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The Deeper Song [Hardcover]

Patricia Curtis Pfitsch (Author)
3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)


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Book Description

October 1, 1998
"I feel how powerful it would be to open the scroll and "read" from the Words of Yahweh. It might, indeed, bind a people together forever, no matter who was king. But why me, Samuel? I am a woman. They would never accept my work."

King Solomon is getting old, and his son, Rehoboam, is not strong enough to hold the kingdom together once his father dies. Some of the priests think that if the stories of Yahweh were written down, rather than told orally, the power of the Word would unite the people forever.

Judith, the daughter of a high priest, is a noted storyteller. Chafing under the rules of a society that treats women as less than men, she begins to worship the Goddess, an alternative deity, abhorred by the Priests and the monarch. But after a massacre at the Goddess's temple, Judith vows to write the Words of Yahweh, and to give women a place in the religion that they never have had before.

"The Deeper Song" concerns a gifted young woman struggling to be recognized in a patriarchal society and to understand the painful choices made by her mother and other women. It suggests the factors that led to the writing of the Bible and speculates how the oldest parts could have been written by a woman. Patricia Curtis Pfitsch gracefully tells this historical what-if story, full of adventure, romance, drama and hope.


Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 8-10-Judith is the headstrong daughter of one of King Solomon's priests. She is unhappy with the life that Yahweh, the God of her people, offers women. She and Tamar, her slave and best friend, sneak out at night to worship the Goddess, for which they could be killed. They participate in a fertility ritual in which each girl has sexual intercourse, Judith for the first time, and with someone she loves. Her cousin, Samuel, is a priest who also appreciates the Goddess. He is worried about the future of his people, and believes the only way to unite them is to write down the ancient stories, the words of Yahweh. Judith is the best storyteller, but because she is a woman, the credit must be given to Samuel. Judith decides that she will not betray the Goddess by writing only men's stories, but she will also write of women's strength and courage, and increase their role in religion and society. This original and exciting historical novel delves into the issue of who wrote the Bible and of the rights of women in the ancient religion of the Hebrews. In an author's note, Pfitsch explains that this book is a work of fiction derived from theories, facts, and her own speculation. Judith and Tamar are strong female characters, feminists fighting for rights that may be historically out of place but are integrated well into the story. Although some dialogue is forced and embedded with background information, the exciting plot and romantic love story keep the pages turning.
Elisabeth Palmer Abarbanel, Brentwood School, Los Angeles
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 8^-10. Judith, the daughter of a high priest working on King Solomon's temple, feels there is no place for her in Yahweh's patriarchal form of Judaism. So at great personal risk, she joins the goddess cult of Asherah. After a massacre at the sacred grove, Judith is discovered, and the servant girl who brought her to the initiation is murdered by order of Judith's father. At the initiation ceremony Judith meets Samuel, a cousin who understands how she feels about being a smart, educated young woman in a society that doesn't know what to do with such a creature. But Samuel has a plan for Judith. Since her greatest talent is storytelling, he wants her to write down the oral tradition of the Jewish people, creating a book that will become Judaism's cornerstone. At first, Judith does not want to do anything to help her father's religion. She comes to see, however, that she has the ability to do what no other scribe can--incorporate the lives and the power of Jewish women into the stories. It is likely that few teens have any knowledge of the biblical war between Judaism and the goddess-cult religions, circa 550 B.C.E., but even without that underpinning, readers will quickly come to understand what is at stake for Judith. She's a strong character, but like Samuel (a caring supportive '90s kind of guy), she has a modernity to her characterization that often fits uncomfortably into the setting. The theory that a woman may have written parts of the Old Testament came to public attention in Harold Bloom's The Book of J (1990), which Pfitsch only credits briefly. After Judith takes on her own role as writer, the book comes to a too-quick conclusion; however, the irony of a woman writing down the sacred stories is well developed and one of the book's strongest points. See the Read-alikes column, opposite page, for more fiction set in biblical times. Ilene Cooper

Product Details

  • Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  • Hardcover: 160 pages
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing (October 1, 1998)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0689811837
  • ISBN-13: 978-0689811838
  • Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 0.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,707,932 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
3.3 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Too much speculation and very few facts - agenda driven., July 11, 2004
By 
Grass Tiger (Wadsworth, IL United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Deeper Song (Hardcover)
I am currently researching and writing a novel based only 200 years earlier than this novel in this area of the world. I have been doing extensive research on this entire era and find most of Pfitsch's assumptions annoyingly, provably false.
Here are a few thoughts from only the first couple of chapters:

Untrue:
1. That Ashterah is a wooden pillar. Rather it is a tree that is pruned and worshipped.
2. That Solomon didn't pay his workers and most people starved while he basked in luxury. Even if that were true why would, even she, say that the people loved him?
3. That women didn't know how to read. From the numerous pottery shards that contain day-to-day lists and notes from women's lives it is obvious that most people - including women - knew how to read and write.
4. That the father had life and death power over his household. -Even the law was contrary to this! This is what Judges were for - and nothing could be decided without at least two witnesses and a minimum of three judges.
5. That Judaism was a "male" religion. The names Adonai and Elohim (translated as G-d and L-rd) are indeed masculine, but how often do you hear that "His" name Yah is actually feminine!
6. I would like to know what she calls yogurt since I have found nothing even remotely similar to modern yogurt in this time period in my research.
7. That the prayer men pray thanking G-d that they were not made a woman was derogatory to women! Men are required to do a lot more than a woman is and it is considered an honor. The point is that men are thanking G-d for the extra obligations because there is greater reward for observance when it is required of you (because it goes against our nature) then when it is optional. We women thank G-d for making us "who we are" because we don't have to do all those things and can focus our efforts on taking care of our family, home, job, etc.

True:
1. Handmaidens (yes, slaves) were foreigners and sometimes influenced the people they served to worship other gods.
2. Worshiping the "queen of heaven" was common (Ishtar from which the word "Easter" originates).

Unfortunately, the author has stong feminist prejudices. I did not bother finishing the book because the inaccuracies and the vehemence with which the author seems to believe them were too annoying.

If you are a Jew or a Christian, you will probably have major problems with this work.

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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Deeper Song Sings to Me, September 7, 2005
By 
Thomas Wolf "A Reader" (Chapel Hill, North Carolina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Deeper Song (Hardcover)
Patricia Curtis Pfitsch's THE DEEPER SONG is a wonderful young adult novel that provides the reader with a both an engaging story and a sense of life in Biblical (or pre-Biblical) times. Rooted in research, but expanded by the author's willingness to ask questions about what life would have been like for women (and men) in ancient times, the book is alive and provocative.

Contemporary readers will find the characters compelling and interesting. The historical "what-ifs" (see the author's note at the back of the book) provide a fascinating perspective on life, gender roles, and the importance of storytelling. For young adults, who struggle to find ways to tell their own stories (in journals, diaries, conversation), this will be a book of great interest because the message is that we all tell stories in order to work out ideas and communicate our experiences. Storytelling is thousands of years old; it's how we make sense of life. And this is what THE DEEPER SONG is all about.

Readers should also look for Pfitsch's other YA novels--KEEPER OF THE LIGHT and RIDING THE FLUME--both of which deal with strong female protagonists and their struggles in other historical time periods. As a father who is always looking for good books for my own middle-school-age children, I would recommend all three of Pfitsch's novels.

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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Colorfully Portrayed life in the Past, December 17, 2000
By 
This review is from: The Deeper Song (Hardcover)
This book wonderfully showed how being a teenaged girl in biblical times was like. It is about a girl, Judith, who's father is a priest. He strongly believes in God. Judith doesn't feel accepted in her father's religion because of the way women are treated (badly), and she secretly follows the religion of the Goddess. Judith is very good at storytelling, and is asked by her cousin, a priest-in-training, to write the stories of the bible (this was before the bible existed). This is Judith's chance to give women more power in her father's religion. Women were treated like crap back then, and so to give them power Judith wrote about them as powerful and wonderful people in her stories. This is a really great book for teens today. There isn't another one like it. After reading this book I had a better understanding of what it was like to be a women in biblical times.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
The courtyard was dark and cool after the hot Jerusalem streets; Judith stood in the doorway and let her eyes grow accustomed to the dimness. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
temple shift, cedar chest, sleeping mat
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Great Marriage, Sacred Grove, Hiram of Tyre
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