For Love, Only 4 Love — Pasquale Campanile

In his fictional account of the life of Jesus's father, Campanile, an Italian novelist, sketches a sentimental portrait of the man and a broad panorama of everyday existence in Roman Palestine. Narrated by the carpenter's Greek companion, the story depicts Joseph as a youthful lady-killer in Galilee, a successful craftsman in Nazareth and, finally, as a frustrated but devoted husband to the playful yet platonic Mary. Joseph, who seems overly consumed by his sexual appetite, dies without knowing the origins of Mary's only child. In Joseph's eyes, Jesus is a difficult boy, wary of authority, obsessed with society's outcasts. The narrative, along with the protagonist, loses its zest after the baby is born. Despite its gentle, often lyrical writing style, this attempt to humanize the lives of the holy family, while keeping Christian beliefs intact, makes for thin, unbalanced reading. (June)