Customer Reviews

The Book of Samson

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

After the brilliance of "The Preservationist," I was mildly disappointed with David Maine's follow-up, "Fallen." Both books succeeded in making ancient stories breathe with vitality and even a certain modern sensibility, but "Fallen" felt less fresh, more forced. So I opened up "The Book of Samson" wondering what to expect?

This third tale in Maine's biblical repertoire is everything I hoped. And more. Not only does the story of Samson and Delilah (spelled Dalila, in the book) come alive, it reads like a thriller. Racing from scenes of Samson's momentous birth to his in a Dagon temple, this book gives new insight into a well-worn tale. It answers questions of logic, it explores questions of faith, and it leaves open-ended its interpretation of these issues as they relate to modern conflicts between Palestinians and Jews. Perhaps the most impressive element is Maine's ability to give Samson his own voice, a distinctly different one from that in Maine's previous books. When he utters his final sentence in the wonderfully rendered finale, you believe his every word.

With this glittering, yet gritty, example of characterization and narrative, David Maine vaults high up my list of authors to follow with fervor in the coming years. He writes with reverence for his source material, while never thinking too highly of his subjects--men and women, just like me or you. They sweat, they curse, they occasionally do great things.

"The Book of Samson" ranks easily in my Top Five for 2006.

I discovered David Maine only a few short months ago, and have devoured all three of his novels in that time. I absolutely love his works, and will eagerly await his next novel.

Samson is a fascinating character, complex and real. The story fast paced and interesting.

Maine uses humor and humanity in all his books, and as a result takes these familiar scenes and implants them in our minds in a whole new way.
His playfulness with language is wonderful, though at times I found the odd punctuation distracting.

I read this book without ever hearing anything about the author or the book so I was totally in the dark, having only the book jacket to clue me in. I was pleasantly surprised and laughed through the entire (short) book. The story is not biblically and maybe not historically accurate but Maine never claims it to be. It is irreverant and sometimes graphic, but never disrespectful. Some conservative Christians may take issue with Maine's take on the story of Samson, but this one found it endearing, entertaining, and hilarious. I'm now reading The Preservationist.

I loved David Maines 2 prior books, so of course I had to get the book of samson. After reading the reviews here I wasnt sure how good it was going to be. But after reading it myself Id say its definitly worth reading. Sure there are some parts that may not be 100% correct or even far feched...but its a novel...your allowed to make stuff up. Although each book has been great in its own way. I still hold the preservastionest to be my favorite. And I would encourge anyone to start with that book. But they are all great.

I'm not sure where to begin in describing how badly written this book is. One might start with the hackneyed writing of David Maine, who evidently is incapable of punctuating his sentences. The absolute lack of commas, quotation marks, and so forth makes it difficult to comprehend what little meaning he has to offer.

But the bigger issue is the fact that Maine has done absolutely no research whatsoever. In fact, I'm not at all sure that he even bothered to read the account of Samson in the book of Judges in the Old Testament. This book is chock-a-block full of error and ignorance about the life and times of the people living in the Ancient Near East.

The author has the journey from Samson's home to the city of Timnath take three days--when the two are only about 2 miles apart! The trip from the Sorek Valley to Gaza takes two entire weeks! Two weeks to travel less than 50 miles! The Israelites busy themselves building silos for their grain, silos dug deep into the rocky soil of Zorah (Samson's hometown, which Maine also doesn't know)--dug into the soil and lined with bricks, which the Israelites did not use to build in that region! The temple in Gaza, where Samson dies, is as big as Grand Central Station, made of granite with gigantic pillars modeled after the Coliseum. Several Philistine temples have been excavated, and they look nothing whatsoever like Maine's absurd images.

The author is evidently not aware that Samson's eyes were gouged out after he was captured, or that the Philistines set him to grinding corn in a prison. He has Samson carried atop a camel after he's captured, when camels were reserved for the wealthy as a sign of prestige. He even dresses Delilah in pants!

He has Samson's father taking pottery to sell to the Philistines, when a quick search on the internet will reveal to even a casual student that the Philistines were world-renowned for the high-quality pottery which they produced. This would be like selling ice cubes to the Eskimos.

I could go on and on with the errors contained in Maine's faulty picture of life in Samson's day. The major problem with this novel is that it adds nothing of value whatsoever to the Biblical account of Samson. One will learn a great deal more about Samson and life in ancient times simply by reading the book of Judges.

I read the review by Beniot before purchasing this book thinking maybe he had a bone to pick with the author . . . but he was absolutely correct in his assessment.

I could not even get through the first chapter when he writes about the birth of Samson. Immediatly, before the umbilical cord is even severed, he, the newborn baby Samson, disintergrates a rock in his bare hands! The author doesn't even attempt to explain where the rock came from.

This is a totally worthless book! St. Martin's Press, the publisher, should be ashamed to have published this story.