Eve: A Novel of the First Woman
by Elissa Elliott
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Book Summary Information
Author: Elissa ElliottEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-01-27
ISBN: 038534144X
Number of pages: 432
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Book Reviews of Eve: A Novel of the First Woman
Book Review: The Wondrous Song of the Garden
Summary: 5 Stars
"She sweats, she worries, she prays, she keens, she kneels, she questions, she protects, she argues, she cries, she creates, she talks, she sees, she touches, she listens, she loves, she repents, she remembers.
"After all, she is a mother."
So says Eve, the legendary mother of mankind, the legendary mother of the earth, so eloquently and yet so simply in Elissa Elliott's Eve: A Novel of the First Woman. In Elliott's magnificent achievement, Eve embodies all of motherhood, feeling the feelings, worrying the worries, asking the questions, finding the answers that all mothers must surely have had since that time in the Garden. For most of the novel, Eve is pregnant. This is a powerful image, for we see a woman struggling with how to raise her existing children while we know that another is just over the horizon, waiting to complicate things, yet populate the world.
Eve: A Novel of the First Woman tells a story that most of us probably think we already knew. The Garden of Eden myth is a staple of Judeo/Christian teachings. But this author embellishes, inventing a story lush with character and plot, based on copious research. The bare bones are there: Adam and Eve eat of the forbidden fruit, God casts them out of the Garden, their son Cain slays his brother Abel. But in Elliott's re-imagining of the myth, we meet a family--father, mother, their three sons, their three daughters--and a host of other characters, inhabitants of a nearby city, most likely a Sumerian one, who worship stone gods and cause much conflict in this tale of a mother desperately trying to regain her faith and thus redeem her family.
I suspect that there are few people versed in Western ways who haven't heard the Garden of Eden story. So we begin the novel already knowing that Cain will kill his brother Abel. It is never a secret in Elliott's story. But her skill as a writer is such that we, as readers, grow to love and admire Abel so much that his eventual murder by his brother is almost a surprise, both horrific and heartrending. We see Abel's love story unfolding, and we long for him to live and complete that story. Instead, the inevitable happens, and we are immensely saddened. We want to cry out, "God? Why did you let this happen? Why don't you care?" But then, our questions are answered so eloquently in the words of Eve's daughter Aya:
"I think, rather, that HE does care.
"But He is helpless to intervene, since we have insisted that we want to live life on our own terms."
Adam and Eve eat of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and that knowledge gives them the eyes to see their sons, Cain and Abel, the embodiment of good and evil. But it also gives them the ability to cope, to accept life. In the Garden, they are protected by their God; He desperately wants to keep them from seeing the world as it is. But they choose to eat, and in that eating, they consume the knowledge that God loves and protects, but they must make the right choices, give Him the opportunity to be there for them.
Rich characterization and plot are not the only thing this book has to offer. Elliott's prose is almost poetry. Her language is gentle and beautiful. Told in alternating chapters by Eve and her three daughters, the voice of each is exquisite. Each word is chosen for its power, its imagery, its specificity. Phrases such as "hugged the huge trees of Abel's legs" and "his kisses were as flower petals, his touch as shade and water" insinuate themselves into the narrative, painting lovely pictures that strengthen and adorn, never intruding. They glide along on the story, making for a glorious journey into the world of a woman whom generations have accepted as Adam's rib, perhaps never truly realizing, as Elliott has, that Eve was flesh and blood and had the same longings and trials that we all experience.
And just where did this Eve in Elliott's novel come from? In her Afterward, the author goes into great detail about the research she did for her book. We see into the creative process. It is a sight that we, as readers, rarely are invited to take. Elliott based her decisions on careful study of numerous readings. She tells us that she rarely made a decision about her characters' actions, her plot's points without careful consideration of what scholars before her had said, had determined, had decided. This makes for a mesmerizing story, one that, when finished, is so credible that it is hard to accept that Elliott began with only those aforementioned bare bones.
To read Eve: A Novel of the First Woman is to hear God. Elliott's conclusions may not set well with strict constructionists. Fundamentalists may rant and rail that she has it all wrong, that she has blasphemed by tinkering with sacred texts. But God permeates this book, whether God is an all-seeing, all-knowing super being, as some believe, or whether He (She?) is a feeling, a spirit, that dwells deep inside of each human, guiding us, protecting us. No matter our beliefs, if we listen, we can hear Him always singing, singing the Song of the Garden.
Summary of Eve: A Novel of the First Woman
It is the world?s oldest tale: the story of Eve, her husband, Adam, and the tragedy that would overcome her sons?. In this luminous debut novel, Elissa Elliott puts a powerful twist on biblical narrative, boldly reimagining Eve?s journey. At once intimate and universal, timely and timeless, this unique work of fiction blends biblical tradition with recorded history and dazzling storytelling. And as it does, Eve comes to life in a way religion and myth have never allowed?in a novel that explores the very essence of love, motherhood, faith, and humanity.In their world they are alone?a family haunted by banishment, struggling for survival in a harsh new land. A woman who has borne and buried children, Eve sees danger shadowing those she loves, while her husband drifts further and further from the man he was in the Garden, blinded by his need to rebuild a life outside of Eden. One daughter, alluring, self-absorbed Naava, turns away from their beliefs. Another, crippled, ever-faithful Aya, harbors a fateful secret, while brothers Cain and Abel become adversaries, and Dara, the youngest, is chosen for a fate of her own.
In one hot, violent summer, by the shores of the muddy Euphrates, strangers arrive on their land. New gods challenge their own. And for Eve, a time of reckoning is at hand. The woman who once tasted the forbidden fruit of paradise sees her family unraveling?as brother turns on brother, culminating in a confrontation that will have far-reaching consequences for them all.
From a woman?s first awakening to a mother?s innermost hopes and fears, from moments of exquisite tenderness to a climax of shocking violence, Eve takes us on a breathtaking journey of the imagination. A novel that has it all?romantic love, lust, cruelty, heroism, envy, sacrifice, murder?Eve is a work of mesmerizing literary invention by a singular new voice in fiction.
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