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Bezig met laden... The Relic Master: A Novel (editie 2015)door Christopher Buckley (Auteur)
Informatie over het werkThe Relic Master door Christopher Buckley
Bezig met laden...
Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. At page 80 and I'm just not interested in what's happening. There's no depth and hardly any description of people or settings; it feels like a sketch instead of an oil painting. It took a full quarter of the book before I realized this was written by Christopher Buckley, not Christopher Moore. Moore is known for his genre/historical parodies - including one of my favorite books of all, Fool - while Buckley is better known for his political/modern satire. I count both Christophers among my favorite authors, but in this case the discovery that it was less than Moore caused me some grief. Buckley can be funny - I'm just not sure why he chose not to be here. It felt like a first draft of a classic Moore, before the dialogue gets punched-up and the plots intricately woven together. Perhaps it's unfair to compare, but I would in all earnestness urge you to read "Fool" if you're considering this. Then, if you're still looking for more, you can always swing back around to pick this up. An interesting look at the finding and selling of ancient artifacts (much to the disgust of Martin Luther). The key artifact in this story is the Shroud of Turin. Obviously well-researched Buckley writes an intriguing and humorous albeit violent tale. I was very disappointed, however, at the ultra-foul language used which was completely unnecessary and out of place for this story.
“The Relic Master” is an inspired piece of literary gymnastics. We are in Northern Europe in 1517 and an outraged, constipated monk named Martin Luther is calling time on the corruption — sexual, financial and spiritual — of the Roman Catholic Church. The problem is exquisitely summed up in Buckley’s opening chapter, set at a relic fair in Basel. On sale is a dazzling array of sanctity: hundreds of bits of saints’ and martyrs’ skulls, teeth, bones and hair; iron bars from torture grilles; whips and thorns, as well as nails, wood and blood from the crucifixion; even a vial with drops of the Virgin’s breast milk. Capitalism may be in its infancy, but relics are a healthy source of revenue for the church and private collectors, and in line with market forces, supply rises to meet demand. (Five hundred years on, one can, of course, still find similar relics in churches all over Italy.)
1517. Dismas is a relic hunter who procures "authentic" religious relics for wealthy and influential clients, and is as honest as any relic dealer can be. When Dismas and his artist friend Dürer conspire to manufacture a shroud to sell to the unsuspecting noble, Dürer's reckless pride exposes Cardinal Albrecht's newly acquired shroud as a fake, the Cardinal puts Dismas and Dürer in the custody of four loutish mercenaries and sends them all to steal Christ's burial cloth-- the Shroud of Chambéry-- Europe's most celebrated relic. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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