Lois T. HendersonCritiques

Donated by Mary Berner

Donated by Mary Berner

Pivotal in the life of the prophet Moses is his older sister in Miriam by author Lois T. Henderson.

Back when I was younger, I rather liked this older ChristFic book. Although I couldn't fully connect with its flow back then, I enjoyed it much as I would other stories that gave this historical/period fiction lover an engaging sense of another time and place.

Nowadays, I don't always enjoy biblical fiction as much as I once did. I used to take many Bible stories and details for granted, partly because I heard them so often. But now when I actually stop and give them deeper thought rather than just ingest them, they hit differently.

I'm no longer that comfortable as I read a story where the women are viewed and treated as subservient to men, and blatantly so. There's a difference between a narrative that presents such subservience as something up for serious questioning or a challenge, and a story like this one, where the subservience is written as either the proper way or pretty much "just the way it is" for the characters. And while it also wasn't my first time feeling a sense of tragedy concerning the legendary account of plagues sweeping through Egypt, it struck me in a new way to imagine a scenario with untold numbers of children, including babies, suffering the effects of divinely orchestrated disasters.

I won't go further into that here, but no. I don't take that kind of thing for granted anymore.

Also, it isn't as easy as it once was for me to read novels with unlikable protagonists. I realize Miriam's flaws are an intentional aspect of the plot, and through much of the story, she isn't presented as over the top. Still, aside from the fact that her changeful moods are sometimes difficult to follow, she's prideful, irritable, jealous, resentful, selfish, and racist. She gradually worsens until about the last ten pages of the book.

I think that being able to connect with lead characters, rather than merely reading about the interesting events in their lives, is more important to me now than it was in the past. I didn't connect with this story's heroine.

Even so, the novel's style has more of a natural feel than other older ChristFic books I've read. And I think it's worth it for me to revisit certain books to get a better sense of my overall, ongoing journey as a reader.

Miriam retells the profoundly moving story of Moses' older sister, whose instrumental role in the Exodus is only part of her destiny. Miriam's greatest struggle is within her own heart: her ultimate victory is a hard-won faith--strengthened in the crucible of the desert, tested by her own pride and arrogance, and ultimately affirmed by God's mercy and grace.

Story of the Egyptian slave of Sarah and Abraham and how she bore Ishmael and was later sent into the desert to die.

Priscilla and Aquila will experience love and untold challenges in marriage, and not only for matrimonial reasons. They'll join others in the forging of a new way of faith in a Roman world in Priscilla and Aquila, a novel by Lois T. Henderson and Harold Ivan Smith.

I've enjoyed other novels by the late Henderson about biblical figures, namely, Miriam, Ruth, and Abigail--whose stories are rather popular material for fictional retellings. I think it's safe to say that novels about Priscilla and Aquila are on the much rarer side, which may be what I appreciate most about this novel.

I also like how the man/woman and husband/wife relationships are not "copy and pasted" here: copied from the twentieth century the book was written in and pasted into 48-54 A.D. The characters don't just automatically "get" how to handle the gradual shifts in gender roles in the early Church, but both the men and the women have to grapple with new ideas.

The book became a bit dull to me at some points after Priscilla and Aquila's exit from Rome. It's as if the plot isn't quite sure what to do with itself at times. Upon the arrival of the apostle Paul and the telling of his story, Priscilla and Aquila (especially Aquila) seem to fade somewhat into the background. Aquila becomes a more minor figure toward the end, cutting his character development short. Paul essentially takes over the story's leading role opposite Priscilla.

This was Henderson's final novel. It's apparent that she passed before it was published, and maybe before she'd finished writing it, since this particular novel of hers has a co-author. This could be one explanation for the disjointed feel of the plot toward the end. The rather last-minute characters like Faltius and Demetrius didn't interest or evoke much feeling in me, as they show up when the novel is ready to wrap up.

Yet, all in all, it was an enjoyable read for me, one that other Biblical Fiction readers may think worthy of seeking out.

This is a short novel based on the life of the Biblical heroine Esther, written for the older children/teenage market.

The story is told very well, enlarging - naturally - on the Biblical account, and beginning with a scenario that gives a possible reason for Esther having been an orphan. We see her slowly maturing from a young, frightened girl into a competent, intelligent teenager, who is a natural choice when the King wants to meet a selection of young women for a potential bride.

Even knowing the basic story, I found the account fascinating and believable. The book is well-written and while much depends on the imagination of the author, it blends in very well with the Biblical narrative. Since it's intended for young teenagers (and was published nearly thirty years ago) it glosses entirely over the function of a harem - which is where Esther was first taken - but that doesn't detract at all from the story.

Long out of print, but worth a read by anyone who comes across it who's interested in teenage historical fiction.

I appreciated how the man/woman and husband/wife relationships were not "cut and pasted"--cut out of the 20th Century the book was written in and pasted into 48-54 A.D. The characters didn't just automatically "get" how to handle the gradual shifts in gender roles in the early Church, but both the men and the women had to grapple with new ideas. Priscilla and Aquila had to put some extra effort into making their marriage work as believers and ministers of the Gospel.

The book became a bit dull to me at some points after Priscilla and Aquila left Rome, like the plot wasn't quite sure what to do with itself at times. Upon the arrival of Paul and the telling of his story, Priscilla and Aquila (especially Aquila) seemed to fade somewhat into the background. Aquila became a more minor figure toward the end; his development as a character was cut short. I still saw him do and say some things, but what happened to the insight concerning what was taking place in his mind, how he was changing inwardly? Paul essentially seemed to take over the story's leading role opposite Priscilla.

This was Lois Henderson's final novel. It's apparent that she passed before it was published, and likely before she'd finished writing it, as Harold Ivan Smith is its co-author. This could be one explanation for the disjointed feel of the plot toward the end. The rather last-minute characters like Faltius and Demetrius didn't interest or evoke much feeling in me, as they showed up when the novel was ready to wrap up.

Yet, all in all, it was an enjoyable read for me, my fourth from Henderson.

I found this to be an enjoyable fleshing out of the biblical story.

A fictional story of Abigail who was betrothed to Nabal a rich fool who died of his own stupidity. She then was married to David while he was running from Saul. It is a great story that adds more, if it is just fictional, detailed and depth to the life of Abigail.