A Very Bloody Book

Alice Hoffman 's latest novel, The Dovekeepers, combines history, religion and witchcraft. The history part is the short period where the Romans threw the Jews out of Jerusalem, cornered them at Masada where they'd lived for several years before making a suicide pact to kill themselves rather than be enslaved by the Romans. The Jewish religion, with all its commandments, is revealed from the woman's point of view. It's The Red Tent in dire circumstances. I call the genre Historic Chick Lit.

The story is told by four characters, tied to each other by religion, blood and witchcraft. One character is raised as a boy and learns the manly art of weaponry, horseback riding and hand-to-hand combat. He's especially good with a bow and arrow, a la the goddess Artemis.
The four women each give their perspectives on love, childbirth and potion-making. I found the story of the Essenes especially interesting. They lived in Masada alongside Jews from other regions of Israel and embraced an ascetic lifestyle that decried bloodshed and focused on scholarship, mainly recording history. They buried these writings at the Masada site just before willingly going to their deaths. These writings were eventually unearthed and are known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, Masada sitting on the Dead Sea. Also exhumed was an early copy of the Hebrew Bible. Some scholars doubt this version to be true.

About two thirds through the book I was tired of all the killing. The romances also began to bore me. The witchcraft thread was ho-hum. I started to drift away from who was whom and what was what. No matter. It was a great read and I highly recommend it, if you're a woman. I know that's sexist of me but there's no man I know who'd be able to stomach this book.

Hoffman's The Red Garden was a better book, less hysterical. I plan to read more of her work.