Customer Reviews

Writing the Book of Ester

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American-born Celia David, a 29 year-old recent divorcee, teaches English at a French lycee in the Loire Valley. She loves learning about different cultures and living outside the US, but has grown uncomfortable with what she perceives to be a growing fanaticism and lack of tolerance in the world - even in France. Celia has become increasingly fascinated with one of her students, a 19-year-old Iranian, Mehdi Asquari. He is sensitive, handsome and amazingly mature. Mehdi's father, deceased, was a Muslim. His mother, Ester, a Jewess, is in prison in Hamadan, Iran, the burial place of the Biblical Queen Esther, for writing provocative journalism. Hers was a woman's voice in a male dominated society.

As Mehdi's and Celia's relationship becomes intimate, he talks more about his mother, whose story intrigues Celia. She creates a book-like journal where she combines fiction, fantasy and fact to parallel the contemporary Ester and the Old Testament Persian Queen Esther, and finds both strength and defiance in these two women. The biblical Esther had to hide her Judaism from King Xerxes I, (King Ahasuerus in Hebrew), and his court in order to survive. Mehdi's mother had to convert to Islam to marry but, in her heart, remains true to her people and religion. She maintains her cover as a Muslim after her husband's death, to help the Iranian Jews. Efforts are made to free Ester and bring her to France to join her children.

Mehdi has a twin sister Zahra, also studying in France, who does everything she can to deny her Iranian heritage, including dye her hair blonde and pretend to be Italian. Their relationship is fraught with tension and secrets, which eventually put Mehdi's life at risk. Celia cannot fathom how Zahra and Medhi navigate life as Muslims, Jews and Iranians living in an intolerant world.

Louise Domaratius's prose is elegant, lyrical and intense. She intertwines biblical passages with her narrative, giving it additional scope and illustrating incidents of intolerance and evil, as well as good, in ancient times as well as the present. The unusual love story is told with depth and delicacy. I wish that her writing was tighter. Her cast of characters is too large and detracts, at times, from Celia's magical creativity, and from Mehdi, who inspires her. Overall, definitely recommended reading!
JANA

Once again, Louise Domaratius has written of what she knows, lyrically & richly, as if weaving a vibrant tapestry of delights & sorrows.

An American-born English teacher in the Loire Valley, meets a mysterious, mature student from Iran, with a heart-wrenching & fascinating history to tell.

As Mehdi's stories unfold, Celia finds herself likening his mother to the Biblical Jewish wife of the King of Persia, for she too is Jewish & has been imprisoned in Tehran for using her journalism to call for freedom of her people, & sent her children to be free in the West.

WRITING THE BOOK OF ESTER is intense, dreamy & radiant with affection, intuition, drama & insights, braiding together Biblical passages giving an ancient scope to our modern struggles, as history mingles with everyday life, both in Iran & France.

If you haven't already read this author's first book, GADJI, do give yourself a treat.

Louise Domaratius' first novel, Gadji, introduced a refreshing new talent to the literary scene. What does that mean? Simply that she combines a sympathetic authorial voice with a serious analysis of the malaise at the heart of European society.

Her second novel, however, takes that analysis to new heights. Believable characters, caught up in the injustices of the modern world, try to live their lives as if they can be free of the political and social web that entraps them. Of course they can't and we see how modern French society, which would so like to project an image of compassion and sophistication to the world at large, is in fact hard pressed to deal with the pressures put upon it.

Louise Domaratius writes with insight and compassion. Her language glistens with a poetic quality. Anyone who believes that the modern novels should be more than froth and titillation will appreciate the depth of her vision and her ability to move the reader to tears of sympathy with the characters and frustration with the state of our world.