judas iscariot

since no one has written anything for andreyev i htought i would do a brief review of the 'judas iscariot and others' book.
judas iscariot - a wonderfully realised short story that has a similar feel to the film last temptation of christ. very well written, almost poetic in places and with a good knowledge of the bible. its only about 100 pgs long so really a novella i guess.
the 'others' are two other tales...
the christians - a wierd story about a prostitute who in a law court won't take the oath on the bible. this story is not very good in truth although raises some intersting ideas about the nature of christianity.
phantoms - set in a mental home and again not too good. some of the characters here though are quite compelling.

this is all i have read of andreyev. i get the impression he is not well loved and i suspect it may be many moons before anyone reads this short review.

to be honest i had never heard of him but now i will put him on my 'to read' pile. sounds interesting. :)

Moons, yes. Seasons, no. ;)

The most interesting and compelling book about Judas and early Christianity I think is 'The Flight of the Feathered Serpent' by Armando Cosani.

It has some parallels to the Gospel of Judas in that it shows Judas being very close to Jesus and Jesus asking Judas him to betray him. But its a much more intimate account because it is written from Judas' point of view.

It's broken into three parts. The first part is the biographical account of a journalist (Armando Cosani) about his encounters with a strange man who gives him manuscripts (the second and third parts of the book) with one of them seeming to be a historical account from Judas about why he betrayed Jesus.

The man (who is never named) helps Armando through difficult times as this wise figure and spiritual guide. But by the way it is written, it seems as if the mystery man is Judas himself, the same author of the later manuscripts that appear in the book! I noticed there is now a book trailer about it which is quite dramatic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7zLR85ukuU

It is a very interesting and well written book. I've never read anything else like it.