Scan barcode
A review by jinny89
The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
3.0
I read this book for my online book club. As I told the other members, I was hesitant at first about this book because it’s historical fiction, a genre I only occasionally dabble in. Also, it’s set in a period that’s really, really far back — 70 CE. Also, it’s ancient Israel and I have no idea what the heck was happening in 70 CE in ancient Israel. So … my interest levels in this book was initially pretty low, to be honest.
While I’m not crazy in love with this book now that I have finished reading it, I do think it was a pleasant experience and it was quite nice not reading about teenagers falling in love as I usually do (I read too much YA, probably), for a change. The Dovekeepers is split into 4 parts each narrated by a different woman (all of the women know one another and are characters in each others’ narratives). It is about their struggles during 70 CE when 900 Jews banded together in Masada, a Judean desert, after their temple in Jerusalem fell. There, the Jews held out against the invading Romans as long as they could. The story is based on the legend that only two women and four children (I think?) survived. Each of the four women who tell their story have come to the desert with a different background story, but together they befriend one another and struggle as one.
The four women are The Assassin’s Daughter, The Baker’s Wife, The Warrior’s Beloved and The Witch of Moab. Each one has a very different personal story that intersects with the other characters once they explain how they came to be in the Masada desert. I enjoyed each part, some more than others, and I found they all have really interesting back stories and all come across morally complex situations.
However, I found all the first-person perspectives very, very similar. I’m not sure if that’s just because of the writing style, but all four of the women just seem to have basically the same personality. Granted, they are all feeling quite tortured and beaten down on, but at the same time, it was really hard to pick them apart. Point-in-case: when I was reading the final chapter, the epilogue let’s call it, and I couldn’t tell whose voice I was reading it in, not until I read the part where she was talking about her brother or son or whatever, and I figured it out from there.
Like I said, it may have been the writing style, which was okay, but somehow doesn’t seem to be able to evoke much emotion. I guess this is why I had a rather difficult time feeling particularly sympathetic to any of the characters. It was easy to find them interesting and fascinating, but a little harder to feel something for them when the writing style feels like it’s simply … reporting? Probably not the right word, but maybe you get what I’m trying to get across. The fact that there was next to no dialogue probably contributed to this lack of emotional feeling as well.
However, I really did like the actual story. 70 CE is not a time period I am familiar with at all, haha, and I feel like I learned a lot. From what I hear, it’s a little unusual to hear about the life of every day women from the ancient period, in fiction and non-fiction, so this book definitely tries to give a voice to those who usually aren’t heard. You can also tell the author did tons and tons of research in order to write this novel, and I seriously applaud her effort. I mean, I can’t verify how accurate to history this work of fiction is since I’m no historian, but from my everyday-person perspective, it seems like the author worked quite hard to make the story as authentic as possible.
To summarize, I enjoyed the book but it wasn’t as gripping as I would have liked it to be. Something about the writing or characters or something just lacked the emotion and intensity I would have thought a survival story such as this would include. If you are interested in historical fiction, I do recommend you check this out! It is certainly worth a read, and many other people praise this book highly, so if you think this interests you, give it a go.
(This review originally posted at http://skyink.net)
While I’m not crazy in love with this book now that I have finished reading it, I do think it was a pleasant experience and it was quite nice not reading about teenagers falling in love as I usually do (I read too much YA, probably), for a change. The Dovekeepers is split into 4 parts each narrated by a different woman (all of the women know one another and are characters in each others’ narratives). It is about their struggles during 70 CE when 900 Jews banded together in Masada, a Judean desert, after their temple in Jerusalem fell. There, the Jews held out against the invading Romans as long as they could. The story is based on the legend that only two women and four children (I think?) survived. Each of the four women who tell their story have come to the desert with a different background story, but together they befriend one another and struggle as one.
The four women are The Assassin’s Daughter, The Baker’s Wife, The Warrior’s Beloved and The Witch of Moab. Each one has a very different personal story that intersects with the other characters once they explain how they came to be in the Masada desert. I enjoyed each part, some more than others, and I found they all have really interesting back stories and all come across morally complex situations.
However, I found all the first-person perspectives very, very similar. I’m not sure if that’s just because of the writing style, but all four of the women just seem to have basically the same personality. Granted, they are all feeling quite tortured and beaten down on, but at the same time, it was really hard to pick them apart. Point-in-case: when I was reading the final chapter, the epilogue let’s call it, and I couldn’t tell whose voice I was reading it in, not until I read the part where she was talking about her brother or son or whatever, and I figured it out from there.
Like I said, it may have been the writing style, which was okay, but somehow doesn’t seem to be able to evoke much emotion. I guess this is why I had a rather difficult time feeling particularly sympathetic to any of the characters. It was easy to find them interesting and fascinating, but a little harder to feel something for them when the writing style feels like it’s simply … reporting? Probably not the right word, but maybe you get what I’m trying to get across. The fact that there was next to no dialogue probably contributed to this lack of emotional feeling as well.
However, I really did like the actual story. 70 CE is not a time period I am familiar with at all, haha, and I feel like I learned a lot. From what I hear, it’s a little unusual to hear about the life of every day women from the ancient period, in fiction and non-fiction, so this book definitely tries to give a voice to those who usually aren’t heard. You can also tell the author did tons and tons of research in order to write this novel, and I seriously applaud her effort. I mean, I can’t verify how accurate to history this work of fiction is since I’m no historian, but from my everyday-person perspective, it seems like the author worked quite hard to make the story as authentic as possible.
To summarize, I enjoyed the book but it wasn’t as gripping as I would have liked it to be. Something about the writing or characters or something just lacked the emotion and intensity I would have thought a survival story such as this would include. If you are interested in historical fiction, I do recommend you check this out! It is certainly worth a read, and many other people praise this book highly, so if you think this interests you, give it a go.
(This review originally posted at http://skyink.net)