Patricia Curtis Pfitsch

Who wrote the first books of the Bible? Why were they written? What if…the author was a woman? Provocative questions, but ones that are handled beautifully in this stunning book by Patricia Pfitsch.

Judith is a storyteller. She is also the daughter of a priest of Solomon and the sister of a priest in training. Unfortunately, she is also a woman. And women are as good as slaves. Judith longs for her father’s gaze to rest on her with pride, but she is always passed over in favor of her brother Seth, a gambler and a drunk. She cannot understand how Yahweh can overlook her gifts and keep her entrapped in the narrow role for which she is destined. Tamar, slave and friend to Judith, introduces her to the goddess Asherah, in whose temple Judith feels powerful and at home. Goddess-worshiping, however, is outlawed by Solomon and Tamar and Judith find themselves in horrible danger. Judith is spared by her father, but Tamar is murdered by Solomon’s soldiers and priests. The aftermath of the scene splits Judith’s family apart and drivers her further away from Yahweh, until she is approached by her cousin Samuel. Samuel, also a priest-in-training (and more…), appreciates Judith’s strong character and her ability to tell stories. He wants her to write the stories of Yahweh to bind the people together in the face of coming destruction. Judith accepts the challenge and uses it as a way to show the roles of women in the stories. She recognizes that sometimes the best way to change things is gradually, and from the inside out. By writing about the women, everyone will hear and know their strength.

For anyone woman who’s had a Judeo-Christian upbringing, this book is astonishing. The speculation that women had a much larger role in the early days of the religion is one that has cropped in a variety of books, but none have addressed the issue in a first person narrative like Pfitsch. The writing is fluid, the imagery profound. Read this.… (lisätietoja)

This is a beautiful book that I first read 6/7 years ago, and I have loved it ever since.

Francie lives in a logging town situated by a large forest of sequoia trees which are rapidly being cut down for lumber. Her father runs a hotel that prospers due to the logging, and is all for it. Francie is not as enthusiastic as her father, but there is nothing she can do. She is busy helping at the hotel and counting the tree rings on a dead sequoia for a man who is writing a newspaper article to try to make people see how bad it is to cut down the trees. But Francie also has a ghost to live with - a memory of her older sister Carrie, the headstrong, adventurous girl who died years before in a land slide up on the mountain. As the years have passed Francie has grown to resemble Carrie a great deal, much to the sorrow of her parents. In little things like wearing her hair differently she tries to mask the resemblance, but she knows that every time they look at her, they see her more vibrant, more alive sister - the one she thinks more deserved to live.
This is a touching, sad story about a girl finding her own place in a world that will always remember her vibrant sister, and about learning to step up to the plate and speak your mind about things. Because when Francie and her cousin (Carrie's best friend) find a note Carrie wrote before her death, they uncover a secret - a beautiful tree, a king of the forest, that Carrie claims belonged to her. And the loggers will do anything to bring it down.

Although the actual flume riding is a very small portion of the book, I can't think of any title that would fit this book better. Parents, this book has nothing bad in it whatsoever, except for dealing with Francie and her family's very real pain, and the horror they feel from Carrie's accident. It is not gruesome, it is not vulgar, there is absolutely no romance, and it even mixes in some very real history that makes you want to google the real sequoias! I read it at seven, and absolutely adored it. Of course, don't take this to mean older people won't like it! I started reading very young, and as I get older I discover more layers to the books I read when I was younger, things I skipped as a little girl. This is a wonderful book that will make you cry, and will leave you with a great feeling of finality and triumph.

This review is also on my blog, Read Till Dawn.… (lisätietoja)

The book was well-plotted, suspenseful, and to me it seemed true to family and social attitudes of the time it presents. The description of the harrowing ride down the logging flume is well written and well-researched. However, perhaps the writer laid too much emphasis on the danger of this particular flume, which we are told repeatedly had been ridden successfully by only two men, killing other daredevils. I was left wondering why a flume boat would be built and left conveniently close at hand on such a hazardous structure. "On occasion" (says Wikipedia), "despite being exceedingly dangerous, flume herders and others would ride down the flume in small crafts or boats, either for inspection or for thrills." I found reference elsewhere to lumbermen who used their local flumes as a quick route to the bright lights of town at the end of the work week. On such a flume one might expect to find a handy boat. Maybe I read too fast and missed something. With its nailbiting suspense and plot twists, this is certainly a book that invites and encourages fast reading.… (lisätietoja)