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revmegankelly's review
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
5.0
I loved this book! Just wanted to keep reading and reading. Vivid and thoughtful, theologically engaging.
tetedump's review against another edition
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Vomit, Mental illness, Animal death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, and Suicidal thoughts
vrsmith0429's review against another edition
1.0
1.5
This book was just not for me. I thought the premise was good and interesting but the actual story was not good. There were parts that just did not make sense and it felt like it was there for plot convince more than for the actual story.
This book was described to me as Noah's Ark from his wife's perspective which sounded interesting. But then Naamah (his wife) has these dreams where she can speak to angels and God. Then in real life she can breathe underwater to zombie children who didnt make it into heaven because they didnt know how. She couldn't see the animals and was attacked MULTIPLE times. She had a female lover before the boat and then had a sexual encounter with her son's wife for some reason that was NEVER explained. The angel that helped Naamah could turn into a tiger who later tries to kill Naamah in the ark. And Naamah went through a lot of moments of masturbation to which at one point she is given a rock that is apparently a dildo that her mother used when she masturbated. Then at the end of the story, it is revealed that God asks Naamah if he should make a flood again and restart humanity like he did with them while he has taken the form of a vulture. Naamah is seen throught the entire novel to question God and not believe in him in any way shape or form. She resents him for putting her on the Ark and he leaves this decision to her. I'm not very religious but I don't think this would have happened. I seriously don't think that God would leave all of this up to the one woman who is consistently questioning and resenting him.
There were a lot of moments where I was reading this that I was confused and found myself asking why is this even a plot point or did the author just include this because she said eh this will make sense later? Maybe it's because I am not very religious but this book... I dont even know what to say anymore, I just did not like it.
This book was just not for me. I thought the premise was good and interesting but the actual story was not good. There were parts that just did not make sense and it felt like it was there for plot convince more than for the actual story.
This book was described to me as Noah's Ark from his wife's perspective which sounded interesting. But then Naamah (his wife) has these dreams where she can speak to angels and God. Then in real life she can breathe underwater to zombie children who didnt make it into heaven because they didnt know how. She couldn't see the animals and was attacked MULTIPLE times. She had a female lover before the boat and then had a sexual encounter with her son's wife for some reason that was NEVER explained. The angel that helped Naamah could turn into a tiger who later tries to kill Naamah in the ark. And Naamah went through a lot of moments of masturbation to which at one point she is given a rock that is apparently a dildo that her mother used when she masturbated. Then at the end of the story, it is revealed that God asks Naamah if he should make a flood again and restart humanity like he did with them while he has taken the form of a vulture. Naamah is seen throught the entire novel to question God and not believe in him in any way shape or form. She resents him for putting her on the Ark and he leaves this decision to her. I'm not very religious but I don't think this would have happened. I seriously don't think that God would leave all of this up to the one woman who is consistently questioning and resenting him.
There were a lot of moments where I was reading this that I was confused and found myself asking why is this even a plot point or did the author just include this because she said eh this will make sense later? Maybe it's because I am not very religious but this book... I dont even know what to say anymore, I just did not like it.
rie's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
A story about being a woman. Being a mother. Being given so much responsibility that you don't even understand, but trying anyway.
sjgrodsky's review against another edition
1.0
Read about 40 pages then quit. Just not engaging, IMHO.
chelbiird's review against another edition
2.0
i wanted to like this so bad but something about it was just off putting. it seemed too rife with deep metaphors and not focused enough on developing any sort of plot.
chloeh24's review
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
richardwells's review against another edition
2.0
2 1/2 stars. It was ok, and I kinda-sorta liked it.
Naamah is a retelling of the Hebrew flood myth from Noah’s wife’s point of view, but once the earth is flooded there’s not much telling left to do. With the world destroyed, and Noah’s family and the animals two by two out at sea, the myth becomes more of a domestic drama, with heavy strains of dream play, and magical realism. It’s an interesting book, but it’s not that good, and I think the problem lies with the author trying to do too much within the confines of one story. The book is a collage of myth, domestic drama, feminist theory, theodicy. psychology, and argument with God, and his heavenly and earthly creatures.
Scripture is notoriously short on detail, and character development. Stories tend to move with lightening speed, and in this case, an ark is built, provisioned, laden and staffed, a world is destroyed, an epic voyage completed, laws given, and a world re-imagined in seventy some verses (sentences, really.) That’s some pretty compact story telling. So, Sarah Blake found a vehicle that could carry some expansion.
The job of a retelling is to bring new information and to illuminate the original story. The domestic drama gives that to us. Naamah, upon whom everything hinges rules the roost. She knows how to tend and psychoanalyze the animals (humans included,) whether or not she can see them, has botany skills, can do basic carpentry, effect cures for all that ails anyone on board – animal , vegetable, or mineral, all while maintaining an active erotic life with memories, an angel, a daughter-in-law, and once with a sun-warmed stone. Really, more than I needed to know, though once taught I could see the cleverness of a mineral dildo. Naamah, of course, had three children with Noah (500 years old according to the good book) so I guess she’s the first poly-amorous character in the bible, although I don’t really know if Noah was in the loop.
Naamah has any number of “imaginary friends,” if that’s what you’d call them. The two most important are an angel that lives underwater and rides herd over a bevy of drowned children, and a talking cockatoo named Jael. I thought the angel and the kids were fascinating, and Naamah’s relationship with them was breathtaking (sorry,) and easily for me the most interesting writing in the book. Jael was a bird too far, and I had a hard time visualizing the creature flip flopping around Naamah’s head dispensing avian insights. Anytime Jael winged in the story took a nose dive (sorry, again.)
The egregious dream-breaker in the book is the author’s choice of using modern English as a simulacrum of whatever language the family/survivors might have spoken. It gave the Ark the feel of the Love Boat.
It’s interesting to note that Noah’s wife is not named in Genesis, but there is a Naamah that exists in the Zohar as Adam’s consort, and mother, with Lilith, of his demonic children – the “Plagues of Mankind.” Naamah’s particular offering to the world is childhood epilepsy. How she would have gotten hooked up with Noah is a good question, but those demons are nothing if not clever. At least one other character from the Zohar shows up, Metatron, another angel of sorts, with the head and neck of a vulture. I can’t imagine Sarah Blake having not plotted these twists out, and it does give texture to the narrative. Again, though, more than the book could really carry.
I stuck with the book, only jumped one endless house-keeping chapter, and random paragraphs in the middle, and was just as happy as anyone when the waters receded.
Sorry, Nammah is a mess, an ambitious one, holding some good, even beautiful writing, and interesting ideas, but I’ll never be able to think about it without working to separate the mess from the good that’s there.
Naamah is a retelling of the Hebrew flood myth from Noah’s wife’s point of view, but once the earth is flooded there’s not much telling left to do. With the world destroyed, and Noah’s family and the animals two by two out at sea, the myth becomes more of a domestic drama, with heavy strains of dream play, and magical realism. It’s an interesting book, but it’s not that good, and I think the problem lies with the author trying to do too much within the confines of one story. The book is a collage of myth, domestic drama, feminist theory, theodicy. psychology, and argument with God, and his heavenly and earthly creatures.
Scripture is notoriously short on detail, and character development. Stories tend to move with lightening speed, and in this case, an ark is built, provisioned, laden and staffed, a world is destroyed, an epic voyage completed, laws given, and a world re-imagined in seventy some verses (sentences, really.) That’s some pretty compact story telling. So, Sarah Blake found a vehicle that could carry some expansion.
The job of a retelling is to bring new information and to illuminate the original story. The domestic drama gives that to us. Naamah, upon whom everything hinges rules the roost. She knows how to tend and psychoanalyze the animals (humans included,) whether or not she can see them, has botany skills, can do basic carpentry, effect cures for all that ails anyone on board – animal , vegetable, or mineral, all while maintaining an active erotic life with memories, an angel, a daughter-in-law, and once with a sun-warmed stone. Really, more than I needed to know, though once taught I could see the cleverness of a mineral dildo. Naamah, of course, had three children with Noah (500 years old according to the good book) so I guess she’s the first poly-amorous character in the bible, although I don’t really know if Noah was in the loop.
Naamah has any number of “imaginary friends,” if that’s what you’d call them. The two most important are an angel that lives underwater and rides herd over a bevy of drowned children, and a talking cockatoo named Jael. I thought the angel and the kids were fascinating, and Naamah’s relationship with them was breathtaking (sorry,) and easily for me the most interesting writing in the book. Jael was a bird too far, and I had a hard time visualizing the creature flip flopping around Naamah’s head dispensing avian insights. Anytime Jael winged in the story took a nose dive (sorry, again.)
The egregious dream-breaker in the book is the author’s choice of using modern English as a simulacrum of whatever language the family/survivors might have spoken. It gave the Ark the feel of the Love Boat.
It’s interesting to note that Noah’s wife is not named in Genesis, but there is a Naamah that exists in the Zohar as Adam’s consort, and mother, with Lilith, of his demonic children – the “Plagues of Mankind.” Naamah’s particular offering to the world is childhood epilepsy. How she would have gotten hooked up with Noah is a good question, but those demons are nothing if not clever. At least one other character from the Zohar shows up, Metatron, another angel of sorts, with the head and neck of a vulture. I can’t imagine Sarah Blake having not plotted these twists out, and it does give texture to the narrative. Again, though, more than the book could really carry.
I stuck with the book, only jumped one endless house-keeping chapter, and random paragraphs in the middle, and was just as happy as anyone when the waters receded.
Sorry, Nammah is a mess, an ambitious one, holding some good, even beautiful writing, and interesting ideas, but I’ll never be able to think about it without working to separate the mess from the good that’s there.
lgiunta's review
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5