The Sinners and the Sea: The Untold Story of Noah's Wife

Biblical historical fiction

by Rebecca Kanner

I think I've mentioned before that genres seem to be getting both more and less specific. Knowing an incremental amount about publishing now, I think it has to do with the success and marketing of certain books. Here's a perfect example. I'm not sure if this book really qualifies even as historical fiction. I mean, it's the story of Noah's wife and so technically, it centers on a historical event and attributes fictional thoughts, motives, and dialogue to historical characters, but it's not as clear cut as, say, Ken Follett's Century Trilogy with dates and names and battles and such. On the other hand, adding the tagline biblical historical fiction is kind of making up a genre. Admittedly, I am the one calling it that, not the publishers, but it seems fitting and descriptive in that this book is very much like The Red Tent and I think tries to capitalize on that success.

All that said, I think it's a cool premise. Take an unnamed woman in a biblical story and make a whole novel about her.

It was hard not to compare to The Red Tent as I read and I don't think this is even close in quality of writing or story, but it was still compelling. Partway through the book I stopped and re-read Genesis Chapter 6 through whatever, about Noah and the flood, and realized his wife truly gets very little mention, as do his sons' wives, even though without them the point of the ark would be moot. The fleshing out of these women seems important after reading the biblical narrative, and while I didn't LOVE the characters like in TRT they are admirable and realistic. The women, that is. The men kind of suck.

And the same goes for the expansion of the story of the ark and flood and just plain biblical times. What gets a few chapters in the Bible is told in hundreds of pages here, so it's much more...fleshy. The dramatic and horrific sins of the people, the overzealous righteousness of Noah, the supposed giants living in the land and legends of them, the every day rigors of living in a tent and killing your own goats for meat. It's all there, sometimes in expected and what seems to me realistic and sometimes in unexpectedly dark or crass or just plain crazy descriptions and anecdotes. I didn't bother to read Kanner's acknowledgements at the end so I don't know how much research she did for the book and how much is imagination. I don't really care. It's her book and she can tell it how she wants, but man was some of that stuff crazy, like cannibalism and drunk children and fields of dead people.

The other part that was hard to separate from my mind as I read is a more postmodern reading of the Old Testament, truly paying attention to how wrathfully God is described and how it was apparently His will to kill everyone on Earth (or in the Middle East, depending on how literal you are reading). It's not the God I know and it's hard to understand. I had to remind myself that this was a fictional retelling and I can't really know what happened and that my faith is not based on only Old Testament crazy but New Testament love and redemption. Cause otherwise...yikes.

He's Gone

Novel by Deb Caletti

Have you ever been in a waiting room at the dentist or in line at the grocery store or any other place you thought you'd just be quietly alone and the person next to you suddenly tells you more about him or herself than you expected to hear? It's an odd moment, and for me it depends on my mood. Sometimes I feel it's touchingly human and other times I feel a little violated. Didn't want to know about your surgery or why you're mad at your spouse, but thanks. 

That's my feelings about the narrator in this book.

When I first started reading, I liked how she seems so human, so clear on every day thoughts, like how you have to wash cereal bowls right away or they are the worst to scrape out later, and how drinking coffee alone in the morning is its own little a miracle.

Then the crazy came out.

Granted, the story is about a woman who wakes up to find her husband missing and has only hazy memories of coming home from a party the night before, so that's enough to make you feel crazy right along with her. But as she spends the rest of the book trying to find out what's happened to him, you get the story of their affair together, divorces from their first spouses, and rocky marriage since then, along with all her guilt and battered woman syndrome and self doubt. It's well written but intense. Not the easy read I thought it would be from the cover. I guess I should have read the title and back cover better. Or just not judge a book by its...you know.

Death Comes to Pemberley

Fan Fiction/Murder Mystery

by P.D. James

What do you think about fan fiction? I find that I'm usually a little dismayed. I read it because I want to re-enter a world that originally enchanted me, in this case Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Once I'm there, though, no matter how good the writing or how close to my original vision of the characters the story stays, it's not the same. Duh, you say. It's not the same writer so it can't be the same. And I might even have the same problem with some sequels that ARE by the same writer. But still. Something lacks.

I have to admit, I have read seven, count them, SEVEN, fan fiction follow ups to Pride and Prejudice. It's one of my top all time favorite books, mini series, movies, love stories. I partially named my daughter after Elizabeth Bennett and would probably name our next child after Fitzwilliam Darcy if my husband would let me. The first three books I read comprised a very stately, Austen-worthy series from the point of view of Mr. Darcy during the same time period (Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman by Pamela Aiden) and then another three that were much bawdier and followed up the story after the marriage (Pride and Prejudice Continues by Linda Berdoli), the third of which I reviewed here. I have yet to read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, although my husband enjoyed it. Zombies scare me. Anyway, my view of this book may be tempered by the others, which I think I enjoyed more because they were more about Darcy and Elizabeth. This one is a murder mystery, plain and simple, in Austen's language.

All that said, I still chose to read this one over the NINE library books I have on my shelf right now. I just love Austen. The most satisfying part in this story was the ending, after you find out who the murderer is, as Elizabeth and Darcy are consoling each other and wrapping it all up. It gives the ending that Austen shorted us in the original P and P, the "Why did you think that?" and "I'm sorry I was such a bugger, but I loved you almost all along" conversation. The rest is just a plain murder mystery in Regency wrappings.