The Book Of Rachael

Leslie Cannold

Text Publishing

Otago Daily Times, April 16th 2011

Churchill observed that history is written by the victors, but it could equally be said that, at least until recently, history has been written by men.  With a few notable exceptions (Elizabeth, Cleopatra, Victoria, Boudicca, Joan of Arc), women rarely take centre stage, and their voices are seldom represented. 

Although feminism has created the space for herstory, the lack primary sources from times and cultures where women were excluded from education, enterprise and life outside the home means the female experience of day-to-day life remains largely the stuff of novels.  This need not relegate it to the realm of the purely fictional, however.  Stories are not only an entertainment but also a way of remembering our past, and one way to gain a fresh perspective on history is to retell it through different eyes.  Handled well, they can be a powerful tool not only to remind us of the subjectivity of historical accounts but also to give imagined characters an existence within a real place and time.  Enthralling and thought provoking, The Book of Rachael is an example of just how effective this approach can be.

The novel is set two thousand years ago in Nazareth, a farming village in the Northern Israeli province of Galilee. Although the townsfolk resent the tithes taken by the country’s many rulers, Rome, King Herod and the priests of the Jerusalem Temple, these are as much a part of the annual cycle as the winter rains.  Some of the younger men join the resistance fighters in the hills, but most people concentrate on matters of day-to-day life, shaped by the rhythm of the seasons and religious observance. 

Even the rebels return home for harvest and Passover, and Jewish rather than Roman laws hold sway.  Rachael is the youngest daughter of the village carpenter, Yoseph, and from the age of five she knows she does not belong.  Unlike her older sister Shona, she is neither pretty nor accomplished at housework, and her attempts to earn praise from her mother, Miriame, bring only admonition and punishment.  When her brothers stumble over the words of the Passover prayer she steps forward to speak, even though she as never learnt Hebrew and knows it is forbidden for female lips to shape the language of Law. 

While her father acclaims it a miracle, her mother punishes and shames her until she accepts the fate of being female and swaps her dreams of freedom for a kitchen broom.  Then Shona is raped and forced to marry her attacker, and Rachael’s rebellion returns.  She secretly learns to read and write from her father and brother Joshua, and healing from the elderly midwife Bindy. In so doing, she discovers a circle of women who worship the Heavenly Queen but is ultimately frustrated by their refusal to openly resist the Elders. 

Marriage to her brother’s childhood friend and rebel leader Judah, brings temporary happiness, but it is not to last.  Joshua has left Nazareth and begun to speak against the religious hierarchy, blessing the poor and the sick while condemning the priests for their greed.  When Judah learns that Joshua plans to preach in Jerusalem, he and Rachel go to help protect him, actions that ultimately end in tragedy.

In summarising the plot I give nothing away, for this is a tale with which we are all familiar.  While the examination of the historical roots of this legend is fascinating, the central focus of The Book of Rachael is the women of Nazareth; their lives and concerns, their devotions and small acts of disobedience, their different ways of reconciling themselves with the limits of their lives.  I was completely drawn into their world and found it almost impossible to put down. 

An ethicist and researcher, this is Cannold’s first work of non-fiction.  Although she refrains from describing it as historical fiction, citing the lack of verifiable evidence, she has read widely to create a realistic time and place for her characters to inhabit.  In so doing, she succeeds not only in writing women back into history but also examining the foundations of one of our most enduring religious stories.

https://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/books/women-nazareth-take-centre-stage