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Eve: A Novel of the First Woman

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I cannot praise Elissa Elliott's book is enough. Rarely have I been more challenged into thinking outside the box than with Ms. Elliott's EVE. My background is of a lifelong evangelical church attender and a graduate of a bible college. When I read N. Sparks "blasphemy" comments I was saddened and forced into writing a response. To give a detailed rebuttal is not necessary for a review such as N. Sparks... that is except for citing what most would consider a more prestigious and insightful reviewer's opinion from USA TODAY who commented, "Non-judgmental readers willing to envelop themselves in Elliott's musings will find Eve highly entertaining."

Whenever I hear the sad and usually ignorant word "blasphemy" uttered against a work of fiction or philosophy, I cannot help but be reminded of Galileo... who, as history has shown, was correct. I found Ms. Elliott's work to be incredibly inspiring, and if one takes the time to read the actual Genesis account rather than merely regurgitating something learned in Sunday School, all of Ms. Elliott's facts within EVE are consistent and plausible. This brings me back to my recurring fear that if Jesus were to come back today, He wouldn't want to be called a Christian. Blasphemy is a harsh word. It is, as history has shown us repetitively, usually a term uttered by the ignorant and the fearful. Think about this... have you ever read of Newton, Einstein, Lincoln, Martin Luther King, or Gandhi ever using this term? In contrast, how about the terms used by the religious right, the Inquisition, the Pharisees, the Vatican... this list goes on. I think you may get the idea.

So, from my perspective, educated readers, open to thinking, not encased in the hobgoblin of foolish consistency, will be entertained, enlightened and challenged by Ms. Elliott's book. If you'd rather remain addicted to mediocrity and wish to remain safe inside a cocoon of preconceived Sunday School notions, then I recommend reading something else.

my earliest bible story memories involve adam, eve, and the garden of eden. i would venture to guess that it's this way for all of us, no matter where our spiritual journey has taken us. growing up, i remember the story going something like this:

"God made adam, and then he got lonely. so God made eve from adam's rib. all was well, until one day, the serpent (or the devil, as he was called where i learned the story) came to eve and tempted her to eat the apple of the tree of knowledge. she ate, and then she got adam to eat the apple too. then they were both ashamed, and they hid from God. when God realized what they had done, he banished them forever from the garden."

the historical novel eve by elissa elliott digs deeply into this basic story, and elliott imagines (very vividly and realistically) what it must have been like for adam and eve once they were banished from the garden and as they set out to make a new life in a foreign land. of course, as the title suggests, eve's voice is primary. in addition, we are privileged to hear the story from the point of view of 3 of her daughters as well.

i think a primary struggle i have had as a grown woman with the traditional account of what happened in the garden is that eve was blamed as being primarily at fault for the entire thing. after all, it was SHE to whom the serpent came, and it was SHE who made the decision to eat of the forbidden fruit, and it was SHE who shared the fruit then with adam.

i'm sure many, many thesis papers have been written about how this plays into male/female roles in our modern society, but i don't pretend to have studied the ins and outs and will not try to address any of that here.

i will say, however, that i think elliott explores this tension extremely well in the novel. she demonstrates the agony eve must have felt, the responsibility, the worry, the guilt, the sadness, the guilt, the torment, the guilt (did i say GUILT?) for making such a poor decision. and we are left wondering, if it were up to adam, would he have chosen the same? probably. after all, as we say, it's human nature, isn't it?

elliott explores what it might have been like for adam and eve and their children living in a strange place, with other people living nearby. now, i was taught that all people came from adam and eve, and frankly, i could never figure this out. (by the way, you don't have to comment and try to convince me how...) so a good part of her story involves this first family's dealings with what are described as gypsies living not too far away.

the minute i started reading this book, i really couldn't put it down. what's so great to me (because i love this literary device) is that we get to hear FOUR women's voices in this novel, not just one.

the highlight to me, more than the actual story, more than the multiple narration, is the WAY elliott writes. most prose in novels (especially ones having to do with anything biblical) is bland at best. the story might be good, but the words, the phrases, the sentences aren't really what i would call enjoyable to read.

elliott's writing, though, is tasty. it's delightful. i drank in every word, i was in awe at entire paragraphs. i kept wanting to write things down, just to keep them in a journal to reread later, for the sheer joy of it.

i could give you passage after passage here, but i know you are going to read the book, so this is just one of my favorites:

"Since I am trying to uncover the truth of what went on that day, I will relate one more thing. In the midst of Adam's betrayal, he had paused to think of me. He had acquired some beautiful trinkets that he believed would restore us back to the way we were. How do I begin to understand this conundrum? On the one hand, he had disregarded my feelings. On the other, he thought he knew what was better for me and took it upon himself to do a lovely thing for me. How do you rage against something so confusing? I know, in my head, what he was trying to do, but my heart says otherwise. My heart is angered when he assumes he knows me better than I know myself--and acts on it. Always, he makes these judgments, and I cannot say anything. If I do, I am ungrateful for his efforts; if I don't, I am bitter against him.
As I have laid it out for you, I was loved and cherished, and I refused to see it, or foster it, for that matter. That would come later."

one thing i really appreciated about this book is that it made me think about my own relationships--with my spouse, my children, and with God. and i don't think that was elliott's intention--after all, this is just a historical fictional account of what might have gone on between adam and eve and their children after being forced to leave the Garden of Eden. but there is so much to be gleaned between the lines of this novel about relationships in general, whether you are a daughter, wife, mother, or all three.

"She sweats, she worries, she prays, she keens, she kneels, she questions, she protects, she argues, she cries, she creates, she talks, she sees, she touches, she listens, she loves, she repents, she remembers.
"After all, she is a mother."

So says Eve, the legendary mother of mankind, the legendary mother of the earth, so eloquently and yet so simply in Elissa Elliott's Eve: A Novel of the First Woman. In Elliott's magnificent achievement, Eve embodies all of motherhood, feeling the feelings, worrying the worries, asking the questions, finding the answers that all mothers must surely have had since that time in the Garden. For most of the novel, Eve is pregnant. This is a powerful image, for we see a woman struggling with how to raise her existing children while we know that another is just over the horizon, waiting to complicate things, yet populate the world.

Eve: A Novel of the First Woman tells a story that most of us probably think we already knew. The Garden of Eden myth is a staple of Judeo/Christian teachings. But this author embellishes, inventing a story lush with character and plot, based on copious research. The bare bones are there: Adam and Eve eat of the forbidden fruit, God casts them out of the Garden, their son Cain slays his brother Abel. But in Elliott's re-imagining of the myth, we meet a family--father, mother, their three sons, their three daughters--and a host of other characters, inhabitants of a nearby city, most likely a Sumerian one, who worship stone gods and cause much conflict in this tale of a mother desperately trying to regain her faith and thus redeem her family.

I suspect that there are few people versed in Western ways who haven't heard the Garden of Eden story. So we begin the novel already knowing that Cain will kill his brother Abel. It is never a secret in Elliott's story. But her skill as a writer is such that we, as readers, grow to love and admire Abel so much that his eventual murder by his brother is almost a surprise, both horrific and heartrending. We see Abel's love story unfolding, and we long for him to live and complete that story. Instead, the inevitable happens, and we are immensely saddened. We want to cry out, "God? Why did you let this happen? Why don't you care?" But then, our questions are answered so eloquently in the words of Eve's daughter Aya:

"I think, rather, that HE does care.
"But He is helpless to intervene, since we have insisted that we want to live life on our own terms."

Adam and Eve eat of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and that knowledge gives them the eyes to see their sons, Cain and Abel, the embodiment of good and evil. But it also gives them the ability to cope, to accept life. In the Garden, they are protected by their God; He desperately wants to keep them from seeing the world as it is. But they choose to eat, and in that eating, they consume the knowledge that God loves and protects, but they must make the right choices, give Him the opportunity to be there for them.

Rich characterization and plot are not the only thing this book has to offer. Elliott's prose is almost poetry. Her language is gentle and beautiful. Told in alternating chapters by Eve and her three daughters, the voice of each is exquisite. Each word is chosen for its power, its imagery, its specificity. Phrases such as "hugged the huge trees of Abel's legs" and "his kisses were as flower petals, his touch as shade and water" insinuate themselves into the narrative, painting lovely pictures that strengthen and adorn, never intruding. They glide along on the story, making for a glorious journey into the world of a woman whom generations have accepted as Adam's rib, perhaps never truly realizing, as Elliott has, that Eve was flesh and blood and had the same longings and trials that we all experience.

And just where did this Eve in Elliott's novel come from? In her Afterward, the author goes into great detail about the research she did for her book. We see into the creative process. It is a sight that we, as readers, rarely are invited to take. Elliott based her decisions on careful study of numerous readings. She tells us that she rarely made a decision about her characters' actions, her plot's points without careful consideration of what scholars before her had said, had determined, had decided. This makes for a mesmerizing story, one that, when finished, is so credible that it is hard to accept that Elliott began with only those aforementioned bare bones.

To read Eve: A Novel of the First Woman is to hear God. Elliott's conclusions may not set well with strict constructionists. Fundamentalists may rant and rail that she has it all wrong, that she has blasphemed by tinkering with sacred texts. But God permeates this book, whether God is an all-seeing, all-knowing super being, as some believe, or whether He (She?) is a feeling, a spirit, that dwells deep inside of each human, guiding us, protecting us. No matter our beliefs, if we listen, we can hear Him always singing, singing the Song of the Garden.

Eve and Adam love their life in the Garden of Eden. However, paradise is lost when Eve seduced by Lucifer as much as by her curiosity persuades Adam to take an apple bite from the Tree of Knowledge forbidden fruit. Saddened but a believer in the original tough love, Elohim kicks the pair from the Garden and into the harsh cruel world.

Over the next few years, the previously pampered pair struggle, but finally turn it around as their home becomes a safe haven to raise kids and drink beer with figs and grapes. They have several children as Adam believes in barefoot and pregnant. Abel is a sheepherder; Cain becomes a farmer, Seth the favorite provides solace to his mom; Naava is a weaver; Dara is a potter; and Aya the healer remains invisible to her family. Cain turns away from Elohim to the Sumerian fertility goddess Inanna while his sister Naava seduces him into taking her to the nearby city. Naava is jealous that Dara works for the prince, so she marries the prince. Outraged by her betrayal Cain causes a riot that displaces the first family and soon commits fratricide.

This dysfunctional family drama makes for an enjoyable biblical biographical fiction in which they needed a shrink. The story line leaps around as perspective is rotated. Eve grows in her job as the first mom after being kicked to the curb by God due to the original sin. Her daughters even "invisible" Aya come across as fully developed in part because they tell the saga while the males are not fleshed out beyond their roles of supporting the women who dominate their lives. Although except for the setting, the First family feels like an American brood sent back to the first days, fans will enjoy the novelization of Eve and her clan.

Harriet Klausner

An earlier poster wanted a sound theological book when she can't even get her theology straight. Adam and Eve were both called Adam in the Garden?! I think this poster completely missed the point of the book.

Eve is a wonderfully written story told from the perspective of Eve and her daughters. I was not able to put this book down until the last page. I commend Elliott on her first novel and I eagerly await her second novel.

In other news, I ordered this on a Saturday from Amazon and received my book the next Monday with standard shipping (thanks Amazon)!

Elissa Elliott's "Eve" is NOT for Biblical purists. As the narrator says, "Belief is not always easy." Elliott has taken the story of Adam and Eve, woven in 4 different narrators, the feud between Cain and Abel, the temptation and fall in the Garden of Eden, and a story of the differences between MAN and WOMAN. Elliott keeps the pace moving from disaster to disaster, but incorporates historical and social data from the Mesopatamian triangle. I enjoyed the book, and I thought it was a truly unique idea. It's almost enough to impel me to reread Milton's "Paradise Lost." Almost.

Eve is a beautifully written re-imagining of one of mankind's oldest stories. Elliott's writing is exquisitely lyrical, weaving a fascinating story from the multiple points-of-view of Eve and her daughters. I picked up Eve at my library and read it completely for enjoyment, not as someone who has studied the Bible in-depth. Personally, I found it to be an incredibly compelling piece of historical fiction.

Elissa Elliott's writing is delicious! Her prose is expressive and graceful - this is a woman who knows how to turn a phrase. When I read a book, I mark memorable and particularly captivating passages so that I can share them with others. By page 60 of Eve, I had marked so many passages that I ran out of post-its! The writing is magnificent, evoking the true spirit of Biblical times for the reader.

The characters in Elissa Elliott's Eve - especially Eve's daughters: the eldest, Naava, the beautiful but self-absorbed weaver; Aya, the intelligent, club-footed cook and healer; and Dara, the kind-hearted, perceptive twin - are richly drawn and leap off the pages, brilliantly alive in the reader's mind.

The story of Adam and Eve is well-researched and vividly recounted in Elissa Elliott's Eve: A Novel of the First Woman. I would definitely recommend this novel to lovers of historical fiction, and to anyone who enjoys an engaging and delightfully well-written story.

"An author's perspective on tales from the Bible is always intriguing to explore. Can their thoughts shed any new light upon the events those days? With this story of Eve, told from the voices of Eve and her three daughters, I think the answer is yes. Elissa Eliot offers a plausible scenario of Adam and Eve establishing a life for themselves away from the Garden, which involves encountering a `city' of people with gods different than their one God, while working to sustain their growing family without it splintering apart. Not all her conclusions do I agree with, but when one steps back to consider the dilemma faced in not only being the first man and woman, but also the first parents, absent any model in how to raise a family, one can easily detect the problems these two must have faced."

This book was wonderfully written and the story was compelling. I grew up in a Christian home and still strongly value my faith. However, when I chose to read this novel I did not expect it to be based on hard facts. It was clear to me from the beginning that it was purely a work of fiction and provided the author's conjecture at what life may have been like for Eve, Adam, and their family. Yes, it is based on the Bible, but the account in Genesis is brief. Personally, I loved the way the story was told through the eyes of Eve and her 3 daughters as it gave readers a chance to see things through several perspectives. It was also nice as a woman, to hear an account - albeit fictional - of what life back then may have been like. It was interesting to me how each member of this family - believing they were the first in the world - was given a special talent that they cultivated to provide for themselves and advance their way of living. Is it a bit too much to envision a 10 year who was a master cook and medicine woman? Perhaps. But it was an entirely different culture and time, and children were forced to grow up fast and work to help support their families.
I found the author's afterword, where she explained how she arrived at some of her ideas, to be very interesting. She obviously did her homework, and thought through the best way to tell her version of the story.
Yes, there were contradictions in the story that don't line up with the Bible - such as the existance of an entire society of people - but remembering that this was purely a work of fiction I can forgive the author for this discrepancy. The other discrepancies mentioned by other reviewers are likely to catch some people's eyes as well, but not being a Biblical scholar these things didn't bother me.
Overall - it was a wonderful novel that I would recommend. Just remember it is a fictional novel, not a true story.

Elliott is brilliant in her prose. She did extensive research and creatively wove a story that raises questions and provokes thought. I thoroughly enjoyed EVE and will re-read it. Aya is precocious, Dara is sweet and Naava is manipulative and searching. Elliott does a fabulous job at creating a firm dislike (hatred) for Cain and an endearing 'like' for Abel. Above all, Eve is a complicated character that makes me wonder--what MUST it have been like to know perfection and be cast away from it and still feel loved by God? I highly recommend this book for all the thought full spurring it does. Conclusion: asking questions is way better than having the answers. Bravo Elliott!!