The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd

The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd

Ana is the daughter of Matthias, the chief scribe to Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee who burns to be named king of the Jews by the Roman government.  Ana’s family is wealthy and she is destined to marry a wealthy man of her parents’ choosing, but what she really longs to do is study and write.  She especially wants to write down the stories of women in the Old Testament and also the stories of the remarkable women around her.  A chance meeting in the marketplace with a laborer named Jesus, who lives in the neighboring town of Nazareth, changes her life forever.

Wonderful writing and a completely different type of novel from Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Secret Life of Bees.  While Jesus and his followers are there, Kidd focuses on Ana and the women around her.  She skillfully weaves in the tales from the four gospels, but only those that would have been reasonable for Ana to have witnessed.

The story is about Ana, the fictional wife that Kidd created for Jesus, but Kidd also imagines the missing 18 years of Jesus’s life, based on historical record and traditions of the time.  It would have been unheard of for a Jewish man not to have a wife in the 1st century - marriage was the entry into manhood for a young man at that time.  It would have been expected by his family, his community, and his religion.  The celibate and ascetic Jesus of modern Christianity came into being about 200 years after Jesus lived, courtesy of a bunch of old guys who were running the church.  Kidd also notes that Jesus would have been a pariah (mamzer) in his community due to the questionable circumstances of his birth.  He might have been an outcast if not for the support of his earthly father Joseph.

Highly recommended, one of the best books I’ve read this year.  Don’t miss this one unless you can’t tolerate an idea that steps outside mainstream Christian teaching.

Feast of Sorrow by Crystal King

 July 11, 2020

Feast of Sorrow by Crystal King

Thrasius is a Greek slave, purchased by patrician Marcus Gavius Apicius to be his new cook.  Apicius is a gourmand, and also ambitious - he wants to be Caesar's gastronomical adviser for his banquets.  He is blocked by rival gourmand Octavius Publius, Caesar's current adviser, who is threatened by Thrasius' extraordinary cooking skills.  Thrasius unexpectedly finds a home, friends, and a family in the Gavius household, but his happy life is threatened when the entire household including the slaves is caught up in Roman politics and intrigue.

I love books set in ancient Rome, also about food and cooking, with well-developed characters, so this one checked a lot of boxes for me.  It was why I enjoyed Anthony Bourdain's lukewarm mystery Bone in the Throat - the mystery itself wasn't that great, but the descriptions of food and cooking were wonderful.

Apicius is the first known gourmand from ancient times, although there were undoubtedly others when you consider the scope of the banquets that the patricians held.  He left a collection of recipes (that his slave chef undoubtedly developed) that are the first known cookbook, dating from the 1st century C.E.  While there is no record of any of the slaves, there are a number of historical characters throughout the book.  For a look at life in ancient Rome, you may want to watch the PBS series I, Claudius, based on the two novels by Robert Graves, I, Claudius and Claudius the God.  The series is available on Acorn TV (subscription is around $6/month).

I needed a change after reading two mediocre books, and this fit the bill nicely.  Great cover art, too.  Highly recommend to anyone who enjoys historical fiction set in the ancient world.