About book Hadassah: One Night With The King (2005)
I will say upfront that the truth is: I enjoyed reading this book. At the same time however I also felt an unexplained sense of discomfort. I honestly did not know at the time what was causing that discomfort. I believe I do understand that feeling now. I think that other Christians need to view the book as a piece of fiction in the category of a “gripping action-adventure story” rather than as Christian literature. If you do this, it can be an interesting read in the same way that others in that genre have merit. However, because this book happens to follow the outline of the book about Esther in the Bible, you need to be on guard against considering it Christian literature. To be entirely fair to the book and its author, I think the book does convey two truths in common with the book of Esther in the Bible. One truth is that disobeying God’s direction may not result in immediate retribution, but God does not take disobedience lightly. The second truth is that many of our life events (those that we do not understand when they are happening) turn out to be ones that God uses to serve His purposes. This is not to say I think God causes them – instead I believe God uses them. As is my custom, I read several reviews after I completed the novel. I do this to see how close or how far my opinion falls from others who have read it. I noticed two things in the reviews:a.t One thing was that many people considered the beginning and ending narratives (which are set in the present day) as an asset to the book. I disagree. To me those narratives detracted from the real story and seemed very unrealistic and contrived. In fact, I almost did not get to Chapter 2 because Chapter 1 seemed so bizarre. b.tThe second thing was that many people were alarmed because of the ways the book both deviated from the circumstances set forth in the story about Esther in the Bible and included modern day expressions and circumstances in it even though Tommy Tenney is said to have done outstanding research into the biblical history. Having read the book as a means of gaining insights into the bible story, they downgraded it because of this.I should add at this point that the nucleus of the story concerns a young Jewish girl who lived in Syria about 500 years before Christ was born. After the queen of Persia dies, a search for an appropriate new queen is conducted. Hadassah (aka Esther) is the young Jewish girl. The book has been a best seller and a movie based upon the life of Esther as imagined in this book was produced. Because of the tone of some of the reviews that I discovered after reading the book, I became very curious about the author and the story behind this book. So I decided to do some additional searching on the web about the book and its author. I found out more about the collaboration of the two men. The man given as the lead author, Tommy Tenney, served as a pastor of a Pentecostal church in Houston for about 10 years and then (after writing a book named The God Chasers) became an itinerant pastor available for revivals, etc. He suggests nontraditional avenues for developing an intimate relationship with God. One method to come close to God is to shelve your Bible because it is outdated. One reviewer of the book said: “In this book Mr. Tenney refers to the New Testament as ‘dusty old stories’ and refers to the epistles as ‘old love letters.’ Maybe Mr. Tenney skipped over Hebrews 4:12, which says ‘The word of God is living and active...’ This book is modern heresy.” I read that Tenney prepared the outline for the book but felt unqualified to fill in the dialogue so he called in a collaborator who was a seasoned author. I also read that Tenney’s books have been banned in several Christian book stores, however, I found them listed for sale by sellers which are identified as “Christian Book Stores.”I tried to find a documented explanation of Tenney’s theology but after searching for hours could not find one. I did find an interview in which it is said that Tenney appears reluctant to produce a succinct explanation of his beliefs.
This was a wonderful retelling of the story of Esther from the Bible, one I finally could really understand. This fictional book was not cheapened, not changed, not altered in any way, but included additional of the details so that we can understand them in today's terms. I felt this book was written very well, and the story truly is very amazing and I could really related to Esther, finally!I enjoyed this story immensely, as I often enjoy reading fictional Bible stories. They are brought to life for me much better this way, written into a (fictional yet accurate) novel, than when reading them from the Bible. In the Bible, you are not going to get the everyday details like cooking dinner, preparing for a festival, going to market everyday, etc., etc. From the Bible, it's pretty cut and dry, and yes, I hate to say this, but boring!I guess a better way to explain it, for myself, is like watching a play of the Bible scene acted out. I just truly enjoy it, and I understand it much better. There are props, people are speaking in today's terms, etc. I really do wish there were more books written like this, but with the addition of Independent Authors, I have noticed more have being written, which I will be reading.I had talked to an author once who had written a fictional Bible story, and she had about 50/50 acceptance, yet the book was a best seller. She explained some people were appalled that a person would take a story from the Bible and turn it into a work of fiction. (Defaming the Bible stories.) What people don't understand is are the facts remain the same, it's just the details of everyday life from that time are added, as we know them, as I explained above, which are much more relatable to today's times.Esther is not Jewish, but her Uncle has plans for her, right down to changing her name at a young age to a Jewish name. He feels she will be the type of woman (Jewish or not) who can change things for all people in the future in a fair way, if she is chosen as queen, or at least he can only help but to hope she will be the one chosen as the queen for the king. The huge thing is they must NOT allow anyone to know she is not Jewish. (It sure seems that Jewish and Christian people ALL throughout history at different times have had to hide their religion, or so it sure seems like. It is either hide it, join it, or be killed. I am truly grateful to be alive at this point in time!)This book is written is such detail. It's the little things that make all the difference in the retelling of this story. Things such as dishes, pots and pans, the laundry. It was really neat to read about these minor details and how they were done back then. You could really put yourself into this era.The really neat part, I thought, was the grooming and preparation of Esther to meet with the King. This part is not gone into detail in the Bible, yet it did happen.Once Esther does meet the king, it truly IS love that binds them together.After the King passes, Esther is able to run the country in favor for the Jews and the regular people as well, while not favoring either, yet being 'a fair queen', all the while, still no one knows she is not Jewish, nor does it matter.This truly is an amazing story, which I don't think we can truly understand all of it from the Bible story.This was a book I had chosen to read on my own.
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Esther Queen of Persia, is my favorite women to read book from the bible. This book makes me think of Cinderella. Esther has so much courage. She's a believer in God. She lead herself by her heart and her faith in a way that threatened her very life and yet saved all of her people. The story really draws you in and the book leaves you with a deeper understanding of just what a great risk Esther faced, her deep trust in God and her full reliance on Him in the most difficult time of her life. I ecommend reading this book if you want to learn more about Queen Esther. I have so many favorite part to this book. My first favorite part is when she never put herself out there like the others did. Next is when she walked up to the King knowing that her life was at risk. She could have been be headed just for going up there with out the King's okay. Esther is and will always be one of my favorite women in the bible. She had a lot of courage.
—Taisa Smith
Reading this novel (this is what I thought it was) posed many questions for me although the author was taking libety in descripting the life of Esther. One of the things which he touched on was her deep religious training and keeping it a secret durng that point in history was plausable since women in that era was to to what waS told and expected of them. Incorporating one of her childhood friends made me disappointed but at the same time pleased that she had someone she knew in the palace, but the walking around without an escort I feel was not at all with keeping with that current time, but is was enjoyable and easy to read. Not my ideal story about Esther but makes for a good read.
—Laura
This is a fictional retelling of the story of Queen Esther, with an opening and closing segment involving a modern day Jewish bride. Many of the historical details were wonderful, and the qualities Esther possessed that helped her endure and eventually save the Jews were well presented, but I felt there were too many liberties taken with the biblical story, even though it is clearly a fictional account. For example, the manner of Haman's death was hanging, not impaling, and although the swastika (then called a gammadion) was around during that period of time, it was not used as a symbol of hatred toward the Jews. The book was not sexually explicit, but there were points where graphic details of atrocities and punishments were given or hinted at that weren't really necessary; it was more than I enjoy reading about. I guess I personally expect Biblical fiction to flesh out the Bible story, not change important details. There were many sections of writing I enjoyed, and I am not upset I read it, but I'm not sure I would really recommend it to others.
—Barbara
