![]() ![]() uniting the tribes of Israel) doesn’t do much to restrain David’s behaviour. ![]() The Old Testament is, as we all know, full of men behaving badly, and having a prophet around to wring his hands while sanctifying rape, pillage and murder in the cause of a greater good (i.e. Much as I’ve enjoyed Brooks’ books before, this one didn’t really work for me. Since “perhaps” like most people, I’m not familiar with the Tanakh, this had the effect of distancing the story from what little I know of the Old Testament version anyway. Personal and place-names in their transliteration from the Hebrew of the Tanakh: Shaul, Shmuel and Shlomo, for example, rather than the perhaps more familiar Saul, Samuel and Solomon Natan is more commonly known as Nathan, the court prophet for King David. ![]() Narrated by the prophet Natan, the story pads out what little is known from the historical record and of course from the Bible. It’s a fictionalisation of the life of the Biblical David (the one who composed the Psalms) and his quest to unite the tribes of Israel under one king. ![]() It was not quite what I had had in mind as an easy read to romp through in the drowsy days following Christmas and New Year. The Secret Chord is perhaps not one of Geraldine Brook’s most successful novels. ![]()
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