Customer Reviews

Pilate's Wife: A Novel of the Roman Empire

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

May's Claudia resembles an airheaded, self-indulged American socialite traipsing through ancient Rome. The book is mostly a series of vignettes describing her costumes, villas and parties. The other characters in the story are hollow, wooden and inscrutable. Historical events and the tragedies surrounding her are rolled through in as footnotes. Claudia's reaction is usually a few words of dismay before she heads off to another party or liaison with her gladiator.

Sillyness pervades the novel. The wedding of Jesus tops the cake--held at his rich uncle's villa, which May describes as the biggest and flashest house in the region, to a wealthy ex-Roman courtesan. There is a crisis at the wedding, they run out of wine!! No problem, Jesus to the rescue turning jugs of water to wine! Ok.

If you're looking for a light romance novel this might be an interesting diversion. If you are a fan of historical fiction I would steer away.

I've done a lot of reading on the times involved in The Da Vinci Code story, including the alternate theories of Mary Magdalene, Jesus, his mother and followers. I was very intrigued when Pilate's Wife came out - offering to cover this same time period from the point of view of Pontius Pilate's dream-seeing partner.

I *love* the Mists of Avalon story, where dream-seeing young Morgause is brought up by her mom and powerfully-driven aunt. I immediately saw the similarities here. Both begin with a young girl on the cusp of womanhood, seeing visions, which the adults around her sometimes dismiss and sometimes pay attention to. With Claudia, she grows up in a military family, only coming into the grand city of Rome after a childhood in army camps. Her family is extremely powerful, so she mixes with the high and mighty, sitting besides Tiberius at the gladiator games, living the high life.

In short time she has dedicated herself to Isis (against her father's wishes), become obsessed with Pilate and drugs him with a love potion, then marries him. But all the not-so-subtle warnings of the potion provider go right over her head - he quickly starts having affairs. Soon she becomes obsessed with a muscular gladiator and starts sleeping with him. It's only at the very end of the book that she actually runs into Jesus, and it's a Forest Gump situation - suddenly she's at every key scene with him. I was surprised that she wasn't at the Last Supper somehow.

There are many aspects of the story which I really enjoyed. I liked the descriptions of the lives of the Vestal Virgins, the political intrigues of Tiberius, the descriptions of ancient towns of all sizes and styles. The story kept me involved and reading to the end through one sitting.

This is my own bias, but it really bugged me that Mary Magdalene was presented in this story as a whore. This was a mistake made by Pope Gregory in 591 which propagated until 1969, when the Vatican admitted the error. The fact that a modern book *still* has to say that the only way this wealthy woman could support Jesus was by selling her body irks me to no end. I'm quite fine with the theory - true or invented - that Jesus married her. We know he "loved" her, and that can be interpreted as a loyal follower or as someone he kissed and was intimate with. But in this book she was cast out by her family for being raped, then makes her fortune by sleeping around with wealthy men. Jesus' mom dislikes Mary quite vehemently and is sulky at their wedding.

Another nit-pick which bugged me is that when (in again a Forest Gump situation) Claudia runs into Jesus as a child in Egypt, Jesus says his name is Yeshua, known by the Romans as Jesus. Hah! If he went around telling people his name was Yeshua as a child, that is what they would call him. In *Greek writing* the name is Iesus since Greek doesn't have a "Y" or "sh" letter, and then they put Ss at the end of their names. So that would be pronounced "eeae-soos" . The only reason there is a J in there is because of the Germans, who use the J letter for a I sound. They also meant for it to be said "eeae-soos". It's only the ignorant English who saw that and started pronouncing it with a J sound. That was *long* long after his death. So the English all mis-pronounce his name.

Many researchers feel that the reason the gospels slanted towards "Jews caused it all, the friendly Romans tried their best to stop it" was because the gospels were written during times the Romans were in power. It's like a newspaper in Germany in WWII slanting pro-Germany. It's something that happens. To have this book push so heavily that "it was all the nasty Jews' fault - those poor Romans were completely on Jesus' side" seemed unrealistic to me.

The book slips into the "ha ha we future people can laugh at your past mistaken ideas" situation a few times. The characters will make comments along the lines of "Nobody will remember this silly messiah in the future" that we the reader are supposed to chuckle at. I don't mind these when they are subtle and fit into the storyline, but the ones here were rather on the blatant side.

For some reason, I also found the clothing discussions confusing. I do enjoy visualizing what the characters look like and how typical dress was worn - but the use of strange terms without enough description of how they looked or were worn made it hard to do. It actually got frustrating when the story would then mention a term, because it was a reminder that I still didn't know what that item was.

In general, I had trouble sympathizing with Claudia. While Morgause in Mists of Avalon was smart and engaging - even while she had typical angst and issues during her life - Claudia seemed incredibly self absorbed and shallow. All she wants is to dedicate herself to Isis. No wait, all she wants is Pilate by her side. Oh wait, all she wants is her uncle to live, forget how Pilate feels. Wait, all she wants is to rut with a gladiator she saw once or twice.

I suppose you could argue that she has to go with the "do what you want NOW, damn the consequences" lifestyle because all around her she sees betrayals at any moment. Her sister, for one brief teen sexual encounter, is condemned to a life as a celibate. When she later has a sexual encounter, she is buried alive. Her parents both are forced to commit suicide. Her uncle is cursed and dies. She has a miscarriage. Other cousins of hers are slain. Still, it would have been nice to get the sense that she was making these choices rationally. I hate to keep comparing the book to Mists, but in Mists you really got a sense of the power of the attraction between Morgause and the men she fell for - and the difficulty of some of the decisions she made. In Pilate's Wife, it was more like a fleeting thought passed through her brain, and she became obsessed with it.

I think if the story had revolved around "random nobility" that these issues wouldn't have bothered me nearly the same. The issue is that Antoinette May is writing about very important people in history - people who have been researched and studied. It's the same issue as with the Da Vinci Code. You need to get those basic, important facts correct if we are going to be able to immerse ourselves in the world. If there are inaccuracies, it jars you out of that immersion.

Still, even though I kept hitting issues that made me wince, the general storytelling drew me along, and as I mentioned, I did read the book straight through and enjoyed it. So go into it knowing that these things exist, and read it for what it does offer. If Antoinette writes her next book about less well known people, I think I'll enjoy it much more!

Between Dan Brown and Francine Rivers the author did not have an original idea to call her own. I found that for her `historical research' she had to go no farther than the Mark of the Lion series, with her secular ideas being borrowed from Brown. Whether you are looking for alternative ideas regarding the deity of Christ or insight into Roman culture you will find this book unoriginal in either regard.

Pilate's Wife is one of those books made unlikeable by big historical errors. While I felt she did have a good handle on the culture, the details were *so* off, such as Caligula's age (14 before his father's death? He was seven when his father died) and when exactly Germanicus died (19 CE, not 22/3 as she claims). The worst part about the historical errors was that I couldn't understand why she even made them- they're easy things to research and the plot wouldn't have been damaged by the changes in dates or ages, with the exception of Caligula's seduction of Marcella (which would have been hard at the age of nine). As a fanatic for anything about Rome, this jerked me out of the story; I never was fully emmersed in her world after that.

The writing wasn't bad and her characters were intriguing, if not wholly sympathetic. Like other reviewers, I felt like the main plot of the book didn't start until the end and was overall a little muddled. Had there been a clarity of vision, it may have worked better.

...the theological issues May gets wrong are SO wrong, I wanted to throw the book across the room.

It's obvious the author did a lot of research except when it comes to Christianity and the values placed on key characters of the faith. Yeshua (Jesus) in a temple of Isis? I don't think so. Miriam of Magdala (thank you for at least getting the names right)as a whore. What the early church got wrong, the author reiterated. Yeshua married? Come on ... Miriam, the mother of Yeshua/Jesus holding on to idols form Egypt. Puh-lease.

Just stick to Claudia's story, which you did well, until you started messing with the Christian faith and all it stands for.

Eva Marie Everson
Reflections of God's Holy Land: A Personal Journey Through Israel

Pilate's Wife has some real promise. I was intrigued by Claudia's character and her "visions" which predicted Jesus' death. Her life was extremely interesting and tragic. I might have scored it 4 1/2 or 5 stars if she hadn't taken liberties by writing that Miriam (Mary Magdalene) and Jesus got married. Otherwise an interesting book when kept me reading.

Mary and Jesus worshipping Isis? Back to the library with YOU. The author appears to be Dan Brown's sister.

First I have to commend Antoinette May for her writing skills. She is a great story teller and keeps the interest of the reader. Yet the lack of historical research and content of story was left to the wayside. I found the novel a bit unbelievable and more 21st Century than 1st Century.

Well written as more of a glimpse into Roman life than anything else. Author has rewritten history, but if you go into the book realizing it, then you may enjoy it. I borrowed it from he library so no regrets.

I have a great interest in history and in ancient Palestine so I hoped this book would take documented incidents and weave in the culture and daily life. While the descriptions of clothing, housing, the marketplace and transportation were quite interesting, Ms. May STRETCHES the truth beyond my level of patience. Jesus' 'marriage' at Cana was one of the many liberties taken with history and Biblical tradition. I am not sure if she has an agenda or if she just wanted to spice things up. But it made me wonder at the accuracy of her characters and activities. Many are well known and so these fabrications were quite obvious. It made me wonder if the rest of the verbiage (descriptions of life in Rome and its colonies) contained any semblence of reality. However it's a good story and like many of these fictionalized histories is a good beach book.