Biblical fiction

Today I finished Marek Halter's Sarah, the life story, told in the first person, of the Biblical Sarah/Sarai, wife of Abraham. Here are your stats:
Author: Marek Halter
Publisher:Crown Publishers
Date: either 2003 or 2004, I believe this translation was 2004
Originally Published in France with Robert Lafont
My start date: 1-17-10
My finish date: 1-21-10

I began my discussion of this book yesterday by introducing the topic of taking holy figures from religion and creating fictionalized accounts of their lives, making them more realistic or ordinary, if those are the right words. So, I will think along those lines first. As I mentioned, I have read many of this kind of work in the past, some great, some not, but all very interesting to me. Halter's book is one that I will probably categorize in the former category. Although, to the research I can find, several of the details of this fictional Sarai's life do not coordinate with those of the standard story (for example, according to wikipedia-which we all know is the great source of all things true ;-), the standard story of Sarah indicates that she was of the same family or at least tribe as Abraham, whereas this Sarah is nobility from a very different civilization) yet I was able to overlook that in the telling of the story. I couldn't put it down! Halter writes a very multi-dimensional Sarah who is her own leader and makes her own decisions. She is feisty, passionate, sometimes selfish, sometimes angry, but all together is makes for a very believable character. He focuses on the female experience of the time and, without being shy about it, discusses such issues as Sarah's experiences with menstration, marriage, surrogacy, and sex. This is all the more interesting to me, because throughout the book, you would never have believed it was a man writing this female perspective! Further, Halter somehow manages to describe a setting in the very, very distant past completely realistically. Bottom line: this book had the most important characteristic for me in a novel of any kind. It called for total submersion. I sank straight into the world of Sarai and Abram and only unwillingly could be dragged back out again. Put this on your must read list.
Ok, I am going to end it there for tonight.
Tomorrow (or maybe even tonight?) I start a new novel, Jamie Ford's debut novel, and one which takes place right here in sunny (haha, yeah, right) Seattle. Check back later to hear about On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.
Keep Reading!
Sarah