Angela M 's Reviews > The Book of Longings

There have been many times when I’ve read about strong, courageous, intelligent women, both real and imagined who long for and achieve things that are deemed only acceptable and possible for men at the time of history in which they live. I have at those times thought that these were women beyond their time, but now I’m not so sure that thinking does justice to them. The striking thing is that they are women of their time, different than most because of their audacity to follow their longings when up against the societal and historic norms. Ana, the narrator of this novel is one of these imagined characters. She also happens to be married to Jesus. I received an early copy of this, but kept putting it off. I’m a big fan of Sue Monk Kidd, but I was hesitant - not sure if I wanted to read a rewrite or imagined story of Jesus. There may be people who will be offended by the premise that Jesus had a wife, but I was not. The author has chosen to portray Jesus as human, breaking from traditional Christian belief that he was the son of God. It’s a work of fiction and that is emphasized by Sue Monk Kidd in the Virginia Woolf quote she kept propped up in her desk while writing the book : “Everything is the proper stuff of fiction.” I remember she did the same thing with another quote when she was writing The Invention of Wings.

Jesus is a major character in the novel, his travels, his love of the the poor, his love of God who he calls his father - many of the things I know from the Bible are front and center here, but so is his love of Ana, which is beautifully portrayed. Others I know from the Bible are here - the Good Samaritan, Martha and Lazarus, Herod, John the Immerser who we better know as John the Baptist and Simon and his bother Andrew and Judas who in this story is Ana’s cousin raised as her brother. Yet, for me the story was Ana’s because it is not her marriage to Jesus that defines her. Ana is the daughter of a scribe, a father whose only saving grace is that he allowed Ana to read and write and be taught and the daughter of a mean spirited mother who wished that Ana had never been born . There are strong women in Ana’s life, especially her aunt Yaltha, whose strength and support of Ana and her own sad story and longing of her own are part of Ana’s journey. It’s a journey of Ana’s longing to write of the women from the scriptures whose stories needed to be told and remembered. The journey is a lengthy one, sometimes a little too lengthy, and so four stars instead of five. But bottom line is that I’m sorry I waited so long to read this book. I had a hard time putting it down.

I received a copy of this book from Viking through Edelweiss.