Customer Reviews

Drawing in the Dust: A Novel

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Drawing in the Dust tells the story of Page Brookfield and her search for life's meaning in ancient ruins in Israel. Page is an archeologist whose father died when she was young. Since his death, she has been focused upon her work and denying herself a normal life of love and family.

Page, after 13 years working at sites in Israel, takes advantage of an opportunity to dig beneath the house of an Arab couple who believe that significant relics reside there. Page agrees to investigate.

There is much to enjoy about this novel. Zoe Klein paints pictures in exquisite detail of the archeological dig. We witness the slow careful uncovering of relics and the excitement and joy of each of the prized pieces. I liked the constant reference to Biblical history and Page's regular utterance of relevant Biblical versus.

Drawing in the dust is a multilevel love story. Jeremiah, the Biblical prophet and Anatiya, his lover, died in 556 B.C. and were buried together in love.

Inspired by the spirit of love released when the coffin of Jeremiah and Anatiya is opened, suddenly the world appears to be in love.

While working together, two couples fall in love and challenge cultural barriers. Dalia, a Jew and Walid, an Arab, become lovers and marry. Page, a Christian, and Mortichai Masters, an Orthodox Jew, begin a relationship that must overcome both tradition and prejudice.

I found several faults with Drawing in the Dust. Zoe Klein struggles in drawing a modern female character. Page Brookstone is a flesh and blood woman who is professional, emotional, and often timid. Page, an archeologist specializing in Middle Eastern cultures, continually demonstrates professional competence by directing others in the intimate details of gently digging artefacts and identifying relics. But Page is clearly a female stereotype who is attracted and distracted by males, becomes frustrated but passive with male barriers, and frequently is pictured as reacting in a lame, non assertive manner. She frequently avoids confrontation and often seem to collapse and place herself in compromising situations. With minor revisions, Page could have been an exciting character.

Many scenes in the story seem irrelevant or have irritating loose ends. Once Page is assaulted but we never learn why. In another scene Page, without provocation, decides to hide under a sink. In a third, although Page is sought by New York police, she calmly go to the airport, flies to Israel and police involvement somehow ends.

Drawing in the Dust is potentially a significant novel, I rate it four stars.

I was initially intrigued at the concept of this novel: The skeleton of the prophet Jeremiah is found, together with that of a woman. Along with them are found three scrolls: the biblical books of Jeremiah and Lamentations, and a scroll written by the woman, Anatiya. However, as I read the book I found a number of artifical twists and finally, toward the end, an episode of pure insanity on the part of the protagonist, Page Brookstone--an episode that strikes the reader as quite out of character and artificial. I had been debating between three and four stars until I got to this episode; then the debate was between one and two stars. I reluctantly decided to be nice and give it two stars.

The book features many quotations, long and short, from "The Book of Anatiya." It turns out that author Zoe Klein has actually written a book by this title, a kind of female reflection on the book of Jeremiah. It is an intriguing concept, though the text is not entirely convincing as Semitic poetry of that era. However, I can give the author a pass on this. I can even give her a pass on not answering the burning question that pops instantly into the mind of any Bible scholar: Did the scroll of the book of Jeremiah found with him have the long version considered canonical by Jews and Western Christians, or the short version considered canonical by Orthodox Christians, which is found in the Septuagint and at least one Hebrew manuscript among the Dead Sea Scrolls? These are interesting matters, but not very material to the plot of the book, which I will now summarize.

Basic plot: Archeologist Page Brookstone is in her twelfth year digging at Megiddo, and it is getting boring. Along comes an Arab couple with a haunted house who convince her to take a look under it. They find a coffin with the skeleton of Jeremiah entwined with that of a younger woman. They also find the three scrolls mentioned above. People go nuts. Orthodox Jews think it is sacrilege to disturb the skeletons (which are hauled off to a museum for proper processing). Jewish and Christian groups are scandalized by the sensuality of the Scroll of Anatiya and the fact that it shows the Orthodox belief about the origin of Deuteronomy to be false. A cabal of international types connive to keep the scroll locked up in committee for decades, like the Dead Sea Scrolls. Page sneaks good photos of the entire scroll out of Israel. A group of fanatics steal the skeletons of Jeremiah and Anatiya, and in the process destroy half the scroll of Anatiya. Suddenly Page is a heroine instead of a villain for having photographed the whole scroll. Page and a couple of her friends have a vision that Anatiya's skeleton will be incinerated. Page becomes desperate to avoid this. She makes her way by night to the only crematorium in Israel, where, sure enough, Anatiya's skeleton is in a wooden coffin about to be burned. While the evil men about to do the deed step out of the room to wait for a few cronies, Page GETS INTO THE COFFIN TO KEEP ANATIYA COMPANY WHILE SHE IS BURNED. Page and Anatiya are rescued at the last minute and everyone acts like everything is back to normal. All through this there has been a prickly quasi-romantic relationship between Page and an Israeli anthropologist named Mortichai Masters. The complication: he is engaged to be married to a widow to whom he was engaged 25 years earlier but who was married off to another man while Mortichai was in the U.S. for college. The man recently died and Mortichai thought it was his duty to marry his former fiancee--until he met Page, that is. Page and Mortichai finally get together in the end.

As you can tell from the capital letters I use above, the episode that absolutely drives me crazy is Page getting into the coffin. Instead of making the slightest effort to rescue the skeleton or to call anyone on her cell phone to come help, she turns off her cell phone and gets into the coffin, hoping the bad guys won't notice her, so she can peacefully burn with Anatiya. This is so utterly insane and so out of character for Page that it completely kills the book for me. The fact that this act of suicidal insanity is totally forgotten by everyone immediately after she is rescued is also completely non-credible.

A number of plot elements in this book are quite credible, particularly jealousy among scholars and overreactions by religious zealots. But the book is marred by several artificial plot twists worthy of Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code." In a couple of places I wrote "Conflict ex machina" in the margin, and in one place "ARTIFICIAL plot prolongation!" There is also a scene (pp. 243-47) in which Page and a married couple carry on a very intimate, emotion-laden conversation in front of the couple's two children--wholly inappropriate and completely unnecessary for the plot. (There is an infant as well, but since he can't understand the conversation his presence is not a problem.)

All in all, while the concept that sparked this novel is quite good, its execution is marred by too many serious flaws for me to be able to recommend it.

Each night I fought off sleep as I read long past "bedtime" and hated to put this book down and turn out the light. While not accurate from an archeological or anthropological perspective this beautiful story of many intertwined levels and plots enthralls us with the many loves and many losses of Page Brookstone.

After almost 15 years working the same, now boring, site in Israel, Page is forced to leave to retain her sanity and flee a "wanna-be" lover. Drawn to a site that every other scientist has shunned, she makes an astounding discovery tantamount to the Dead Sea Scrolls -- A cavern that enchants all those near it with deep love for another, often socially inappropriate, lover. Page is caught up in the enchantment, falling in love with her discovery, those she meets there, a former lover and taking enormous risks to save its truth.

While the archeological work described here would take years rather than weeks, and the care for the artifacts have been much more intense than described, we get a very real sense of how politics and personal striving have changed the Bible, the Torah, the Koran and, indeed, history as we know it. This is a deeply thought provoking novel that will make the reader question what they really do and have loved, what they will risk for all the loves of their life and whether history is really what we think it to be. A very worthwhile read that is highly enjoyable!

Drawing in the Dust is well written, but it never really caught and held my attention.

Here's my take on the book:

PROS

1. Lots of information about archeology in the Holy Land, even more about the Jewish culture and religion.

2. Written in a clear and straight-forward style, with poetry set off from the text in an italic font.

CONS

1. I never identified with the characters in the book. Page, the heroine, seemed mostly self-absorbed but rarely interesting.

2. Same with the love stories, both ancient and modern - never had me reading further.

There is a wide audience who will read and enjoy this book -- it just wasn't for me.

Zoe Klein's "Drawing in the Dust" starts off at Megiddo, with archaeologist Page Brookstone examining yet another set of infant remains and being somewhat dissatisfied with her lot. Enter Ibrahim and Naima, who have been visiting every archaeology site in the area to talk about the ghosts in their home. Dismissed as kooks by all and sundry, Ibrahim and Naima refuse to be dissuaded in their quest. Even Page sends them away, but then her curiosity gets the best of her. This curiosity leads her to an amazing archaeological find with tremendous implications: a coffin containing two intertwined skeletons and a jar with a previously unknown scroll by a female scribe named Anatiya.

"Drawing in the Dust" is about more than Biblical archaeology. It touches on issues of Arab/Israeli/American relations, the nature of love, and even the nature of humanity. Klein's prose is elegant without being turgid. She draws beautiful pictures with her words. This book was a joy to read.

(Review based on uncorrected advance proof.)

Some of the writing is lyrical and deeply meaningful. The attitude toward living life fully or toward dying was well represented. The story was slow at times and strangely perverted especially concerning the sacred. Without some of the more distasteful parts it would have been a better story. Using sacred texts and new discoveries as a premise for a book is an interesting story idea It could have been good had it been written without the nasty tree fetish. ugh

This is a love story that tries very hard to be a kind of detective novel and a commentary on political events all at the same time. The archaeologist, Page Brookstone (a Catholic) follows an Arab couple to their house in the "Arab half "of Anatot, an Israeli town just outside Jerusalem. The Arab couple has been desperate for an archaeologist to visit them because they sense the presence of ghosts in their house.

Page is skeptical but finds herself helping them perhaps because she senses the ghosts too, perhaps because she likes the couple (he is a human rights lawyer who freely admits to the lack of anything resembling justice in the Palestinian Territories), perhaps because she is running away from a supervisor who wants to be more than a friend. In any event, Page and her ragtag team discover the bones of the Prophet Jeremiah and entwined in the arms of a woman named Anatiyah.

It turns out that Anatiyah was a scribe and a prophetess in her own right and Page discovers her scroll also and fights to have it translated. The Christian and the Jewish fundamentalists have a fit at one point even trying to cremate Anatiyah's bones in a Nazi oven but Page saves the day. At the same time, Anatiyah's and Jeremiah's love for one another spill out and save the world: an Arab and a Jew marry as does a Catholic and an Orthodox man. And all live happily (and secularly) ever after.

Those who prefer their historical fiction to have historical accuracy will find much to fault in this book. For example, much is made of the fictional Anatiya being a prophetess and yet the prophet Jeremiah lived during the time of Hulda the prophetess. So there is nothing terribly unusual about women being scribes or prophetesses in ancient Israel.

Also, I could not but be a tiny bit skeptical about the kind of fuss the Christian and Jewish fundamentalists are supposed to have caused. I thought it much more likely that there would be riots that a major Jewish Prophet's grave would be found in an Arab part of town just outside Jerusalem.

But this is the right book for people who are prepared to ignore the trendy and a little predictable plot, the too much description that first-time authors are often guilty of and would like an easy and fun read. I enjoyed it for what it was--but then I read most of it in a hospital waiting room where the last thing I needed or wanted was something that would make me think too hard.

Drawing in the Dust is one of the most beautifully written books I've read in many years. Author Zoe Klein's prose often has the rhythmic flow of scripture, which appropriately reflects the subject of her novel: love and the various forms of its expression across boundaries of religion and culture, as well as across time.

While there are quite a few recent novels that take place in two separate, although parallel time periods, Drawing in the Dust is a bit different in that all the action takes place in the present but is focused on events of the past. Page Brookstone is a Christian archeologist who risks her career on the word of an Arab couple and digs through the floor of their living room to discover an ancient Jewish burial chamber. Inside the coffin she finds not one, but two bodies, along with a scroll that appears to be the work of an heretofore unknown, *female* Jewish prophet. When the bodies turn out to be those of the prophet Jeremiah and Anatiya, the young woman who authored the scroll, the dust really hits the fan. Everyone in the various establishments of religion, government, archeology, museums, et. al. has some problem, issue, angle or axe to grind.

Klein is a rabbi who writes poetry and prayers for congregations across the country and has been published in well-known magazines such as Harper's Bazaar, Glamour and Tikkun. Not surprisingly, she has a strong command of scripture and throughout the novel she highlights many passages, particularly from the Book of Jeremiah, that add a striking degree of depth and realism to her characters. And all of this is done with a touch that is light enough to provoke thoughtful contemplation in readers, but not push them over the edge to weariness or boredom. Klein is clearly a lover of language, and a joy to read.

My one criticism of the book is its plotting. While it starts out well enough and steadily builds toward what I expected to be a strong climax, near the end of the story the protagonist, Page, does something that seems really over the top to me. It is an extreme action, even one that can fairly be termed "creepy," and I just can't believe this character would actually do such a thing. So, I am giving Drawing in the Dust 4 stars rather than 5, but nevertheless recommending it highly for its language and lyricism.

Plot Summary: Page Brookstone is a fully fleshed character, and at the ripe age of forty she's built an impressive career as an archeologist and biblical scholar. Her relationship with her boss and mentor is on the skids, and Page sees an opportunity to escape the awkwardness when an Arab couple finds a cistern beneath their home. This couple has been mocked by every reputable archeologist in Israel, because they insist their house is haunted by spectral lovers. Page isn't buying the ghost stories, but the cistern soon proves to be a treasure trove of Tutankhamun proportions.

This book smells like an Oprah Book Club pick, but HA! -- it has a happy ending, so I guess it'll have a different fate. Oprah likes the stuff that makes us sniff and snivel, and although this book didn't make me weep, I certainly felt a strong emotional bond to the story told here. I tend to gobble books quickly, but I savored this one slowly over two days, like nibbling at the corners of a pure dark chocolate bar in the hopes that it will last indefinitely.

When Page climbs into the Arab couple's cistern, it's not so much a leap of faith, as a desperate scramble to escape. Her mentor has become sharp and bitter since Page gently denied his affections, and she's tumbling through a mid-life crisis that's fueled by her single, childless, and father-less existence. Her discovery of the treasures within the cistern ignite her passion for her work, and this new fire illuminates just how empty her personal life has been for years.

From this point onward, two love stories unfold, one from the past and one in the present. The story of the prophet Jeremiah and his love, Anatiya, is revealed through Anatiya's lyrical voice preserved on a vellum scroll. During the excavation, Page begins to love an improbable kindred spirit, an Orthodox Jew whose religion stands as a tangible barrier to any physical intimacy, but the meeting of their hearts and minds cannot be stopped.

During this forbidden love story, the fate of Anatiya's precious scroll turns in to a heart-thumping thriller. I felt like Page was a female Robert Langdon (from "The Da Vinci Code"), dodging and outwitting the forces that would smother Anatiya's voice, if not destroy it outright. I stand in awe of any novel that can combine poetry, suspense, romance, and self-discovery into a flawless package.

The back-cover blurb is what drew my attention to this book since this is my first read by author Zoe Klein. The story has strong mystical components as well as many references to the story of the Biblical prophet Jeremiah. Readers who are unfamiliar with Jeremiah's story may find it hard going, but I didn't have any problems.

Page is an American archaeologist who has been working in Israel for more than a decade on the excavations at Megiddo. She likes her work, but is realizing a sense of dissatisfaction with her current situation. Her long-time friend/mentor and boss recently made a pretty strong pass at her; her refusal and his inability to accept it have resulted in a very strained working relationship. So Page is ripe for change and when a Palestinian couple approach her on the dig, she listens to their story more closely than she realizes. Her boss scoffs at their claims of a haunted chamber underneath their home at Anatot, but Page cannot seem to forget. When she drops by their home on her day off, she quickly becomes drawn into the thrill of discovery and risks her career and professional reputation when she leaves Megiddo and begins work in Anatot.

Those familiar with the story of Jeremiah will either love or hate this story. Klein fleshes out the prophet far beyond what is known and connects her life with that of a young woman who 'loved' the prophet. The author quotes from a fictional 'Scroll of Anatiya', the story of the young woman from long ago who passionately loved the prophet. Each chapter is headed by a quote and the author admits to having actually written the entire scroll while in school as a parallel to the life of Jeremiah. Biblical purists will no doubt be up in arms and screaming at the extent of poetic license Mrs. Klein uses in her tale.

I found the 'mystery' and archaeological discovery portions of the book quite riveting. But I had to wade through the author's metaphysical meanderings as she psychoanalyzes her lead character during the entire novel. It could just be that I'm shallow--if I want to read a character study, then that's what I look for; if I want to read an archaeological mystery, then that's what I want. I just wish the author had limited herself to one or the other and I would have enjoyed "Drawing in the Dust" much more.