A Literary Life

The Gilded Chamber (Rebecca Kohn)

I did not go to Bible school as a child, nor was relating Christian parables a regular part of my family life. Outside of Noah, Cain and Abel, and that Technicolor Dreamcoat guy — oh, and Jesus, of course — the cast of characters in the Bible are strangers to me. (Hm. And who was the women who asked for a head on a platter? I suppose if I don’t know her name without a Google search, it doesn’t really count.) But lack of knowledge doesn’t reflect lack of interest. On the contrary, I think the rich, human stories of the Christian holy book are definitely worth reading, studying, discussing. I just haven’t actually read, studied or discussed any of them as yet.

So yay for shortcuts, like this easy, breezy novel about Queen Esther, a young Jewish virgin taken forcibly into the harem of King Xerxes and who beguiles him to the point that he makes her Queen. From the throne — where she’s given little power but lots of almond-oil beauty treatments, fancy clothing and tweezings — she is able to prevent the massacre of Jews in Xerxes’ Persian empire. As a story of girl power, it’s lacking. Esther only gets what she wants because she’s a beauty and she becomes a master of feminine persuasion. (No requests for heads on platters here.) But it was an interesting look into the female world of antiquity, especially of the drugged, catty harem women.

I’m told The Red Tent needs to be next on my list of biblical fictionalizations that flesh out the lives of women in traditionally male-dominated Christianity. And even if it makes me look like an up-tight nerd to put such a book on my list of summer/vacation reads, so be it because No. 1, I’m comfortable in my nerdiness. And No. 2, those chick-lit-reading beachgoers just won’t go to heaven because of their ignorance of the (fictionalized) Bible, right? Right?

Yeah, yeah, I know. I have a lot more about Christianity to learn.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars - Vacation reading

Fiction |