Thirst: The Desert Trilogy [Paperback]

Shulamith Hareven (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1996

All three stories in Thirst: The Desert Trilogy are set during the period concurrent with the dramatic narrative of national trial contained in the Book of Exodus.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It may be unfair to read Shulamith Hareven's historical fiction as an allegory of modern times, but it is difficult not to do so. All three stories in Thirst: The Desert Trilogy are set during the period concurrent with the dramatic narrative of national trial contained in the Book of Exodus. Hareven's short stories are not concerned, however, with the well-known events that mark the Hebrews' time in the wilderness, though Moses and Joshua are both mentioned. Her attention is fixed on the base characters and the difficulties they face before reaching the Promised Land: one man loses his faith when the priests ignore issues of Justice; a young man learns that his father contemplated sacrificing him to settle accounts with God. Hareven, herself a committed political activist involved with Peace Now, may be conjuring the land and stories that shaped the Hebrew people, but her thoughts cannot be entirely unrelated to her hopes for today.

From Publishers Weekly

Hareven, one of few women widely accepted in Israel as a member of that country's intellectual elite, is better known for her eloquent essays than for her fiction. Here, however, three novellas bring to life many of the same issues?justice, Jewish identity, application of religious tenets in real life?explored in her nonfiction (Vocabulary of Peace). Common to all three novellas are Old Testament-era desert settings, as well as Hareven's highly distilled, poetic evocation of place. Set against the Hebrews' 40 years in the wilderness, "The Miracle Hater," involves Eshkar, a young man who is kept from his beloved Baita by strict Jewish elders. When Baita falls ill and dies, Eshkar decides "he wanted nothing more to do with God" until his faith is restored in a story that shows Hareven's subtlety and compassion. "The Prophet," about a Gibeonite who loses his powers of prophecy when his people need them the most, is hindered by the lack of convincing character development. "After Childhood," published here in English for the first-time, offers a female perspective on life in a Jewish desert village. Moran, a shy young woman from the mountains, agrees to marry a longtime bachelor, Salu, so she can move to the desert she's always dreamed of. When Salu is unfaithful, Moran finds solace in her family and land. Throughout, Hareven pinpoints the human perspective in the midst of biblical settings and themes. These are apocryphal tales that, at their best, possess a shimmering, timeless quality.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Mercury House; First edition (April 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1562790889
• ISBN-13: 978-1562790882
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,082,182 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Shulamith Hareven Serves Manna From Heaven, June 10, 2001

By 

Robin Knight (Newtown, Victoria ,Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thirst: The Desert Trilogy (Paperback)

I ordered this book from Amazon because I had been impressed by the author's short story, "My Straw Chairs", included in"The Oxford Book Of Hebrew Short Stories".

"My Straw Chairs" is set in the here and now of Israel, written in the first person , autobiographical style, from the viewpoint of a mature female Academic, a woman such as the author herself, of whom the Oxford Book Of Hebrew Short Stories has this to say:

"Shulamith Hareven, who lives in Jerusalem, was born in Poland in 1931 and reached Palestine in 1940. She served as a medical orderly during the Siege of Jerusalem in 1948. She is now a columnist for the daily "Yedi 'ot Aharanot".She has published fifteen books, including poetry. Anthologies of short stories, novellas, essays, children's books, and thriller. Her work is marked by a wide variety of subject-matter. Whether her central characters are biblical prophets in the desert or cosmopolitan women living in modern -day Jerusalem, their predicament is the same, invariably involving loneliness and alienation, their relationships strained and peculiar."

And in "Thirst,The Desert Trilogy," the "cosmopolitan woman living in modern-day Jerusalem" writes of "biblical prophets in the desert", yet we never meet Moses himself, nor his inner cabinet. Instead the three novellas in the trilogy , "The Miracle Hater, Prophet" and "After Childhood" deal with the bewildered communities who followed them for forty long years, becoming steadily more removed from their origins, more uncertain about their futures, and more alienated from their traditional ways and from each other.

The wandering has been long and tedious. The original emigrants, once so full of confidence, so imbued with the spirit, now barely remember the reasons for their exodus , while for their children, and their children's children, the details of the bright new life promised to them have become a little- believed mythology. Moses has become a remote, legendary figure, and the laws handed to him have become overworked and unworkable, misquoted and misinterpreted- and, by some, periodically, deliberately, ignored as they begin to doubt the power of this God they follow.

They wander, bewildered, lost, unmotivated, unmethodical, gradually scattering, the varied origins of the many clans and tribes accentuating their differences until they are less than cooperating kith and kin and closer to quarrelsome, distrustful neighbours.

Nor is the desert of their wanderings the barren, unpopulated place the Bible would have us believe. Other groups and individuals are encountered by the emigrants- other, inhospitable folk not following this new ONE God, and , while some would learn of Him, some would challenge Him and some would mock. And there are wars, and cities besieged and destroyed and abandoned and resettled. And, all the time, some still wander, and in their bewildered wandering, with always the doubting, the questioning, the uncertainty, and the new horizon forever receding, there is the threat that the old roots will be left to wither, until it seems that only kinship and GROUP and family have any meaning. And gradually the reader comes to realise that these are the tenets the wanderers must grasp, and clasp, and preserve at all costs, so that the traditional rituals that keep the old ways alive in memory will become the bridge between the old world and the new world promised to them, that world which so many of these pilgrims, and those who follow, will never see.

This is an enjoyable book, beautifully written , its readability uncompromised by the awareness of translation, since Shulamith Hareven worked with the translater, Hillel Halkin, to recreate the narrative, which flows as smoothly as the desert sands themselves.

And whether you want to read it to find out about how Jewish people think, and a little of "why", I can recommend "Thirst, The Desert Trilogy"

If your taste is for the kind of insightful writing women seem able to produce, you will enjoy "Thirst"!

And if you hunger for "Food For Thought", Shulamith Hareven has set a banquet before you!

And if you just want "a good read", with no ulterior motive at all, this "Desert Trilogy" will not disappoint.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A vivid drama of characterization, March 15, 2001

By 

M. A. ZAIDI "Ali Zaidi" (Karachi; Pakistan) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Thirst: The Desert Trilogy (Paperback)

In this work, Herevan completes her tales of the Jews' wandering during the time of the biblical exodus. The three novellas included here are linked by theme, setting, and style. In the desert trilogy Hareven brings to life many of the same issues-justice, Jewish identity, application of religious tenets in real life-explored in her nonfiction

"The Miracle Hater" deals with the earliest Israelites, the Children of Israel fleeing Egypt under the leadership of the remote and aloof Moses. It involves Eshkar, a young man who is kept from his beloved Baita by strict Jewish elders. When Baita falls ill and dies, Eshkar decides "he wanted nothing more to do with God" until his faith is restored.

"The Prophet," about a Gibeonite who loses his powers of prophecy when his people need them the most, is hindered by the lack of convincing character development.The plot is set in the ancient landscape of the Judean hills, with the Gibeonites and Israelites as antagonists.

"After Childhood," presents a strong female character, Moran-a woman from the mountains who brings strength and purpose to her husband's desert village. This sequence of the trilogy offers a female perspective on life in a Jewish desert village. Moran, a shy young woman from the mountains, agrees to marry a longtime bachelor, Salu, so she can move to the desert she's always dreamed of. When Salu is unfaithful, Moran finds solace in her family and land.