Customer Reviews

The Gilded Chamber : A Novel of Queen Esther

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4 star:		(8)
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2 star:		(7)
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I was ambivalent about rating and reviewing Rebecca Kohn's "The Gilded Chamber." It really had very little impact on me and, frankly, it left me flat - which surprised me. The story of Queen Esther is one of the most exciting parts of the Old Testament/Tanakh. The journey of the orphaned Jewish girl chosen in a nationwide beauty contest to become the wife of Xerxes I, and Queen of Persia, who ultimately saves her people from annihilation, is extraordinary. It emphasizes the miracle of Jewish survival over the millennia and is rich in religious significance. I found this novel somewhat flawed and not powerful enough to do justice to this great story. However, Ms. Kohn's narrative, although it deviates from the original story, is fluid and she does entertain and inform. For these reasons I believe the book is worth reading

Many have compared "The Gilded Chamber" to Anita Diamant's "The Red Tent." The only similarities I find are that both books deal with important women from the Old Testament. Ms. Diamant's novel of Dinah, Jacob's only daughter, is powerful, gritty, earthy, tragic and extremely original. There is little written in the Bible about Dinah, so much of the novel is based on the author's creativity and imagination. Rebecca Kohn's novel of Queen Esther, is a somewhat literal retelling of The Book Of Esther, although the role of Mordechai is much less significant here. Oddly, Mordechai is Esther's unrequited love interest, rather than her uncle. I don't understand the role change, as it really doesn't enhance the story. Why does Esther continue to have romantic feelings about the seemingly asexual Mordechai - especially when he does not reciprocate her feelings? Also, I would think that the historical Esther would have had to have been an extremely strong woman to accomplish what she did, let alone to survive in the court of Xerxes. Kohn's Esther comes across as a woman of little depth. She is subservient, dependent, and docile much of the time. I was unable to determine what her feelings were for her husband, Xerxes.

Much of "The Gilded Chamber" is set in a harem and affords the reader with a glimpse of life among the pampered concubines. I thought Esther's experience living amongst a group of women, confined to closed quarters, to be somewhat superficial. There is much emphasis on luxurious beauty treatments, silks and other finery, lavish jewelry, and occasional power struggles and little about relationships or about what the queen did on a daily basis beside beautify herself. What did she think? What did she do that had meaning - before and after she pled for the lives of her people?

While many of the main characters are Jewish, no one seems particularly devout not do they observe Jewish laws. Mordechai is not a practicing Jew and he encourages Esther to follow his lead in this. The characters are very one dimensional - the good are very, very good, and the bad are just plain evil. I would have liked the author to have given them much more depth.

That said, I do recommend reading "The Gilded Chamber" because, as I wrote earlier, it's a great story and Ms. Kohn writes it well.
JANA

For those of us expecting a novel like Anita Diamant's The Red Tent, this book is a big disappointment. The Red Tent is about women's relationships with each other, and tells of -albeit fictional- background that may help our understanding of Biblical events. This book is written by and about one person, Esther. Esther is clearly the innocent heroine, the perfect victim who rises to every occasion as she is prepared for one task, to sexually please King Xerxes (known to many of us as King Ahasueros).

This is a romance novel! That's the only explanation and the only possible category for it. Pity, because it appears that the author did a good amount of research into the history and lifestyles of the harem and royalty. But it's a romance novel, with the girl and the two men, one the beloved and one the powerful. It's an overdone theme, and it's not worthy of the story of Esther.

I couldn't put this one down! one of the best reading experiences I had in a long, long time, I really felt connected and sympathetic to Esther and her situation, Very well written, A Rich and involving Book I RECOMMEND IT WARMLY!!!

First a disclaimer: Ms Kohn is a neighbor and a friend--so some partiality is likely unavoidable in this review. That said, it was a considerable relief to open the pages of the book and find that no partisanship would be required to sing its praises. I read the first hundred pages in one gulp and was captivated. The story of Esther is one we know so well that we may cease to consider what it really means. Its characters are become so iconic we may forget they were human beings. Ms Kohn makes the story fresh and exciting, not least by expanding upon the character of Esther so that her actions are those of an engaging woman whose motivations we understand and whose courage we respect. Granting us a new look at the old tale, Ms Kohn makes us consider its lessons anew and they are as timely today as they were thousands of years ago.

The Biblical account of Esther is intact here, but Ms Kohn does take some liberties around it. For one thing, she has the young Jewish girl Haddasah initially betrothed to Mordechai, before being sent to the harem of King Xerxes. Mordechai himself has taken on the coloration of the court and of the worshippers of Ahura Mazda and urges the young Haddasah to: "Let yourself be known only as Esther, foster daughter of Marduka the Babylonian." Then the great bulk of the action occurs in the harem. The novel focuses on how Esther learns to wield political power within that closed world, which will serve her in good stead when she later needs to affect the wide world. She develops believable relationships with the other women, servants and eunuchs of the harem and Ms Kohn is particularly good at portraying the internal conflict that being Jewish and loving Mordechai causes Esther as she is forced to disguise her true religion and serve a king she does not love:

I could eat the food of the harem. I could submit myself to the authority of a eunuch. I could go in to the king as a virgin and return to the harem as a harlot. I could live a life like [her servant] Puah's, with little joy over the generations.

But I could not worship the gods that were an abomination to my father. I could not betray Avihail, whose living seed remained in none other than me. I could not crush the memory of his righteous ways.

I had hoped to fulfill my days in Mordechai's household and to give him strong sons. Mordechai was a stranger to his people's ways, but my father would have lived on through the generations of our children's children. For Mordechai was still a Jew in his heart. He would walk among the idolaters, but he would not worship a stranger's gods.

And I could not do so now.
This doubleness is, of course, the key to the story, indeed to much of Jewish history. The struggle of a stateless Jewish people to conform sufficiently on the outside to fit into hostile societies but to maintain their faith and their traditions internally has played out for thousands of years, often with tragic results. As we look back at the story of Mordechai and Esther through the tragic lens of the Holocaust we can see how dangerous the tale is with its suggestion that if only the Jewish people are sufficiently righteous before G-d and pleasing in the eyes of their temporal rulers they will be spared, or at least empowered to protect themselves. Here are the most fateful Bible verses:

[E]sther spake unto Hatach, and gave him commandment unto Mor'decai;

All the king's servants, and the people of the king's provinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law of his to put him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden sceptre, that he may live: but I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days.

And they told to Mor'decai Esther's words.

Then Mor'decai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews.

For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
It's almost unbearably harsh to contemplate, but perhaps the lesson of the Holocaust is that the charge Mordechai places upon Esther applies to every Jew, to speak and act against injustice directed at their people lest they fall prey to it themselves.

At any rate, if the fictionalized portions of the book flesh out the characters it is when the biblical events return that the novel achieves great drama. The contest between Haman and Mordechai, with Esther ultimately determining the outcome, is thrilling even in the Bible's bare bones version, but all the more so once Ms Kohn has personalized it for us. At a time when every women's book club in America is fretting about its next choice and the box office and best-seller charts are topped by religion-themed works, the novel should find a wide audience and it richly deserves one.

Having seen all the comparisons with Anita Diamant's THE RED TENT, I knew that I had to read this book. I can't say that the comparisons were valid. While the story and topic were interesting and the writing fast and easy to follow, I can't say that I ever felt captivated or motivated to continue. Although I did finally finish the book, it never had that "can't wait to get to the next page" feel. And the ending was so anti-climactic! One question bothered me throughout: Why was Esther so head-over-heels in love with her cousin and unwilling to let go of an impossible dream of being with him? She barely knew him and he showed no signs of returning any of her affections. Enough said..I won't blow the whole story for you.

A quote on the front of my copy of this book compares this novel to The Red Tent and Memoirs of a Geisha. Thankfully, I found it more like the latter than the former. It is like The Red Tent in that the underlying story is found in the Old Testament, but while The Gilded Chamber does take a few liberties with the Old Testament account (particularly the apocryphal account if you are familiar with that) the essence of the biblical account remains mostly intact. In other words, Esther and Mordecai remain at their core monotheistic Jews trying to survive in a hostile religious environment. Yes, they make compromises but in the end they remain religious Jews. In contrast, The Red Tent completely changes the religion of the main characters and turns the lives of the Jewish patriarchs into pagans or blithering monotheistic idiots. Yes, there is a lot of sex and sexual politics in all of the novels mentioned but it is not gratuitous. These are essential elements for understanding the lives and politics of a world that is unlike anything most sheltered American women would ever have to endure. Like Memoirs does for the closed Japanese world of the Geisha, The Gilded Chamber does for the life of women in an ancient Persian harem with a rich tapestry of cultural details. It speculates on what Esther might have had to endure to simply survive in a world where one's worth rested soley on the kings' favor. In a way, Esther faced choices similar to that of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof....how much can you compromise and remain true to what you believe? Too often, we view the story of Esther through our modern western eyes as a kind of ancient Cinderella tale. The truth was probably far from a happy-ending-type fairy tale. I particularly liked that the narrative did not end with the events told about in the Bible but speculated on Esther's life to the time of Xerxes' death and her escape from the harem as Vashti's son was crowned king.

I learned something from the notes at the end of the book. Apparently there is a tomb in Iran called The Tomb of Mordecai and Esther. Wouldn't it be something if the two were reunited at the end?

This book stuck with me for a few days, I loved this version of what possibly could have happened. It's a short enough read--doesn't take long to finish--you'll enjoy it!

I am a historical fiction lover but at times I enjoy some scheming, backstabbing and romance sprinkled into novels. This book was all of those things in one. The book was beautifully written and it made me feel like I was living in King Xerxes palace. Esther is this beautiful, strong heroine who you just want to see happy after all she is put through. I loved The Red Tent just as much as I loved this book!

Amazing story that brought to life the scriptures. It reminded me of The Red Tent and as with that book, I found it very difficult to put The Gilded Chamber down. I am now reading Marek Halter's Sarah, which is equally as good and thus I recommend also.

The one thing I did not care for in this book was the frequent descriptive sex, which I thought could have been less explicit and less "described" and detailed. There are ways to speak about what occurs in a sexual act without giving the reader a somewhat explicit image in their head as they read.

I read Esther again from the KJV side to side with Esther and found it helpful to see the parallels.

Thank you Rebecca for a lovely book...... please write some more! Perhaps a book on Deborah the prophetess?

I enjoyed reading the book. It was a quick read, I didn't want to put it down. I know the story of Esther, and enjoyed how the book helped me relate to the times and trials. I hope to see more from Rebecca Kohn.