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Liked It “Miriam has secrets, don't we all? Only hers threaten her life. She has seizures, and in ancient Israel this immediately marks her as tainted. Only Abraham, the son of Miriam's caretaker, understands. Abraham is also unclean, a perfect mind in an imperfect body. Friendship quickly develops between...” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“Miriam has secrets, don't we all? Only hers threaten her life. She has seizures, and in ancient Israel this immediately marks her as tainted. Only Abraham, the son of Miriam's caretaker, understands. Abraham is also unclean, a perfect mind in an imperfect body. Friendship quickly develops between them and eventually transforms to love. This will be either Miriam's greatest happiness or her biggest downfall...
November Witch wrote this review 5 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
The gripping and beautifully written story of the girl who will grow up to be Mary Magdalene. ”
“In my opinion, Mary Magdalene is one of the most mysterious women mentioned in the Bible. According to the Bible, she was a follower of Jesus, who cast out seven demons from within her. I found this story fascinating and thought that it dovetailed very well with what little is known of Mary from the Bible. I especially appreciated the alternate explanation for cause of the "seven demons" within Mary. The only part of the story that I found hard to believe was the freedom that Mary's father allowed her. She was allowed to wander alone frequently as a child and young woman, and her father didn't protest at all when the romance with Abraham blossomed within his own house. I understand from the story that he loved his daughter dearly, but found it hard to believe that that any Jewish father would have been quite that lenient. So for that reason I took away a half star, otherwise this would have been a five star book for me.”
doughgirl5562 wrote this review Wednesday, August 26 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“This is not a very long book - I read it in one evening. It is good that it was pretty short, because I could not put it down. It is fiction - there is no attempt by the author to claim that there is anything Biblically accurate about the story. The book ends where Mary Magdalene (Miriam in the book) first meets Jesus (Joshua in the book). But it is a beautifully imagined story and the depiction of the place and time is believable. The losses Miriam suffers in her short life are indeed tragic, but there is a point near the end where she realizes that everything she has gone through in her life so far has prepared her for "this moment". She rises to the moment and restores her own life and purpose to herself. I liked the book, so much so that I may even seek out others by this author.”
BookSnake wrote this review Monday, July 7 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“This book offers an interesting perspective. Napoli does an excellent job showing the reader both how different life for women was at the time of Mary Magdelene and how truly radical John the Baptist and Christ were. I think as long as you remember to appreciate that the book is a work of fiction (and Napoli does not try to portray it as anything other than that), it does a beautiful job of fleshing out an oft-misunderstood biblical character. ”
Sonja P wrote this review Friday, April 4 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“This retelling of the Mary Magdalene story paints a very different picture from the one in the Bible. A lovely, moving story.”
estellasrevenge wrote this review Sunday, September 2 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“A wonderful YA book, Song of the Magdalene is both very sad and hopeful. It tells the fictionalized story of Miriiam's childhood and young adult life and tells of the difculties and disasters and public scorn which prepared her to follow the Jewish healer Joshua (Jesus' Romanized name). Incredible interesting, the book paints a vivid picture of what it was like ot be a woman of Isreal at the tiem of Jesus.
Daisy Barksby-Pryce wrote this review Thursday, March 15 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Great read!”
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