The Book of Longings

This was a beautifully written, fictional account of what if. What if we knew what happened during the time of Jesus life that is not recorded in the Gospels? What if that time revealed he had a wife? What if that wife had a bold, revolutionary spirit completely in contradiction with what was typically expected for women at the time?

As a Roman Catholic, I have always been taught and have always believed that Jesus was an unmarried, itinerant preacher who saved us all. When I read the premise behind this novel, I couldnt help but wonder how Kidd would address all of these doctrines of Christianity. Im so happy to see that she molded tradition with her conjecture very respectfully.

There were points when the scenes brushed Scripture and made the reader go hmmm. But for the most part, this was fully the story of Ana. Jesus was very much a secondary character of this tale and Kidd did nothing to tarnish the beliefs that Christians hold dear. She simple told a story of a girl who COULD have been the wife of Jesus.

I really loved this book. And honestly? A story that focuses more closely on Jesus human side makes me feel even closer to Him and want to study my Scriptures and His teachings even more.

How disappointing. This book was difficult to read. The main character Ana was hard to believe. There was little to like. The book took forever to become interesting. The insertion of various disciples made little sense. The scripture quotations were awkward at best. Im so sorry I spent my hard earned money on this.

I started reading my copy last night and I didnt want to put it down, stayed up late to read more. Im only on page 50, but Im completely in love.

There are so many powerful spiritual women referred to along with the layers of themes of religion, class, family, Colonial expansion, etc. and Ive just started.

The writing is brilliant.

Feels so incredibly honest for the time period and the narrative on the place and view of women.

The characters and their reflections are deep and wise.

This is the book Ive always wanted to be written, thank you.

I cannot wait to read the rest.

I sampled the book and gave up in amazement that the book was being praised so highly. It’s not well written and the author did not do “meticulous” research as the publisher claims.

The First Century narrator says “All my life, longings lived inside of me, rising up like nocturnes to wail and sing through the night.” The night prayers called Nocturns or Nocturnes did not exist in the first decades of the first century when the opening of the book is set. There was no Church and there was no Christianity. You can’t trust an author who makes a mistake like that about Christian worship. If for some reason she meant the musical nocturne, that’s even more of a blunder, since that didn’t exist until the 1800s….

Likewise, there were at the time three pilgrimage festivals during which the Hebrews were supposed to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem, but the narrator says her father went up to Jerusalem for Passover and Sukkoth and doesn’t mention the third, Shavuoth. That’s a pretty gross blunder and throws into doubt Kidd’s comprehension of Jewish life in that period. Then she says that during a walk through a crowded market place she hears “snatches” of Aramaic. That doesn’t make any sense: Aramaic was the lingua franca of the Jews in the eastern Mediterranean. The narrator would have been *surrounded* by Aramaic speakers.

These are basic facts about the period and about Jewish life in the First Century anyone can easily look up–how did Kidd manage to get them wrong? And how did her editor not wince at laughable images like “Her mind was an immense feral country that spilled its borders”? There are more lines in the opening that just made me laugh they were so awful. I haven’t read anything of Kidd’s before, and the poor grasp of historical detail and the shaky prose don’t encourage me to try.

If you believe in the Bible as the word of God, this is a terrible book. I sincerely wish I had reviewed it before ordering it as I have loved this authors previous works.

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