I have owned this book for a number of years and with this past Lent season, I thought it was the perfect time (and long overdue) to finally read the novel the movie is based upon. To begin, I do enjoy the Martin Scorsese movie but it's not my favorite of his work. To that end, I enjoyed the movie more. The book is good and the movie follows it pretty closely but where it differs, I prefer the path Marty and co. took rather than Kazantzakis. Also, some of the language used didn't translate as well for me personally. Originally, this was written in Greek and later translated into English. There is a section at the end of the book about the writing style of Nikos Kazantzakis and it's even stated some of the imaginary used in his writing may be lost to some English readers and I would consider myself to be in that category. Not only that but in the beginning of the book, I feel they already gave away the ending by stating what the last temptation is. This happened with me viewing the movie for the first time as I was reading the essay in the Criterion DVD cover and it too spilled the beans. I don't understand and feel it's a disservice to spoil it like that. Overall, not a bad novel by any means and I definitely appreciate the book and later the movie to show the struggle Christ had as a human with many of the same temptations we experience. Personally, I would stick with the movie.
