{"id":4882,"date":"2020-05-01T13:18:55","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T20:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/?p=4882"},"modified":"2020-10-18T20:36:48","modified_gmt":"2020-10-19T03:36:48","slug":"the-book-of-longings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/the-book-of-longings\/","title":{"rendered":"The Book of Longings"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Release Date:<\/div>\n
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April 28, 2020<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Publisher\/Imprint: Viking<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Reviewed by<\/div>\n
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Caitlin Hicks<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe Book of Longings<\/em> is well named, well inspired, and well imagined\u2014a superlative effort from a writer at the top of her game.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Book of Longings<\/em> tells a sweeping story that has never been told: of a woman named Ana, who might have been the wife of Jesus. She begins with the sound of rumbling that Jesus heard in her while they slept together, a thunder, or \u201cmy life begging to be born.\u201d<\/p>\n

And yet, the Jesus quoted in the bible, the Jesus who is conjured in the hearts of billions of Christians, this Jesus has been assumed to have been celibate. In all the places He\u2019s been brought to life\u2014the bible, the scriptures, the endless repetitions of his adventures passed down from generation to generation, his teachings, his words, his miracles\u2014among all these stories, there is no record of a woman who might have been his wife. It\u2019s a testimony to the strength of patriarchy that few to date have dared to imagine this blasphemous scenario.<\/p>\n

But novelist Sue Monk Kidd takes on this high concept challenge and gives it her best. She does her homework many times over in all directions, digging for and finding many details that paint a vivid picture not only of Jesus the man, but the interwoven intricacies of the natural, political and religious world surrounding Jesus prior to his ministry. As part of this world, we see Jesus, a young man meeting Ana as a young woman, both of them recognizing that spark in the other, and falling in love. It\u2019s an intriguing premise, but the best part is that this story is told from the point of view of a woman.<\/p>\n

We first meet Ana at 14 years old, learning the meaning of an incantation bowl at the hands of her aunt, Yaltha. Already Ana is full of rebellion and ambition that the sexist world of the time does not allow. Her aunt\u2019s \u201cmouth was the wellspring of thrilling and unpredictable utterances,\u201d says Ana, as they sneak out of the house up onto the roof and Ana learns about \u201cJewish women who led synagogues, studied with philosophers, wrote poetry and owned houses. Egyptian queens. Female pharaohs. Great Goddesses.\u201d Ana\u2019s ambition is to write stories about women. \u201cWe know from her opening narrative that this girl will not only encounter Jesus, but that she is also trouble with a capital \u2018T.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In a distressing parallel to today\u2019s world where in many countries women are not allowed to learn to read and write, Ana\u2019s \u201caudacities\u201d were reed pens, a writing board, vials of ink, other writing tools as well as the fierce passion to have a voice.<\/p>\n

The daughter of a wealthy counselor to the tetrarch, Herod Antipas, Ana has spent her young life cajoling her way into literacy. Initially Matthias had a soft spot for his daughter. \u201cMy father suggested that while God was busy knitting me together in my mother\u2019s womb, He\u2019d become distracted and mistakenly endowed me with gifts destined for some baby boy,\u201d says Ana as she explains how he reluctantly gave into his daughter\u2019s begging to be tutored. Although a member of the privileged class, Ana\u2019s troubles are inherent in her gender and throughout the book, her life is threatened not only by her rebellious spirit, but by the many ways women were kept under control simply because of their sex.<\/p>\n

In this practically perfect historic novel that fits the well-documented events of Jesus\u2019 life into a very believable narrative, there are many parallels to the distressing reality of women\u2019s status in the world today. Yet there is also a section of the work that is thoroughly ordinary and satisfying to read: the years Ana has with her husband after they marry. Their relationship seems so plausible and it\u2019s easy to imagine Jesus, a kind and truly empathetic soul, who has the utmost respect, admiration, and genuine affection for his feisty bride. Christians who have tried to imagine what Jesus must have been like will come away reassured by Kidd\u2019s portrait. The sense of longing that she creates between these two souls as they endure many forced separations bears testament to the novel\u2019s title and makes for an emotional journey.<\/p>\n

Particularly intriguing for those who know all the biblical stories: Ana\u2019s adopted brother is Judas! This alone would have you reading on to see how that could be so, but the novel itself is so well told, with so many believable details and convolutions that you have to stay on board just to see how it all devolves. Details of the times, the scripture, the politics, the attitudes bring to a new focus the context of a story we\u2019ve all heard thousands of times.<\/p>\n

Anyone who reads this novel will feel the impending doom inherent in this historic tale. \u00a0So artfully does Kidd involve the reader with the vibrance and passion of Ana, of the hazard she experiences in a man\u2019s world, of her determined persona and her love for Jesus – that by the time she reunites with her beloved after a long absence, as he struggles barefoot and bleeding with an enormous wooden cross on his back, there is little to buffer feelings of loss and tragedy and sorrow.<\/p>\n

The Book of Longings<\/em> is well named, well inspired, and well imagined\u2014a superlative effort from a writer at the top of her game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This review appears on New York Journal of Books.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Release Date: April 28, 2020 Publisher\/Imprint: Viking Reviewed by Caitlin Hicks \u201cThe Book of Longings is well named, well inspired, and well imagined\u2014a superlative effort from a writer at the top of her game.\u201d The Book of Longings tells a sweeping story that has never been told: of a woman named Ana, who might have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4883,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[165],"class_list":["post-4882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-wife-of-jesus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4882"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5410,"href":"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882\/revisions\/5410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}