Rebekah

I picked up a copy of Rebekah, by science-fiction writer Orson Scott Card, from our local library's used book sale. It was the last book I grabbed to fill my $5 bag. I thought it looked interesting, but had fairly low expectations. After all, Card is best known for his science-fiction and fantasy and not historical "fiction."

I wound up pleasantly surprised. About a year ago I read the book The Red Tent by Anita Diamant, which was absolutely terrible and almost completely anti-Biblical.  I was afraid of another book like that, but Card provides a very interesting look into the story of Rebekah, Isaac's wife. He provides some back story to her upbringing in the first half of the book then transitions to a lengthy retelling of the Bible stories. Card stays (mostly) true to the Bible, and the few parts where he diverges are mentioned in the Preface with an explanation for why he interpreted things certain ways.

Card does a fantastic job creating the characters: they are all very real and very human. They each have a unique personality and complex relationships. There's not much beyond the characters, though. The story is mostly familiar (no fault of Card's of course), and the setting is never really developed. The writing itself is fairly easy to read and is mostly dialogue based. I would have loved to see into the minds of the characters a bit more.

In the end, this is an enjoyable and interesting read but probably could have dug a little deeper.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

24 books, 106 days...at this rate I'll read 82 books