Helpful Score: 2
From Booklist
Halter, whose Canaan Trilogy dramatized the lives of Old Testament women Sarah, Zipporah, and Lilah, moves into New Testament territory with this novel about Mary. Although he always makes his characters his own, he takes Mary in a direction that borders on alternative history. This Mary is a feisty young woman, educated (she was schooled with the slightly younger Mary Magdalene) and so bold that she, along with her friend, the rebel Barabbas, stages a plot to remove her father from the Romans' cross. Disgusted watching men like her father, Joseph, as well as Nicodemus and Barabbas, debate ways to topple the Romans, she wills herself to become the vessel for a savior. The story seems to end with the birth of Jesus, but then Halter adds a curious epilogue in which he claims to have received a Gospel of Mary from a mysterious Righteous Gentile. The text of the purported gospel continues the story, telling of an unwilling Jesus and an overbearing Mary. This odd device doesn't quite work, but, nevertheless, the novel is an engaging and thought-provoking addition to the growing body of historical fiction on biblical women.
From Publishers Weekly
Harek, author of biblically-inspired novels such as Zipporah, Wife of Moses and Sarah, imagines the childhood and tumultuous young adulthood of Miriam (Mary) of Nazareth, mother of Jesus. Her loving parents Joachim and Hannah want to protect their daughter, but violence surrounds them as Herod's egregious taxation sparks Jewish insurrection. Miriam befriends a young revolutionary named Barabbas (yes, the same seditious Barabbas to be released more than three decades later instead of Jesus), and her world is upended by political uncertainty. In Halter's hands, Miriam is equal parts brazen temerity and quiet holiness, her deep courage an example to those who would submit to injustice, her scholarship unusual among women and her skill at healing remarkable. The novel offers brisk pacing and a good deal of adventure. Along the way, readers will learn a great deal of the ascetic Essene sect and the traditions and practices of first-century Judaism. And the novel's climax-the famous Annunciation-happens not out of the blue, but because a determined Miriam asks Yahweh to bring the Messiah and is blessed. In Halter's hands, Mary is not a passive receptacle of divine grace, but an active agent in changing the world.
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Why only 2 1/2 *? (spoiler)
The imaginative account of Mary's everyday life as a Jew during a turburlent period of history drew me in and I could dispel disbelief in Mary's highly unlikely adventures with other biblical people, but as the story continued and became increasingly strange, I began to lose interest. But what really turned me off to this book was the absurdly unbelievable ending with the writer's finding of "The Gospel of Mary" in which she reveals that as her son was dying on the cross, the Roman executioner shoved a sponge saturated with a narcotic into his mouth (believing it was vinegar).
He appeared to die, but no, he had just been doped! His body was placed in the tomb which conveniently had a hidden entranceway in the back through which Mary entered and waited for him to wake up. She and a few of his followers stayed with him for 3 days after which he said it was time for him to go. NO DEATH, NO RESSURECTION. Jesus had just been doped and I had been duped.
Yes, it's just a novel, but when readers consider this book, they need to know that although it appears to be biblically based, it just uses Bible people as a takeoff point for what many will consider heresy and others will consider just plain weird.
Halter, whose Canaan Trilogy dramatized the lives of Old Testament women Sarah, Zipporah, and Lilah, moves into New Testament territory with this novel about Mary. Although he always makes his characters his own, he takes Mary in a direction that borders on alternative history. This Mary is a feisty young woman, educated (she was schooled with the slightly younger Mary Magdalene) and so bold that she, along with her friend, the rebel Barabbas, stages a plot to remove her father from the Romans' cross. Disgusted watching men like her father, Joseph, as well as Nicodemus and Barabbas, debate ways to topple the Romans, she wills herself to become the vessel for a savior. The story seems to end with the birth of Jesus, but then Halter adds a curious epilogue in which he claims to have received a Gospel of Mary from a mysterious Righteous Gentile. The text of the purported gospel continues the story, telling of an unwilling Jesus and an overbearing Mary. This odd device doesn't quite work, but, nevertheless, the novel is an engaging and thought-provoking addition to the growing body of historical fiction on biblical women.
From Publishers Weekly
Harek, author of biblically-inspired novels such as Zipporah, Wife of Moses and Sarah, imagines the childhood and tumultuous young adulthood of Miriam (Mary) of Nazareth, mother of Jesus. Her loving parents Joachim and Hannah want to protect their daughter, but violence surrounds them as Herod's egregious taxation sparks Jewish insurrection. Miriam befriends a young revolutionary named Barabbas (yes, the same seditious Barabbas to be released more than three decades later instead of Jesus), and her world is upended by political uncertainty. In Halter's hands, Miriam is equal parts brazen temerity and quiet holiness, her deep courage an example to those who would submit to injustice, her scholarship unusual among women and her skill at healing remarkable. The novel offers brisk pacing and a good deal of adventure. Along the way, readers will learn a great deal of the ascetic Essene sect and the traditions and practices of first-century Judaism. And the novel's climax-the famous Annunciation-happens not out of the blue, but because a determined Miriam asks Yahweh to bring the Messiah and is blessed. In Halter's hands, Mary is not a passive receptacle of divine grace, but an active agent in changing the world.
******************************************************
Why only 2 1/2 *? (spoiler)
The imaginative account of Mary's everyday life as a Jew during a turburlent period of history drew me in and I could dispel disbelief in Mary's highly unlikely adventures with other biblical people, but as the story continued and became increasingly strange, I began to lose interest. But what really turned me off to this book was the absurdly unbelievable ending with the writer's finding of "The Gospel of Mary" in which she reveals that as her son was dying on the cross, the Roman executioner shoved a sponge saturated with a narcotic into his mouth (believing it was vinegar).
He appeared to die, but no, he had just been doped! His body was placed in the tomb which conveniently had a hidden entranceway in the back through which Mary entered and waited for him to wake up. She and a few of his followers stayed with him for 3 days after which he said it was time for him to go. NO DEATH, NO RESSURECTION. Jesus had just been doped and I had been duped.
Yes, it's just a novel, but when readers consider this book, they need to know that although it appears to be biblically based, it just uses Bible people as a takeoff point for what many will consider heresy and others will consider just plain weird.
Helpful Score: 1
From an interesting premise--tell the life of Mary, Jesus' mother, in a way that had not been told before--comes a mediocre novel. It is interesting as a period historical fiction piece, for the detail of daily and political life of the times is exacting, but as the story of a young Jewish girl destined to birth the Savior, it is just not believable. Obviously, she would have been an unusual girl and woman to have been so chosen, but the double stretch of a middle-aged male author imagining a girl's point of view and the modern-day feminist sensibility give to this novel's Mary is just too much.
I enjoyed the read; it is a quick one. I enjoy Bible fiction, so this is not a waste of time, just don't expect it to shed any light on who Mary might have been.
I enjoyed the read; it is a quick one. I enjoy Bible fiction, so this is not a waste of time, just don't expect it to shed any light on who Mary might have been.
