From Publishers Weekly
Why did Noah, the one just man of his generation, become the first inebriate in the Bible? Insisting on what the perceptive Shepley terms "the unity, as well as the 'intuition' of the biblical legend," Brelich probes the Scriptures to resolve the apparent indecorum of the venerable patriach. In a genre described by Karl Kerenyi as a "novelized essay," Noah comes in for modern-day analysis, the beneficiary of Freudian thinking and depth psychology as well as the author's wit and well-exercised imagination. Brelich's exegesis includes a theory to explain Noah's 500 years of "dogged sterility" but reaches its height in suggesting Noah's torment in being uniquely aware of the imminent destruction planned by God. As he oversees the construction and provisioning of the ark, Noah is relieved that his family and the villagers deem him mad and therefore do not ask unanswerable questions about survival and extinction, the chosen and the damned. After the flood, Noah cannot forget its victims--but he fears that God can. This exceptionally stimulating work was written in 1954 and first published in 1979 in Italy; Brelich, who shuttled between Hungary and Italy from his 1910 birth in Budapest until he settled in Italy in 1946, died in 1982.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
There has been little literary "speculation" about Noah since the mystery plays of the Middle Ages, which focused on his predicament (absurd) and his relationship with his wife (quarrelsome). In this brief "novelized essay," Brelich (who died in 1982) poses the question: Why did Noah become drunk after he and his family had safely survived the flood? To Brelich, "when the Lord informed Noah that he meant to destroy humanity, a whole world crumbled in the patriarch's soul." He drank, then, to be able to live with himself and his new, intractable God. But in Brelich's story, Noah does not leave us simply with the legacy of the vine but with a transcendent vision of wonder as well: "If man should once succeed in remembering everything that the 'something' in him knows very well," the patriarch tells his sons, "then life would become beautiful again, as beautiful as though it were spent in endless intoxication. . . . Then everything would be as beautiful as in Paradise." This is an elegant gem, beautifully translated, told with humor and humanity. Highly recommended.
- Marcia G. Fuchs, Guilford Free Lib., Ct.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
- Marcia G. Fuchs, Guilford Free Lib., Ct.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
