Amazon.com Review
Turning inside out the traditional view of David as a beloved king and gentle author of the Psalms, India Edghill's well-written debut novel
Queenmaker paints a dark picture of the lauded biblical hero as seen through the eyes of his first wife, Michal. David's silver-tongued way with words captures Michal's heart, but her marriage to him is soon annulled by her half-mad father, King Saul. She's packed off to marry the widowed farmer Phaltiel, whom Michal soon learns to love. When David gains the throne of Israel and sends for Michal, she discovers that David has become a king who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Through courage and wit, Michal must carve out a new life as the queen and wife of a man she now despises. Edghill isn't afraid to change biblical narrative to suit her story, and paints David as a selfish, grasping leader whose feet of clay are all too evident in this tale. Those who like their biblical narrative served straight up and their heroes untarnished may be disturbed by this reassessment; those who like a good story and a new spin on biblical champions, however, will enjoy this unvarnished look at one of Judaism's and Christianity's most lauded personalities.
--Cindy Crosby
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Biblical history is rewritten once again in this imaginative if overheated retelling of King David's life as seen though the eyes of his unhappy first wife. Michal, the daughter of Saul, is married to golden boy David when she is only 13, but even before the wedding her father grows wary of David's power and plots to murder his daughter's about-to-be husband. Michal helps David escape and for her efforts is disowned by her father and married off a second time to a farmer, Phaltiel. In time, she learns to love Phaltiel, and when David comes to claim her 10 years later, she must be dragged away and secretly vows vengeance. For 40 years, she is the first among all of his wives and concubines, and witnesses the intrigues, tragedies and triumphs of his celebrated reign. Through it all, she waits for her chance and seems to find it when David woos beautiful young Bathsheba, the wife of one of his warriors, and makes her pregnant. But Michal, childless herself, finds she loves Bathsheba too much to betray her and devotes herself to grooming Bathsheba's son, Solomon, for the throne of Israel. The fabled slayer of Goliath comes off as a conceited, bloodthirsty womanizer in Edghill's breathless tale, with Michal the power behind the throne, planning and plotting quietly with the sweet demeanor of a submissive wife as her mask. The novel provides a tantalizing glimpse into the past, but fails to deliver full-blooded characterizations or sufficient period flavor, substituting emotion for detail and jarring images for true style ("I laughed until tears dropped off my cheeks to make holes in the dust").
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
