The Book of Lilith [Paperback]

Robert G. Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 31, 2007

The Book of Lilith tells the story of Lilith, who was really the first woman created by God, and who just happened to have been created before Adam. Her job is to give all the things in the world souls, while Adam's is to create rules and law out of chaos

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Lulu.com (July 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430322454
• ISBN-13: 978-1430322450
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #835,484 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Author Review, August 27, 2007

By 

Robert G. Brown "rgb" (Duke University Physics Department) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Book of Lilith (Paperback)

The Book of Lilith is a work of serious fiction. You should find
it entertaining, and it should make you think. The general category for
the work is magical realism, or perhaps satiric fantasy in the spirit of
Barth's Chimera. It is a story set in a pseudo-academic framing
story involving the supposed discovery of lost scrolls in war-torn Iraq
by a somewhat mysterious maiden.

These scrolls, when translated, turn out to be the oldest written
documents ever discovered, the first person story of Lilith
herself. Although the frame is of course just part of the story
(and yet told realistically enough that it fooled at least one early
reader into asking the author "so where are the real scrolls") the story
itself is carefully researched and spans four cultures from the
early Bronze or late Stone age. Lilith takes the reader with her
as the crazy course of her life ensouled carries her from its beginnings
in a magical Eden located in ancient Sumeria to Sidon in early
Phoenicia, to Mohenjo Daro and the Harrapan civilization, and finally to
a wicked and corrupt India in the years immediately preceding the
violent cleansing portrayed in the Mahabharata. It is lovingly
derived from many scholarly and historical works and epics, including
The Book of Genesis, the Epic of Gilgamesh, the
Upanishads, the Alphabet of Ben-Sirra, the Dead Sea
Scrolls and more.

Note well that the Lilith portrayed is not the "goddess"
worshipped by various cults, nor is she the she-demon portrayed
by various patriarchal writings. She is a real person -- the first,
untamed wife of Adam, with a surprising relationship with the more
submissive Eve. In fact, she is the first real person gifted
with a soul by God, and it is her appointed task to bring the gift of
Soul to all things in Creation (beginning with Adam) by means of her
love, just as it is Adam's task to bring about the rule of Law and hence
begin the process of evolving a just and ethical society. Lilith enjoys
both preternatural knowledge and a personal relationship -- one
that involves sharing sushi and shopping trips to early bazaars - with
Goddess in the metaphor of Inanna (given that any human
representation of God is at heart an anthropomorphic projection of a
genderless state of Perfect Knowledge and Perfect Being).

Many themes (some of them somewhat disturbing or even shocking, be
warned) are woven into the story. Lilith is in turn an eager young
bride in love, a young mother coping with what turns out to be a
possessive, insecure, and slovenly husband, a beaten and raped wife who
prefers to work as a harlot to feed herself and her children rather than
ever again be "owned" by any man, a miracle worker beloved by God and
granted the power to heal the sick or punish the wicked, a penetrating
judge who can plumb the depths of the darkest heart and consign its
possessor to freedom or a horrible death, and (throughout) a seductive
lover with the uninhibited knowledge of sexual pleasure she is ever
willing to share -- as long as she gets to be on top, or at least
to take turns.

At the end of all this -- eventually -- she turns out to be neither more
nor less than an extraordinary human being who suffers from her pride
and mistakes, who struggles with her appointed task (sometimes
succeeding and sometimes failing) and who learns from the pain and
reward of a life well spent that knowledge and wisdom are not the same
thing.

There are surprises and adventures, wickedness and great good, laughter
and tears, and -- perhaps -- a nugget or two of wisdom, so give it a
try. I think you'll enjoy it!

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!, January 5, 2008

By 

Susan F. Isbey - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Book of Lilith (Paperback)

What an amazing book! It's really hard to categorize, and at first I didn't think I was going to like it, but all of a sudden I "got" it. It is alternately really funny -- some of the footnotes are hysterical -- and serious. I'd be laughing out loud and four or five pages later I'd be angry or sad.

Two groups of people are going to really like this book: the first and most important is anyone who just plain wants a fun read. I could see this one becoming a best-seller really easily simply because it is so entertaining. However, the general crowd of feminists, humanists, goddess worshippers and so on will really like it because it paints an inescapable picture of how the entire Judeo-Christian-Muslim culture derived from the book of Genesis hammers on women from the get-go. Lilith in this book isn't a vampire or succubus or slayer of children -- she's just a very modern woman who gets stuck with a relatively weak and insecure man. Although it is a lot more complicated than "just" that -- I don't want to spoil the surprises in the plot but suffice it to say that Lilith and Eve are not who you think they are if all you are familiar with is the standard myth.

The ending of the book is really powerful. It reminded me a little bit of Siddhartha, but at the same time it was quite different. A really interesting tie-in to Hinduism and Buddhism, but really that wasn't the point. The book is a strange sort of love story, and somehow all of the threads of love get pulled together in a very satisfying way.

The prose could probably be improved -- I think it is the author's first published book -- but it isn't obtrusive and sometimes it is really good or even poetical. The story itself is pure magic -- even the framing story is appealing once you get over the shock and realize that you're reading black humor satire directed against both the war in Iraq and the mistreatment of women in that entire culture. Highly recommended.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful!, October 16, 2007

By 

S. Dunlap (Northeast Oklahoma) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Book of Lilith (Paperback)

WARNING! Fellow readers, if you pick up this book on Lilith, the least explained woman in the bible, you end up either screaming or even cussing - if you can only accept the literal interpretation of the Bible espoused by the "born again" fundamentalists - or else you will be captured by a new vision of creation and the roles of women and men. You will be intrigued by the author's vision and very readable literary style as he "translates" the archeological discovery of a young Iraqi girl in a crater created by the war still ongoing. In the process you will meet a "new" interpretation of some age old questions about the roles of men and women. Who was created first? Adam, or was it Eve, or was it really the mysterious and erotic Lilith. Other questions raised are: Why does God allow us to make choices and perhaps screw up? Why do bad things happen to us? Can things get better? Why did Cain slay his brother Abel and many more. There are answers given.

Professor Brown makes both the modern archeological, geopolitical story and his vision of the history of our world from the "original creation" through Genesis and on ...back up to today's geopolitical problems very interesting and plausible. He raises some very real ethical questions and shows his readers some possible answers. If he teaches his classes with equal facility, his students are lucky. Read and enjoy!