SOURCE: "A Fisher of Men," in The Nation, Vol. 258, No. 19, May 16, 1994, pp. 675-76.

[In the following review, Stavans discusses the place of The Gospel According to Jesus Christ in Saramago's canon, concluding that the novel succeeds in continuing to probe themes explored in earlier works.]

Portugal sits in the Iberian Peninsula as an eclipsed region in the heart of Europe, its culture commonly overshadowed in international circles. Few twentieth-century Portuguese writers, for example, have managed to find an audience beyond their national borders. Even the most notable poet, Fernando Pessoa (an extraordinary figure, roughly the equivalent of T. S. Eliot in the Iberian World), is still, sixty years after his death and in spite of homage paid by Octavio Paz, Susan Sontag and other intellectuals this side of the Atlantic, the property of a relatively tiny elite. (His Kierkegaardian diary The Book of Disquiet is available in more...