very different ways are Shim, a handsome, self-absorbed ascetic; Marta, a prosperous but barren woman who yearns to conceive; Aphas, an elderly Jew with cancer; and a dumb, wiry peasant. After Jesus seems to bring Musa back to life (he is obsessed with the idea of being a healer), the merchant comes to dominate the group, using his salesman's skills to convince them that he is their landlord and they owe him tribute. Only the thought of Jesus, who hides from the rest in his inaccessible cave, gives him pause. As for Jesus himself, can Musa be the devil sent to tempt him? The ways in which Crace has the six desert dwellers interrelate with each other and with Jesus are spellbinding; the book is a superbly crafted combination of historical and inspirational fiction that is genuinely unique. Rights: David Godwin Assoc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --このテキストは、絶版本またはこのタイトルには設定されていない版型に関連付けられています。

General Fiction Large Print Edition A flawlessly presented tale that opens a window on human aspiration and folly, its revelations full of grit and glory. starred, Kirkus Reviews A superbly crafted combination of historical and inspirational fiction that is genuinely unique. starred, Publishers Weekly *Short-listed for the Booker Prize *A Whitbread nominee This is no simple retelling of an ancient story, but a modern and startling account of the birth and death of faith. In Craces hands, Jesus is reconceived as Gally, a boy besotted with prayer and visions. Quarantine is the extraordinary re-imagining of the forty days Jesus Christ spent in the wilderness being tempted by the devil. Short-listed for the Booker Prize, this is a novel that youll never forget.
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"A brilliantly unusual, entertaining and profound book." --Carey Harrison, San Francisco Chronicle

"Stunning...Crace is a writer of hallucinatory skill." --John Updike, The New Yorker

"Engaging...magical...There is wit and meat in every detail....Crace's portrait of Jesus is audacious and disconcerting." --Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times

"A spiritual mystery of the best kind...the creation of an ambitious imagination...a literary miracle." --USA Today

"Immensely impressive...This novel is a high-wire act, a tour de force, a garment expertly tailored from materials of the highest quality." --Bruce Bawer, The Washington Post Book World
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Jim Crace is the author of Continent, The Gift of Stones, Arcadia, and most recently Signals of Distress. He has won the Whitbread First Novel Prize, the E.M. Forster Award, and the GAP International Prize for literature. His novels have been translated into fourteen languages. He lives in Birmingham, England, with his wife and two children.
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クレイス,ジム
1946年3月、英国ハートフォードシャーに生まれる。ロンドン北部エンフィールドで育つ。大学卒業後、1968、69年、海外協力隊に参加。スーダンの教育テレビで番組制作・出演。ボツワナで教師をする。この時期、非核武装運動および植民地解放運動に参加。1970年帰国し、BBCの教育番組で脚本執筆。1974年、初の短篇“Annie,California Plates”を『ニュー・レビュー』に発表。続く十年間、短篇小説とラジオドラマの脚本を発表。1976年から87年にかけて、フリーランスのジャーナリストとして、『サンデータイムズ』、『サンデー・テレグラフ』他の新聞に寄稿。1986年、長篇第一作Continentを発表。その成功を機に、本格的な作家活動に入る。バーミンガム在住。『死んでいる』(白水社)で全米批評家協会賞、ニューヨーク・タイムズ年間最優秀作品受賞。『四十日』で1997年度ウィットブレッド文学賞、E.M.フォースター賞を受賞。ブッカー賞最終候補作となる

渡辺 佐智江
翻訳家(本データはこの書籍が刊行された当時に掲載されていたものです)