Customer Reviews

King David

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Massie has written solid well researched historical novels that throw a clear light on the era being written about and his trilogy about Rome -Augustus,Tiberius ,and Caesar -had me going back to the history of the period seeking more information.
Sadly ,his book about King David has not evoked such a reaction and to be truthful I found the whole thing rather dull.
The story it tells is a familiar one to anybody whose education covered the Bible.
It is told in flashback with an ailing David reminiscing about his life.We are taken back through events familiar from the Biblical story-his anointing at the hands of the prophet Samuel,his first visit to the court of the stricken Saul to whom he brings comfort with his music,the clash with Goliath ,the rupture with Saul and his guerilla campaign against him culminating in his seizure of the throne and the personal and dynastic tragedies that arise from his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba
The book will not please the overly pious for the David that emerges from the book is a politician not above placing a religious spin on actions motivated by political and personal self interest,and the book is candid about his bisexuality .This is not a likeable man abut one whose vision for his people rendered him an effective leader but whose libido got in the way rather too often to render him truly dedicated or great
The opening half of the book is fine but it got a bit bogged down in political manipulation and dynastic complications and the last section dragged, not helped by rather flat and functional writing that never took wing
The real value -in my view -of the historical novel-is that it can make us more aware of the people and events of remote eras and send us back to the sources .This did neither and for this reason I rate it as average-no more

While admirably written, the real power of this book is its thoughtful examination of David's mental process. Through David's candid first-person narration in the form of a confession-like retrospective given near the end of his life, Massie effectively animates a wonderfully complex, conflicted character who is simulatenously simple in his faith, on the one hand, and offensively arrogant in his lust and ambition, on the other. Whether authentically capturing David's true thoughts or not, the book prompted me to ponder the life, attitude and feelings of David in a way that made him much more real and subtle than the monolithic conception I had previously gained from Sunday School. It really transported me to the time and the place of the novel.