For all of my snark on religion in books and film, I genuinely enjoy portrayals of biblical women, and I still count The Red Tent as one of my favorite books.Lilah, though, was a challenge for me. The whole book felt like three strange short stories that were spliced together to form one sliver of a novel.The first part centers on Lilah, a Jewess, after her lover, Antinoes, a Persian warrior, returns from war. Their reunion is a passionate one, with Antinoes going on and on about how angry he was at all the beautiful women he encountered because they were not Lilah, and how he has already started the process of preparing for their wedding.I really felt for these two in their struggle to be together, and in a sense the relationship is the only part of the novel that pulls the three sections together.Continually the story mentions the back story about how Lilah, her brother Ezra, and Antinoes grew up together, and how as children they were inseparable. I was never clear on why Ezra and Antinoes came to blows. I understand that Ezra's "religious self" is his only self, but there wasn't an adequate bridge between Antinoes as his brother and Antinoes as his enemy.The middle part of the story focused on Lilah being summand by the queen for a heavy dose of humiliation while the queen tries to seduce Antinoes herself.I also didn't find it believable that Lilah would give up her life with Antinoes o follow Ezra to Jerusalem. Ezra as a character was never fully explored for me - was he merely a zealot or was he truly insane?In the third part, Lilah writes Antinoes an endless letter detailing e their journey to Jerusalem, and going into detail about how Ezra expels all the Jews (that traveled all this way with him) who are unclean. Lilah, believing this is wrong, goes with them. She goes on to detail rape and murder, and then in the epilogue Ezra leans that she is dead (I'm presuming after she's been sexually assaulted) and the exiles revere her as a savior.Too many wholes, not enough cohesive storytelling. This could have been something I loved, but I just didn't.
this story is one that will stick with you, making you question things of love, loyalty, family, tolerance. i'd actually never heard of lilah before and the only reason i even picked the book up is because it is the final chapter to marek halter's women of canaan series. but i'm thoroughly glad that i did.i love diving headfirst into past cultures and this depiction of the persian empire made me want to learn more. i'm glad that there was a balance of multi-dimensioned persian characters along with the jews. i was also impressed with lilah's strength as well as the depth of her convictions.my main issue was the way the book was written. it is split in 2 parts: the first is the back story of how through lilah, ezra was able to bring the children of israel back to jerusalem. the second is written in letter/diary-form from lilah's perspective. and like book 2 of this series (zipporah: the wife of moses), the ending was utterly abrupt. of course i had hopes of what the ending could be, but halter stays true to his research.
Do You like book Lilah (2007)?
"Lilah is the final book in the Canaan Trilogy by Marek Halter and though it is a good book on its own, it probably will not be good compared to the other books in the series. Halter decided to write a trilogy in which are based off of women who are very important in the Bible but not so prominent like Ruth or Esther. These women are strong and play a vital role in the prominent person they represent and Halter wrote these novels as their side of the story.With Lilah, the story is pretty strong on plot but delivery was way too rushed in my opinion. There was enough build-up but not enough detailing for a detailed story. It goes from the basics of Lilah's life to the beginnings of Ezra's purpose who is her brother. The constant struggle between Lilah's love for the man she loves named Antinoes and the brotherly love she has for Ezra is the driving theme but a theme that is taken a little too much upon with basics thus why some people were easily disappointed with this novel on that behalf.My favorite part of the novel is easily going to be the very end where Lilah is writing on a scroll to Antinoes of what is going on in her life and this part has the most depth and human relevance compared to the entire story. I felt like I was really there more than anything else at this part. All in all, this story is a good story on its own but as a conclusion to the Canaan Trilogy, it probably should have been first but I understand why Halter went the way he did since in series of the trilogy, he went from oldest to newest. The events in Sarah happened first, then Zipporah, then Lilah. I recommend a rental from the library before purchasing unless you have the entire trilogy and want to complete it like I did."
—Alpha
DisappointingI was disappointed in this book. I read Sarah, and thought it was great. Zipporah was almost as good....this was not nearly as good. If you have read the other 2, you will probably want to read this, but if not....don't bother. The story is loosely based on the book of Ezra. I'm not sure Lilah is actually mentioned in the Bible, and I can't find her. The book started out very slowly, got interesting enough to continue about halfway through, but had a sudden and horrible ending. Very unsatisfactory! If this were submitted for a writing class and I was the instructor, I'd be handing it back with big red marks saying, "please try again Marek, I KNOW you can do better!"
—kim
What an interesting story based on some of the charactes in the Book of Ezra, I don't know if he had a sister but the story line with the most impact for me was when this sister Lilah followed the women who were banned from Jerusalam along with their children who were married to Jewish men. They were left to take care of themselves without resources which was available to the at first by their husbands and friends and then that stopped putting them at the mercy of men outside of the safety of their husbands. I loved how the women, men and others paid their respect at the death of Lilah which I think was the best part of the story.
—Laura
