Heat and Dust... (Quarantine - Jim Crace)

Member Name: mohan

Product:	Quarantine - Jim Crace
Date:	28/08/00 (86 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: imaginative, absorbing

Disadvantages: not to everyones'mainstream& #39; taste

Set nearly two thousand years ago, Crace's novel is virtuoso piece of writing. He evokes the ancient times, the scorched landscape, the fevered characters-all with such vigour and dazzle that it is not difficult to see why this novel won the 'Whitbread novel of the year' and was shortlisted for the Booker.

It is the Judean desert and four travellers enter to fulfill a religious fast and pray for their lost souls. There they encounter the personification of evil- a crazed merchant called Musa- who holds them in his spell. What ensues is a battle for survival, made all the more difficult under the unforgiving sun, the blistering rocks and the swirling sand filled desert wind.

Only they are not alone. There is another. A thin man, a Galilean who has also entered the desert for a fast; a man destined for greatness - a man capable of working miracles.a man called Jesus.

Crace's novel uses religious background without being blasphemous, yet manages to be a gripping tale of survival against evil. The visuals are dazzling. One cannot but marvel at how Crace can conjure up such imagery effortlessly with scant but well chosen words. It just demonstrates the power of his language.

It is a demanding read- there are moments when I felt so parched from the desert heat I had to go get a drink myself- but it pays off well. You'll get that happy glow of having finished a very, very good book.

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