We Hurt Those We Love Most -- With the Best of Intentions

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	• Rebekah (Women of Genesis) Orson Scott Card Forge Books, 2002 - 416 pages average customer review:based on 33 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Woman Takes the Lead

I'd been waiting for Orson Scott Card to come out with a book that really has a woman at its center instead of a man. For all that he has chapters in many books from a womanly point of view, only Hart's Hope went so far as to push a female into full-force narrative, but that story centered on a male nonetheless.
With this new "Women of Genesis" series, Card explores the heroines of the earliest parts of the Bible. Begun with Sarah and continued with this book (Rachel is forthcoming), the stories are told in third person limited, with the titular characters as the narrators. Written with his typical clarity, Card does well to bring out difficult aspects of the tale clearly so that a modern audience may understand better. Card's notions of family dynamics are especially strong in this book, and that may be why I considered it a more rewarding read than Sarah.
Christians reading Rebekah ought to be warned that there are non-Biblical Mormon elements in it, but these are generally few and don't inhibit the narrative in the slightest. It's a mind-building challenge to go back to the Bible and compare stories, in any case.

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We Hurt Those We Love Most -- With the Best of Intentions

Does anyone tell a Bible story as wonderfully as Orson Scott Card? I have loved every one of the Women of Genesis books. This one is my favorite.

Mr. Card takes plenty of artistic liberty with the Bible stories, but the characters he creates are truly memorable. Bethuel and Laban come to life. Rebekah, the motherless child and the fiercely devout mother-to-be of Israel, emerges both as magnificently noble and achingly human. Abraham and Isaace emerge as richly complex personalities that alternately aggravate and inspire. There are no Demigods here, but there are many admirable people doing the best they know how to cope with difficult conflicts, with tragic and heroic consequences.

There is no doubt that these people love and respect each other, and yet they torment each other because of the blindnesses we all have in dealing with those we love from perspectives that are inevitably colored (and clouded) by our own intense past experiences. Rebekah has practically worshipped the legend of her Uncle Abraham all of her life, but finds when she lives under his rule that he has his human frailties, and they cause her (and Isaac) great pain. She and Isaac discover their own frailties and insecurities (warranted and unwarranted), which cause significant pain to each other, to Abraham, and to their treasured sons. In so many instances, they repeat the life patterns they most wanted to avoid.

We see emerging, from all of this pain, the searing and purifying insights that God offers to us all as a refiner's fire, if we are humble enough and courageous enough to embrace them. Abraham, Isaac, Rebekah and Jacob have that courage. They do what they must when the crucial choices must be made, and forgive each other. In their sunset years, we find Isaac and Rebekah blessed with peace in each other's arms. That all husbands and wives might be so blessed.

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Rebekah (Women of Genesis)

This is a great quick read. It was easy to imagine life in this period by the descriptions and references to Bible versus and stories. Since most of the books in the Bible talk about men and their perspectives, it was nice to read about a woman. I would recommend this book.

Rebekah

In Rebekah I didn't like the development of the characters as well as in Sarah. With Sarah, I actually felt as if I was a part of the story. I thought Rebekah was a good read and I gave it four stars, because it had interesting points and was a faster read. I would recommend it.

Ehh...

Perhaps I was spoiled by "The Red Tent" but this really did not have the same luster. It was obviously written by a man as he did not capture the details interesting to women such as childbirth and mothering.
Not a bad read though.

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reviews: 1, 2, page 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

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