“The Book of Longings” by Sue Monk Kidd is the story of the fictional wife of Jesus, a strong-willed woman named Ana. She is a scholar and a writer, lover of words, and teller of women’s hard stories. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up this book. It started out a little slow in my opinion, with Anna facing being married off to a possibly abusive older husband. Ana, however, takes fate into her own hands and ends up on a long journey to find her destiny and pursue her passions. Along the way, she falls in love and marries Jesus, but this is not a biblical story. Ana is fictional, and Jesus is not said to be married in the Bible. However, is it impossible he could have been married? Women’s voices were so often silenced and erased during that time, that if Jesus had had a wife, it may not have been mentioned at all. But this story is not about Jesus. It is about the women behind the men of history – Jesus’s wife, mother, sisters, extended family. It is based in historical accounts (well-researched), but largely fictional – a Bible fanfiction. I recommend reading the author’s note at the end as it explains Kidd’s point of view on this topic.

I most enjoyed that Ana was a writer. She was compelled to write the stories of women to record them for history – especially the injustices done to the women she knows. She writes about rape, the death of a child, separated mothers and children, and more. This is radical, but very interesting to imagine that women like Ana, real women, not fictional women, surely existed and were erased from history for being as bold in finding and expressing their voice. Throughout her marriage to Jesus, his pet name for her is Little Thunder, which speaks to her powerful spirit. He heard and acknowledged the largeness inside her. I enjoyed reading about her journey and what it meant to be a strong woman in her time. The final line of the book describes it perfectly: “I am Ana, wife of Jesus, and I have a voice.”

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Created Jul 17, 2020 at 4:05pm • Submit your own review...