[The Life of Jesus] is a daring and perceptive work of the imagination, which throws new light on the Gospel legends while offering witty and profound insights about growing up. The boy, for example, sees his mother as the Virgin, his father as an interloper, and himself as a divine and miraculous being. As the book progresses, it becomes less fairy tale and more autobiography, until one sees the point—learning from his trials that he is neither all-God or all-man, the protagonist can accept death and return to the hitherto alien father. An interesting, at times beautiful, book which says through surrealism and poetry what cannot be said directly.