Contrived and unconvincing
By Sarah Fay |
November 4, 2011, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
YOU could call it a hoopla sandwich. On the back cover, a blurb from a famous, widely respected author describing the novel as "a major contribution to 21st-century literature." On the jacket flap, a publisher's summary proclaiming this book to be the writer's "masterpiece." Yet in between, instead of a gripping work of fiction that lives up to this praise, is a long novel full of middling descriptions, hackneyed characters and histrionic plot twists.
The novel is Alice Hoffman's latest book, "The Dovekeepers," which attempts to retell the story of the Jewish resistance during the Roman siege of Masada in the first century. The only account we have of the actual event is "The Jewish War," written around that time by Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian who became a Roman citizen. Josephus gives an account of his own experiences, first fighting for the Jewish struggle and then as an emissary for the Roman Empire.
Some scholars have faulted Josephus' account, accusing him of fictional embroidery and sensationalism. Archaeological findings suggest that he may have fabricated, for literary effect, the mass suicide that supposedly ended the siege, and he does seem to pay excessive attention to the barbarous use of weaponry on both sides. Hoffman's fictional rendering also relies on amplification, yet it fails to illuminate and enrich our understanding of historical events.
"The Dovekeepers" details the interactions of six women: Shirah, the Witch of Moab, and her two daughters, Aziza and Nahara; Yael, the daughter of a ruthless political assassin; Revka, whose husband has been killed and daughter brutalized by the Romans; and Channa, the reclusive, barren wife of a character based on the real-life leader of the Jewish rebels. Five of these women have worked tending to Masada's dovecotes, forming a small community.
Different characters supposedly narrate the novel's various sections, yet all these voices consistently wallow in the same sort of hyperbole and forced metaphor. Yael's lover kisses her "everywhere" and rivets her attention "like bee stings." Revka sees the doves turning "the entire sky white" and claims that "not a brick would remain" of the town she fled before coming to Masada. Wind goes "through" Yael until she is left in "emptiness."
The abundance of overstatement and clumsy description minimizes the impact of actual dramatic events. When the women take lovers, steal babies, cast spells, their actions feel contrived. Although, toward the end of the novel, one of the characters explains the uniformity of expression by declaring that she is passing on the stories of those who did not survive, this seems equally unconvincing.
In her acknowledgments, Hoffman reminds us that she is neither a historian nor a religious scholar and declares that the novel is meant to "give voice" to the women who participated in the Jewish struggle, whose stories "have often gone unwritten." I have no doubt that "The Dovekeepers" was conceived as a worthy project, but good research and good intentions don't necessarily yield good novels.
The novel is Alice Hoffman's latest book, "The Dovekeepers," which attempts to retell the story of the Jewish resistance during the Roman siege of Masada in the first century. The only account we have of the actual event is "The Jewish War," written around that time by Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian who became a Roman citizen. Josephus gives an account of his own experiences, first fighting for the Jewish struggle and then as an emissary for the Roman Empire.
Some scholars have faulted Josephus' account, accusing him of fictional embroidery and sensationalism. Archaeological findings suggest that he may have fabricated, for literary effect, the mass suicide that supposedly ended the siege, and he does seem to pay excessive attention to the barbarous use of weaponry on both sides. Hoffman's fictional rendering also relies on amplification, yet it fails to illuminate and enrich our understanding of historical events.
"The Dovekeepers" details the interactions of six women: Shirah, the Witch of Moab, and her two daughters, Aziza and Nahara; Yael, the daughter of a ruthless political assassin; Revka, whose husband has been killed and daughter brutalized by the Romans; and Channa, the reclusive, barren wife of a character based on the real-life leader of the Jewish rebels. Five of these women have worked tending to Masada's dovecotes, forming a small community.
Different characters supposedly narrate the novel's various sections, yet all these voices consistently wallow in the same sort of hyperbole and forced metaphor. Yael's lover kisses her "everywhere" and rivets her attention "like bee stings." Revka sees the doves turning "the entire sky white" and claims that "not a brick would remain" of the town she fled before coming to Masada. Wind goes "through" Yael until she is left in "emptiness."
The abundance of overstatement and clumsy description minimizes the impact of actual dramatic events. When the women take lovers, steal babies, cast spells, their actions feel contrived. Although, toward the end of the novel, one of the characters explains the uniformity of expression by declaring that she is passing on the stories of those who did not survive, this seems equally unconvincing.
In her acknowledgments, Hoffman reminds us that she is neither a historian nor a religious scholar and declares that the novel is meant to "give voice" to the women who participated in the Jewish struggle, whose stories "have often gone unwritten." I have no doubt that "The Dovekeepers" was conceived as a worthy project, but good research and good intentions don't necessarily yield good novels.
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