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itsallaboutbooksandmacarons 's review for:
Queen Esther
by John Irving
Queen Esther. I thought I was diving into a story, but for the first chunk, it felt more like I was being handed a heavily footnoted scroll. So many details. So much context. Politics, history, side characters I couldn’t keep straight. I kept waiting for the actual story to show up.
But then something shifted — and honestly, thank God. It’s not just about Esther herself (who sometimes felt more like an idea than a real person). The focus quietly drifts to her son — yep, the one she gives away. Like, literally hands him over to her best friend as a gift. It sounds dramatic, and it is, but somehow it doesn’t feel forced.
That’s when the book started to breathe. The second half let go of the lecture style and actually let the characters live a little. It was different — not what I expected — but it worked. The weird mix of sacred history, personal drama, and that surprise emotional weight around the son? Kind of compelling, once you’re past the info overload.