Second paragraph of third chapter:
| Une seule fois, je me suis mal servi de ce pouvoir de l’écorce. J’avais faim, les fruits du figuier n’étaient pas mûrs. Moi qui avais tellement le désir de mordre dans une figue chaude de soleil, juteuse et sucrée, j’ai maudit l’arbre, je l’ai condamné à ne jamais porter de fruits. J’ai prétexté une parabole, pas la plus convaincante. | Just once, I misused the power of the husk. I was hungry, and the fruit on the fig tree was not ripe. My desire to bite into a fig—warm with sunshine, juicy and sweet—was so great that I cursed the tree, and condemned it to never again bear fruit. I said it was for a parable, not the most convincing. |
I confess that I picked this up and read it quickly at the end of August so that I would have a nice round number of books for the month (32). I was not at all impressed with Nothomb’s The Book of Proper Names when I read it in 2007, but I feel vaguely obliged to engage with one of Belgium’s best-known writers, and pulled this off the shelf in a bookshop to have another go.
Well, it’s not what I expected; it’s an account of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, from his point of view, anticipating and then experiencing his painful death and then attempting to express the experience of return to the flesh. I have to say that I was not grabbed by it. You can find plenty of more interesting Bible fanfic on AO3. There is a hint that Jesus’ relationship with Mary Magdalen (here, “Madeleine”) was physically intimate; but it’s a work of fiction so who really cares?
I fear that Nothomb is on her second strike for me. I’m not sure if there will be a third.
