Lion's Honey by David Grossman

Samson the hero; a brave warrior, leader of men and Nazarite of God? Or a misfit given to whoring and lust, who failed to fulfil his destiny? In Lion's Honey, award-winning writer David Grossman takes on one of the most vivid and controversial characters in the Bible. Revisiting Samson's famous battle with the lion, his many women and his betrayal by them all - including the only one he ever loved - Grossman gives us a provocative new take on the story and its climax, Samson's final act of death, bringing down a temple on himself and 3000 Philistines. In exhilarating and lucid prose, Grossman reveals the journey of a single, lonely, tortured soul who never found a true home in the world, who was uncomfortable in his very body and who, some might say, was the precursor of today's suicide bombers.

I originally added this book to my TBR list because it is part of the Myths series published by Canongate. Other books that I have read from this series are Dream Angus by Alexander McCall Smith (about the Celtic god of dreams and love) and Weight by Jeanette Winterson which is a retelling of the story of Atlas and Hercules. Given that those were both retellings, albeit with a bit of modern day storytelling added in Dream Angus, I was expecting another retelling when I read this book. That is not what I got. If I was to be the person cataloguing this book I am not sure that I would have even called it fiction. The first few pages of the book are the story of Samson, taken directly from the King James Version of the Bible. I guess I was a little surprised to see that, but then again, it isn't terribly long so I though 'okay that's probably as good a place as any to start'. What followed was more of a long essay dissecting the Bible story trying to ascertain motive for some of Samson's actions including but not limited to dissecting his relationship with his parents, why he lived amongst the Philistines, and the women that he was associated with. A couple of examples - Why did he feel the need to use 300 pairs of foxes to burn the Philistines fields and why did he not tell his parents that he had killed a lion with his bare hands, and most importantly, why was it that he told Delilah the secret of his strength. In saying that it was not what I expected, I am not saying that I didn't enjoy it because for the most part I did. It was very interesting to read through the text and then refer to the footnotes at the back which may have been referencing the Torah, or some other studies of Samson done by a variety of scholars over the years. Would I have picked it up if it had not been part of this series - probably not. Do I feel compelled to pick up any other work from this author - not really. It was a quick read, and different from most other things I read. And besides...it was the first completed read in the Once Upon a Time II challenge...so that has to be a good thing! Other Blogger's Thoughts: Rhinoa's Ramblings Things Mean A Lot

Lilah by Marek Halter

In 397 BC in Susa, the opulent capital of the Persian empire where the Jews are living in exile, a young woman seems destined for a happy life.

Her name is Lilah

Lilah is due to marry Antinoes, a great Persian warrior well known at the king's court. But her beloved brother Ezra, whom she has been close to since childhood, is opposed to this marriage with a foreigner. If Lilah insists, she will have to renounce Ezra, and that is something that she cannot do. Fore she senses that he has been chosen by God to lead the exiled Jews to Jerusalem and, after centuries of displacement, revive the laws of Moses: laws which promote justice and give human life a meaning.

Abandoning the prospect of a golden future, Lilah urges her brother to leave for Jerusalem and gives him new hope that a return to the Promised Land is possible. But Ezra, blinded by faith, orders the rejection of all foreign wives. At the risk of losing the one person who still has left in her life, Lilah opposes her brother's fanaticism, thereby ensuring the survival of the women and children condemned to leave the city. But her opposition comes at great personal cost...

This is the third book in the Canaan trilogy after Zipporah, and unfortunately this is the weakest of the trilogy.

This story focuses on the little known story of Ezra, who led the people of Israel back to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple. Growing up Ezra had been incredibly close to his sister, Lilah and the Persian boy Antinoes. Antinoes has grown up to become a famous warrior who is still in love with Lilah, but the relationship between Antinoes and Ezra has completely disintegrated. Lilah is determined that she is going to marry Antinoes, but there is not only her brother's opposition to get past, there is also opposition from the very scary queen, who has been known to throw people who have betrayed her, or who she just doesn't like, to her pet lions!

So the first half of the book focuses on Antinoes and Lilah as they try to find a way to be together, and then accept that they are to be parted, as Ezra is granted approval from the King to be allowed to lead the Jewish people to Jerusalem, and Lilah must go with him.

The second half of the book not only changes focus to the journey to Jerusalem, and then what happens once the people get there, but it also completely changes format. The first half is broken into chapters, whereas the second half changes to being a letter written by Lilah to Antinoes, a letter that she knows he will never actually receive or read. This change of format doesn't really work at all in my opinion, and only seems to make the book feel disjointed and uneven.

The other thing that really through me was at one point the Queen was getting massaged with oils, and the author listed several different oils, and then said Eucalyptus. Now, as far as I am aware Eucalyptus is native to Australia, with a couple of species being found in New Guinea, Indonesia and Philippines, but there is no way known that Eucalyptus trees were available in Persia in 357 BC. It was just one of those facts that when I read it, I was completely thrown out of the story.

After quite enjoying the first book in this trilogy, and mostly liking the second, this was a disappointingly uninspiring conclusion to the trilogy.

Rating 2.5/5


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Age 30 - A Year of Books

Zipporah by Marek Halter

Set over three thousand years ago, a passionate love story divides an ancient world.

Her name is Zipporah.

A black child, she was found on the shores of the Red Sea, and given a name that meant 'bird'.

But, because of the colour of her skin, no man wanted her as his wife. Then, as she was drawing water at a well, she met a stranger. An outcast like herself, he was a fugitive.

His name was Moses.

A beautiful woman and a generous lover, Zipporah was to share Moses' destiny. Together they set out on an epic journey across the desert to Egypt, where they would confront the Pharaoh and beg him to set their people free.

But Zipporah's love for Moses condemned her too: for among the Hebrews of the Exodus her status as a black woman was to have catastrophic consequences.

This is the second book in the Canaan trilogy by Marek Halter, following on from Sarah, and once again the author is focusing on an important figure in the Old Testament, Moses, and his wife Zipporah.

As far as the characters go, Halter made some quite interesting choices in relation to Zipporah - there is very little known of her in the Old Testament, other than how she met Moses at a well, and that she is the daughter of Jethro. In this book, Halter chooses to make her a Cushite, so that she is much darker skinned than the people around her, and makes her the adopted daughter of Jethro - the daughter of his heart - therefore causing jealousy within her adopted household. This also has the effect of making her a stranger among the people, a theme that is mentioned more than once, particularly with Moses' experiences initially when he comes to live with the Midianites, and then later again when he returns to Egypt. It also introduces the spectre of racial issues and of familial disharmony that is echoed later as Zipporah meets Moses' true family.

The initial meetings and courtships of Moses and Zipporah were well written, and the chemistry between the two was quite strong but this was not strong enough to carry the whole book.

There were several things in this novel that did not quite sit right with me - for example Moses' and Zipporah's relationships seemed kind of unusual because they were not married until quite some time after they had had children, and also in the events at the conclusion of the novel. It also seemed that the author was trying too hard to keep on trying to mirror Zipporah's experiences in Moses' life and vice versa.

I wondered at times when reading this story if at times the novelist couldn't quite decide if he was really telling Moses' story or if he was more interested in Zipporah's story - not that those two aspects were incompatible - but just that the two threads didn't seem to be connected all that well, particularly in the second half of the book when the story seemed to lose a bit of steam in some ways, with some parts of the story being quite simplistic at times.

I guess the bonus in taking the characters like the women of the Old Testament is that so little is known about them, so there is a fair amount of freedom to write stories within the restrictions of the little that we do know of them, and the well known stories of their men folk.

Once again, reading this story did make me want to pull out the trusty Bible, which last saw light of day when I read Sarah, and have a quick read to see what was known and what was completely fiction.

For me, whilst this book was interesting, it wasn't great, and I think that there were some issues with pacing, and tying the major strands of story together. There is one more book in the Canaan trilogy, called Lilah, and I am sufficiently interested to want to read it. Hopefully there won't be the same kind of issues in the next book.

Rating 3.5/5

Edited to correct an error...thanks Zeek!

Sarah by Marek Halter

The first novel in a dazzling new trilogy about the women of the Old Testament by internationally bestselling author Marek Halter.

The story of Sarah--and of history itself--begins in the cradle of civilization: the Sumerian city-state of Ur, a land of desert heat, towering gardens, and immense wealth. The daughter of a powerful lord, Sarah is raised in great luxury, but balks at the arranged marriage her father has planned for her.

The groom is handsome and a nobleman, but on their wedding day, Sarah panics and impulsively flees to the vast, empty marshes outside the city walls. There she meets a young man, Abram, a member of a nomadic tribe of outsiders. Drawn to this exotic stranger, Sarah spends the night with him, but reluctantly returns to her father's house. But on her return, still desperate to avoid another wedding, she drinks a poisonous potion that will make her barren and thus unfit for marriage.

Many years later, Abram's people return to Ur, and he discovers that the lost, rebellious girl from the marsh has been transformed into the most splendid and revered woman in Sumeria--the high priestess of the goddess Ishtar. But the memory of their night together has always haunted Sarah, and she gives up her exalted life to join Abram's tribe and follow the one true God, an invisible deity who speaks only to Abram. It is then that her journey truly begins--a journey that holds the key to her remarkable destiny as the mother of nations.

From the great ziggurat of Ishtar and the fertile valleys of Canaan to the bedchamber of the mighty Pharaoh himself, Sarah's story reveals an ancient world full of beauty, intrigue, and miracles.

Last year, one of my favourite reads was The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. Shortly afterwards I read another novel with a biblical theme (In the Shadow of the Ark), which I thought was average, and I was then a bit reluctant to read any more biblical fiction because I didn't want to have any more average experiences.

I can't remember where I first saw this one mentioned (might have been on my Amazon recommends list but I am not really sure), I was definitely interested, and gradually over the last couple of months my interest has been steadily growing until finally I got the book from the library.

This book tells the story of Sarah, the eventual wife of Abraham. When we first meet Sarai she is a young girl, on the verge of womanhood. We get to see the ceremonies that the author thinks a young girl might have been subjected to as she becomes a woman. At the first sign of her blood, the time has come for her to be married off to the man that he has chosen for her. Sarai balks at this choice and runs away as before the ceremony can be completed, and she meets a young man, Abram. Because he is from the nomadic tribes, there is no way he can be an acceptable husband for her, but he has found his way into her heart. When they are separated, Sarai takes steps that are very nearly tragic.

The next phase of the book deals with Sarai's life as a priestess of the goddess Ishtar, with more details on ceremonies. She is the most beautiful of the priestesses and is about to be granted the highest of honours when Abram reappears in her life, and has to choose between life as an exulted priestess or as the wife of a nomadic man who lives in tents.

As Sarai makes her choice, her earlier actions come back to haunt her, and as Sarai becomes older she despairs of ever having her dream fulfilled, despite the promises of Abram's God, and especially as the trials of their marriage are an increasingly heavy burden.

This story is at once a familiar tale, and yet the author manages to make the tale that he has built around the Bible story both fresh and interesting. There is a lot of detail about the every day life of both the citizens of Ur, the nomadic people, life in Egypt, as well as some pretty steamy content at times.

I guess I know that the author has me interested in the story when I pull out the dust covered Bible in my house and read the relevant chapters! Overall an interesting retelling of a well known story.

Rating 4/5

In the Shadow of the Ark by Anne Provoost

Re Jana and her family are marsh people who fish and build boats to make a living. Due to her mother's illness, they make the long trek into the desert to the land of the wanderers, who somewhat strangely are building a huge boat in the middle of the nowhere in preparation for a strange judgement that is supposed to be coming soon. Being wanderers, and people of the desert, they know very little about boat building so Re Jana's father is quickly engaged and provides his expert knowledge to the Builder and his sons. There are many people who are working on the huge boat, thinking that by participating on the building of the boat, they too will be saved when the time of judgement comes.

Re Jana herself has the gift of being able to find clean water, and healing hands that she uses to provide relief to the sons of the Builder, both very valuable skills. Soon she begins to fall in love with Ham, youngest son of Noah, and they start thinking of ways that Re Jana can be bought onto the ship when it is time.

The rains start, the waters rise, and the people realise that there was never any intention to take them onto the boat, that the cavernous hull is to be filled with animals and not people, and there are many scenes of desperation.

This is the dramatic story of the weeks and months that follow, as the rain transforms the earth and the people come to understand, and try to accept and live with the magnitude of the disaster. This is the story of one girl who stows away on the ark for love of Ham, Noah's son. This is her story of survival.

I have seen some reviews comparing this book to The Red Tent by Anita Diamond. I have to say that, having read The Red Tent not too long ago and loving it, for me there is no comparison.

I didn't feel that most of the characters were fully developed with the exception probably of Re Jana, her father and Ham. Some of the scenes were rather also rather simplistically developed, lacking depth and cohesion. Now this maybe because of the translation (Provoost is from Belgium) or it may be because the book is published as Young Adult fiction. I have read quite a bit of YA fiction this year, and they do seem to be simpler stories, but they still have a very readable quality to them.

I debated titling this post "Oh my goodness, I'm getting old" because it is completely surprising to me that this book can be classified as YA fiction. There are numerous references to sexual relations, both with women and men (including rape), references to drug taking, mercy killings, let alone the inevitable complete destruction of the world that comes with the telling of the story of Noah and his sons. Whilst the descriptions are not explicit, there is enough detail to realise what is going on. I realise that teenagers are not naive when it comes to these kinds of events, and that many teenages read books aimed at the adult market, but to have these kinds of scenes in a book that is published as Young Adult seems a little wrong to me. Maybe I am getting old and prudish, or just sounding like a mum because I am one, but I don't understand this.

Whilst all of these things bothered me and did hamper my appreciation of the book, I did mostly enjoy it.

Rating 3/5

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

I just finished listening to this on audio book yesterday and I have to say that it is one of the best books I have read (or should I say listened to) this year!!

The Red Tent is the story of Jacob's daughter Dinah. She is mentioned in Genesis in the Bible and in Chapter 34 we are told the story of what happened to her. What Anita Diamant has done is filled in the outlines as provided in the Old Testament, telling stories of what it was like growing up as the only daughter of Jacob, of her life with her mothers, what it was like to practice as a midwife in those times. In the Bible, once we here of the events as they occurred at Shechem we hear no more, and here Diamant takes Dinah on an adventure that leads Dinah to live in Egypt.

The story as written by Diamant is touching, and surprising, and gives plenty of thought provoking suggestions of how life was lived in ancient times. The use of the household gods throughout the story surprised me a lot, but I can see how Diamant builds on what we have been told in the Bible and taken her story to this point from those references. I was so interested in this story I did find myself referring back to the Old Testament to try and work out which parts of the story were directly from there, and which parts were enhancements.

Rating 5/5

Edit: My full review can be found

here

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