This original book review was written by and posted on behalf of Vijaya Gollamudi.
This is an inspiring work of Biblical fiction about a young Jewish woman, plucked from obscurity and thrust on a perilous journey, only to witness the world’s most life-changing story.
Some of us, who are familiar with Janette Oke works, may find she is leaping into a nontraditional story. In her notes at the end of the book, she notes readers who expected a plot climax may find the story lacking in this book. Oke concludes “the climax of God’s great plan is… still in the future.”
Like most young women in ancient Israel, Mary, our main character has little control over her own destiny. A wising Pharisee notices Mary’s beauty in the market and pays an exorbitant price to Mary’s family to help them escape abject poverty. When Mary enters training to become the proper Pharisee’s wife, it is as though she has been abandoned in a foreign land, where one misstep could cost her greatly. This feeling only deepens when she discovers the Pharisee is all she feared he might be, treating her merely as a prize he has won―and worse.
Then rumors of a miracle-working, traveling Prophet change everything. Mary and Pharisee are swept up in events that will challenge all they hold dear and forever alter both their futures.
The book is largely a narrative summary covering decades in time. Children are born, grow up, and have their own children. Parents wither and pass away. The plot thins to dust and spreads as if blown by the wind in Mary’s desert landscape. The effect of Oke’s writing suggests vastness not only throughout Mary’s life, but also in the centuries that follow. In this regard, Oke, succeeds in pushing forward the story’s ultimate climax into our future.
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