Saturday Sisters: Revisiting a Post

  Awhile back, i compared three novels/novellas about Rahab.  However,
i didn't have this book in hand at the time.  i felt like i was sort of reviewing it blind, since it had been so long since i'd seen my copy.
   When i found it earlier this week, hiding in the shelf where i knew it was, i knew it was time to reread it.
  If you looked at my earlier post, cited above, you will notice the author's name is credited differently. It seems she remarried after this was published.
  Anyway, the book.  In 165 pages, Lansdorf tells the stories of five Biblical women:  Eve, Moses' mother Jochebed, the mother of, Rahab, and two of David's wives, Abigail and Bathsheba.
  In such a short space of pages, of course she can only recap the high points of the stories as presented in the Bible.  However, as authors of Biblical fiction do, she tells the tale from the woman's eyes.  It's a point of view we can overlook when reading Scripture, but one that adds so much to our takeaway.
  Of course, as i've said before, fiction is not to be taken literally.  There is, for example, no Biblical indication that Abigail eventually returned to her home country rather than continuing in Jerusalem, as Lansdorf tells the tale.  But it's a pleasant ending to a faith-enriching story.
  Quick snippets from my impressions:

• Lansdorf's Eve, with her zest and curiosity, reminds me of Twain's Eve.
• Jochebed's story ends with emphasis that she did not see the future she hoped for and believed in. Hebrews 11:13,39
• Rahab was the sort of intelligent girl who asked embarrassing questions, but learned a way to support her elderly husband's inn after he died - and gladly gave it up to follow the God who conquered her city.
• We meet Abigail as she and her household wonder how the death of the prophet Samuel will affect them all.
• Bathsheba is a lonely young woman whose husband loves her, but can't express it.  She reminds me of a character in a Chekov short story, but Bathsheba's ends happily. (and anyone have a clue what story & character i'm thinking of?)