Reviews with content warning for Rape - Il libro dei desideri

The Book of Longings imagines a world in which Jesus takes a wife, Ana, before starting his ministry. Ana is the daughter of a wealthy family, and she is taught to read and write, something uncommon for women in those days. She is entranced by stories and longs to have a voice for people to listen to. Instead, her parents engage her to a man twice her age. Ana falls in love with Jesus and, when her fiancé dies, she and Jesus get married, which lowers her station dramatically, but she gains a partner in life who believes in her dreams and encourages her.

If you are not familiar with the Bible, I think the political situation is a little confusing. I had to research what was going on in Palestine at that time - The Holy Roman Empire was controlling the land, and many Palestinians wished to be free, particularly for religious reasons, as they believed the land was promised to them by God, and they did not wish to be ruled by polytheists.

Ana was such a beautiful character, and she will feel familiar to most women - in a world where women are being silenced, Ana longs for an equal voice in society and on the page. All the ideas in her world belong to men, and Ana is well ahead of her time and wishes to change that. She is the hope to the oppressed.

Ana also has two powerful women by her side - Yaltha, her aunt, who teaches her everything she knows about spirituality, and Tabitha, her cousin whose tongue is cut out for speaking out against her rapist.

There is no condemnation of Jesus or religion in this book - instead, it’s a reimagining of the lives of all the women left out of the Bible. In her afterword, Sue Monk Kidd says, “It could be argued that in the first-century Jewish world of Galilee, marriage was so utterly normative, it more or less went without saying.” Much of Jesus’s early years are not written about, so it is certainly possible that he got married ten years before his ministry.

Content Warnings

shando's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

This was a well-paced story of women whose lives were, in various ways, connected to Jesus Christ as a historic being. The character development is most robust for the women in the story and the author allows historically relevant details to shine.

Content Warnings

noelleingway's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I absolutely loved this book!!

You can argue that Ana's viewpoints are a little too "modern feminist," but i really enjoyed seeing those viewpoints in a historically rooted setting and story. How would a woman with a modern drive to succeed and be heard fare in this time period? I enjoyed this story's take on an answer to that question. Her story was beautifully written and moving, the way she uplifted and supported the women around her was a joy to read.

And through it all, she still has this immense love for her husband, despite her hunger for more out of life. I found the tension between those two desires very compelling. "Longings" is right, that is truly the core of this book

Content Warnings

kmae314's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Beautiful!

Content Warnings

dizzyizzyy's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

eeamiller's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

I read this on the recommendation of my friend, Kim. I have been on a Sue Monk Kidd reading kick, having finished "The Dance of the Dissident Daughter" earlier this month on audiobook. I also read this on audiobook. It started a little slow for me, but I was hooked from the first page when it said it would be told from the perspective of Ana, the wife of Jesus.

I have enjoyed Sue Monk Kidd's nonfiction lately (I'm currently reading "Traveling with Pomegranates"), and it makes me want to go back and read more of her fiction. The themes she explores are the ones that resonate with me right now - spirituality, the divine feminine, women's perspectives and voices.

I admit that as the book reached its inevitable climax (the crucifixion of Jesus), I sort of felt a sense of dread. I have never liked crucifixion narratives or descriptions. Even "Jesus Christ Superstar" is hard for me in the end. I never watched "The Passion of the Christ" because my imagination is already graphic enough - I don't need visual representations. But what moved me the most about the crucifixion narrative was the perspective of the women, particularly their faithfulness in Christ's suffering and when they all gathered together at home after (I think in Bethany with Mary and Martha) and felt a sense of fellowship. It felt very real. Women are always in the trenches in the messiest moments of human experience. They walked with him, kept vigil as he died, cleaned and tended him after his death.

I was puzzled that she didn't really explore the Resurrection, by having Ana leave the day after the crucifixion to return to her ascetic community. But I guess the point of the book was not to explore Jesus' voice, but Ana's own.

Content Warnings

saracatalyst's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I really loved this book! Kidd does a great job of creating a very human character for Jesus and writing a story that feels fresh and unburdened so close to perhaps the most well known story of all time.

Having grown up attending a Methodist church, I was amazed and delighted with the way Kidd’s portrayal of events with which I’m perhaps *over* familiar felt new due to a realness the retellings have never possessed.

Aside from the obvious and overarching tie to Christianity, the story bears merit on its own. Kidd’s extensive research shines through as a solid foundation for the story she creates. The themes of women’s roles in society, religion, culture, and the home carry enough weight that Jesus’s relevance in the story doesn’t completely overwhelm every other aspect. I loved Ana, her many companions, and the unique relationships she had with each of them.

This book is great so criticism feels weird. But at the same time… some of the characters felt a little too convenient to feel totally real. Ana felt like a pretty clear distillation of the author’s view of herself. The complexity for Jesus’s character at times felt like answering what’s your greatest weakness with “I care too much and work too hard.” I felt myself wanting more at times, like the plot was being rushed along through dialogue but I understand that the point was to keep things from Ana’s perspective and she couldn’t be present for every relevant event in the story. The last thing I felt like I wanted was a more three dimensional representation of the society. It felt like as soon as we zoomed out any amount from intimate family interactions, society was just a villain and a bad place to be. Perhaps this is just the way things were, but seems more likely there might have been moments of happiness and beauty that the people would be able to find.

If you’ve read this book and have thoughts, please talk to me!

Content Warnings

feliciatarantino's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

I wasn't totally sure what to expect from this novel, given its content. But I can happily say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. While a few creative liberties were taken here and there, I think that Sue Monk Kidd did an incredible job of filling in the blanks, crafting a story that we as readers could relate to and a heroine that could be admired. Ana was ambitious, resilient, and courageous, not to mention witty and scholarly, in a time where a woman possessing any of those traits was condemned. As a historian, it was especially interesting to see the influence of feminist theology in her writing. Overall, this was a thought-provoking story with an interesting perspective!

Content Warnings

More...