Mary

The Nazarene's success ('39) gave Asch a financial security he'd never known before, likely incensing critics further. As the situation in Europe worsened, his detractors more vitriolic, Asch & his wife, who had been living in France, retreated to Stamford, CT, at the urging of friends & family. There he began working on the life of Paul while writing short stories about the Jews' dire situation in Nazi-occupied Europe. In '43, he published The Apostle. Predictably, the Yiddish press lambasted it. This time, however, most mainstream critics were also lukewarm. (Paul is "so complex, mystical & Xian a matter that Asch misses him," Kazin concluded.) Nevertheless, his Xological series continued to rack up sales. The Apostle was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. Mary, which appeared in '49, was the least successful of the three. his longtime translator, Maurice Samuel — whose English versions Irving Howe preferred to the original — refused to take on the project. Certainly there was a degree of hubris in writing the Xological trilogy, egoism mixed with naiveté & poor timing. He must have believed his intentions would be clear no matter what, that his act of mediation between the two religions would somehow be understood & matter in such fraught times. The public became more receptive to such ideas after Geza Vermes published Jesus the Jew in '73.

• Author
• Sholem Asch

• Format
• paperback

• Pages
• 436

• Publisher
• Carroll & Graf Publishers

• Language
• english

• ISBN
• 9780881841411

• Characters
• Mary, Joseph, Jesus

• Genres
• religion, fiction, jewish

• Release date
• 1985