492. The Book of Longings
Rating: ☆☆☆1/2
Recommended by:
Author: Sue Monk Kidd
Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Theology, Christian
416 pages, published April 21, 2020
Reading Format: Book
Summary
The Book of Longings is a new take on the story of Jesus Christ. It is told from the perspective of Ana who was raised in a wealthy family in Sepphoris with ties to the ruler of Galilee. Ana longs to be a writer and rebels against the stifling expectations and oppression of her family and culture. Author Sue Monk Kidd engages in poetic license and has Ana marrying Jesus and then making her home with his brothers, James and Simon, and their mother, Mary. Ana and Jesus are separated for several years and are reunited just before the crucifixion. Ana then carries on, chronicling Jesus’ story and reaching her potential in a small artists’ colony.
Quotes
“When I tell you all shall be well, I don’t mean that life won’t bring you tragedy. Life will be life. I only mean you will be well in spite of it. All shall be well, no matter what.”
“Anger is effortless. Kindness is hard. Try to exert yourself.”
“Lord our God, hear my prayer, the prayer of my heart. Bless the largeness inside me, no matter how I fear it. Bless my reed pens and my inks. Bless the words I write. May they be beautiful in your sight. May they be visible to eyes not yet born. When I am dust, sing these words over my bones: she was a voice.”
“Each of us must find a way to love the world. You have found yours.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Book of Longings
“Why should we contain God any longer in our poor and narrow conceptions, which are so often no more than grandiose reflections of ourselves? Let us set him free.”
“Your moment will come because you’ll make it come.”
“It does the world no good to return evil for evil. I try now to return good to them instead.”
“Your moment will come, and when it does, you must seize it with all the bravery you can find.”
“Life will be life and death will be death.”
“Her mind was an immense feral country that spilled its borders.”
“Bless the largeness inside me, no matter how I fear it.”
“You think with your head. You know with your heart.”
“I went to stand beside him and looked in the same direction as he, and it seemed for an instant I saw the world as he did, orphaned and broken and staggeringly beautiful, a thing to be held and put back right.”
“It’s always a marvel when one’s pain doesn’t settle into bitterness, but brings forth kindness instead.”
“When I was finally able to read the Scriptures for myself, I discovered (behold!) there were women.”
My Take
I had previously read Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees and The Invention of Wings and enjoyed both books, so I was interested in her latest effort. It’s a good book, not a great one. Kidd offers a unique perspective on Christianity by imagining Jesus with a wife, but does seem to be accurate with a lot of the other historical details in her story. Her main character Ana provides an compelling portal to view the life, death and resurrection Jesus.
