This was an interesting book by a writer I enjoy. The story line is good, but this is not Wangerin's literary masterpiece. Frankly the writing is not great. I found myself wishing Stephen Lawhead (Christian fantasy author) wrote this book instead. One thing is sure, you do not want Walter Wangerin, jr. going medieval on you. That being said it was an interesting story. I just wish it was told better. ( )

“Chanterai por mon coraige
Que je vuil reconforter,
Qu'avecques mon grant domaige
Ne quier morir n'afoler;
Quant de la terre sauvage
Ne voi nului retorner
Ou cil est qui rassoage
Mes maus quant j’en oi parler…”

Saint Julian by Walter Wangerin is a historical novel loosely based on the legend of Julian the Hospitaller, with various embellishments and additions to the plot. The novel describes the life of Julian, beginning with descriptions of his father and mother, and his youth growing up at the castle of his parents. The time is the Middle Ages, the time of the Crusades and the fights against the marauding Saracens. As Julian grows up into young manhood, he is shown to be a cruel killer, killing as amany animals as he can for fun. Then one day, a stag appears before him, speaking, and telling him that his fate is to kill both his parents. The following morning Julian is found, prostrate, in cross position, stretched out on the flagstones in the chapel. Things return to normal for a while, until one day, attempting to impress his father with his strength he tries to lift the great battle axe from its place over the hearth and, accidentally, nearly decapitates his father. Shocked into remembering the prediction by the stag, Julian decides to leave the ancestral castle to live as far away from his parents as possible.

During his wanderings, marriage and life Julian comes to be identified with the Red Knight. After many years, his parents set out to search for him, and as it happens they come upon Julian homestead while he is out hunting. His wife accommodates Julian parents by offering them to sleep in their bed. Upon his return, Julian believes to have found his wife in bed with another man, and kills both, only to discover that he has killed his parents, as was foretold by the curse of the stag.

From then on, the Red Knight is no longer seen. Julian wanders the countryside as an almoner, but wherever he goes, in the faces of commoners he is bound to recognize his mother or his father. He seizes his wanderings, and instead build a humble dwelling of willow twigs, serving travellers as a ferryman. One day, a leprous Moor appears who calls out to him to be rowed across the river, and who then asks Julian to put him up for the night in his small hut, feed him and quench his thirst. Julian has been humbled thus much, he does all he is asked, without hatred for the old enemy of the Saracens or fear of leprosy. The leper is Christ in disguise, come to test Julian faith, and his benevolence earns him sainthood.

Saint Julian is a compelling and strong novel. The story incorporates many elements from the legend of Julian the Hospitaller, which exists in various versions, from which the author has made choices. Time and setting of the story have been carefully chosen, but are never explicitly mentioned, rather, construed by careful cues such as the inclusion of lyrics of a troubadour, Latin conversation and oblique references to medieval history and the crusades. In addition, there are additions to the story, such as the suggestion to identify Julian with the Red Knight, tying the story further in with Malory and Arthurian legend, to create a fuller picture of the background and setting of the story. However, some of these elements, for example, extensive use of Latin, also makes the novel somewhat less accessible to certain readers.

In the United States,Walter Wangerin is mainly known as an author of Christian fiction. To some readers in Europe, this epithet is considered negative, and the modern American Christian novel is seen as a specific genre of its own, written explicitly by and for Christians of a particular conservative Christian subculture. However, Saint Julian is not included with Wangerin other novels as religious works, but presented separately as a historical novel.

Saint Julian by Walter Wangerin is a historical novel in the best tradition of English historical fiction, great fiction, and free from religious overtones.The novel Saint Julian and its author are probably tagged "Christian Literature" based on previous experience with this author. Saint Julian definitely deserves a wider readership. ( )

Did not finish this book, nor could I get into it no matter how hard I tried. I don't know if it was the story or the writing, either way I just could not find any interest. Perhaps it is another that I just have to try again if I'm really in the mood for it, but I doubt it. ( )