The Book of Ana

The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What better time to engage with the roots of Christian faith than the days before Easter, I thought. I could write five pages and do a weekend retreat on this book; it might engage you or enrage you—possibly both. I knew, with Kidd, I wasn’t going to get a fundamentalist approach; if you come from that background, like me, you’ll find plenty of triggers, in addition to a meticulously researched, brilliantly imagined adventure story.
It’s soon evident that The Book of Longings could be the title of a scroll found in a cave: Ana, the main character, is the privileged daughter of the head assistant of Herod Antipas. He’s allowed his daughter to read and write; she has all the skills of a scribe. She also has mystical experiences and a hunger for God. She becomes a woman at fourteen and loses her favored child status. She’s betrothed to a friend of her father, inspected in a public market. That horrible day, she has an encounter with Jesus. Their eyes meet across the crowd—you know how that part of the story goes. The Jesus that Ana encounters is a human Jesus, a carpenter and odd-jobber struggling to support his family after his father Joseph’s death. She doesn’t know if she’ll ever see him again, but it’s love at first sight. Ana has an older, adopted brother; his name is Judas, and he’s an agitator, a man fighting against Roman rule. Ana, Judas, and Jesus intersect, and Jesus does marry Ana. These are the years before the Baptist, before the dove.
The plot is contrived, but masterfully so. Many Bible parables are woven throughout this book, with the rest of Jesus’ story. It made me check my Nag Hammadi & encyclopedia of religious history, too.
Here are some of the themes: women in religion and history; spirit of the law and letter of the law; privilege and poverty; social justice versus status quo. In the relationship between Ana & Jesus there are echoes of Heloise & Abelard, Romeo & Juliet, Clare & Francis, Martha & Mary.
In the end, the most shocking thing about this book is that it is the book of Ana, and not the book of Jesus. Nevertheless, it was a good preparation for Easter, for it celebrates the ever-present God of Love and Wisdom.

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