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Title: Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses by Bruce S. Feiler ISBN: 0380977753 Publisher: William Morrow & Co Pub. Date: 20 March, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.92
Rating: 2
Summary: Let this book go!
Comment: Like countless other people before him, Bruce Feiler has taken a tour of the Middle East. OK, maybe more extensive than most people, and with excellent guides, but...what's the big deal here? Does Feiler have anything original or interesting to say? After forcing myself to slog through 428 pages of often painful, pretentious, forced, overwrought, self-indulgent, mystifying (as opposed to mystical), uninspiring, boring "prose," I honestly cannot answer in the affirmative to either question. The only thing I can figure is that this book project gave the author a great excuse to take a cool trip, meet lots of interesting people, and to write something on a high-profile topic (the Bible), which could (potentially) sell a lot of copies, and possibly even push Feiler from a relatively obscure author to a relatively well-known one. Based on the early results (number of high-profile book reviews, interviews, etc.), congratulations may be in order to Feiler, but what's in it for the rest of us? Got me!
The main problem with this book is not really the subject material per se or even the concept, unoriginal as it is (touring the Middle East with Bible in hand - what a brilliant idea!), but more the author's heavy-handed, obvious, forced, cliché-ridden, self-important, numbingly earnest, and sometimes just ridiculous over-the-top style, combined with screamingly obvious "insights" and brilliant revelations (NOT!) behind every rock and donkey (described in typical Feilerese as "Abraham's transportation!"). All I can say to this is: Oh my God!! Where does this all end? I mean, Feiler breathes the air, and it could be the same air Moses breathed! Feiler walks on the ground - the same ground (perhaps) that some other Biblical figure walked on thousands of years ago! Geez, with all this living history all around them, how does anyone living in the Middle East get through their day (I can just hear it now - 'Oh, honey, I'm heading out to the store down the street which a Biblical patriarch might have walked on to get some proverbial milk and honey! Do we need anything else?').
Meanwhile, on sort of a parallel track to Feiler's tedious, seemingly endless (you may feel like YOU have been lost in the desert for 40 years after reading this book!) wanderings through the Middle East is his incredibly annoying journey of "self-discovery." Apparently, for instance, the fact that Feiler was born and raised in the a "flat, sandy place, with pine trees...temperate winters...swampy summers" (he's talking about the American South, by the way), is critical in some mysterious way (never explained) to his powers of observation and psychological "transformation" he claims to experience in the "exaggerated geography" of the Middle East. Also, apparently, there is some cosmic importance (never explained) to the fact that Feiler has always been a "rigid, controlled person," reliant on such horrible things as "reason, skepticism, logic, learning" (a few weeks in the desert, though, and Feiler apparently has switched over to right-brain thinking - "emotion, intution, trust" -- yeah, whatever!!). Phrases (all left unexplained) like "it's as if the act of mapping the land was forcing me to remap my own internal geography" or "suddenly all the ideas I had been contemplating...came together in a flash" or "without verbalizing it, without even understanding it, I knew that this moment...would always be an anchor for me" or - my personal (least) favorite, repeated several times in slight variations throughout the book -- "I felt a quiet snap of release, like a door clicking open in the middle of the night, beckoning me to a place I'd always been afraid to go." Ee gads, Bruce, what the heck are you talking about?!?
So, are there any redeeming qualities to "Walking the Bible?" Well, um, hmmmm...sort of, maybe. The author HAS done a lot of research, and you CAN learn something here. Another definite redeeming quality is Feiler's main companion/guide on this trip: Avner Goren, Israel's chief archaeologist in the Sinai from 1967 to 1982. Goren is a highly likeable character: unforced, warm, natural, boyish, comfortable in his skin, tremendously knowledgeable, wise, and a true native to the desert and the region. Basically, what I wonder is this: why, oh why, couldn't Goren - not Feiler -- have written this book? And also, as Feiler himself asks Goren, "so why did you come on this trip with me?" Good question, and one you may ask yourself if you read this book. Better idea: DON'T read "Walking the Bible." Given the fact that there are many fine books on the Bible, the Middle East, the desert, and journeys of personal discovery (Jim Crace's "Quarantine," for instance) out there, I strongly recommend that you read them instead. As Moses himself might say: "Let Feiler's book go!"
Rating: 5
Summary: A Refreshing New Pilgrimage Through the Bible's Stories
Comment: Walking the Bible is an absorbing & informative travel memoir of Feiler's journeys through the first five books of the Old Testament. Feiler presents a refreshingly different perpective on this subject because he admittedly comes to the project as a young, semi-inactive-in-the-faith Jewish man. What he learns through the trip by reading, interacting, and observing doesn't seem to give him concrete "proof" of the historical veracity of the events, but nonetheless leads him down a path to understanding faith and to realization of the enormous meaning found within the Holy Land. His appreciation for that land and the conflict and beauty found within it are apparent throughout the book, and I found that appreciation to be contagious.
The best thing about this book is that it enlightens and entertains on spiritual, historical, and travel adventure levels. Scholarly views on the interpretation of Biblical events as well as the geography and culture of the Holy Land are researched and well-presented. Avner Goren was a fantastic guide/mentor who has a greater knowledge of pre-historic and Biblical archaeology than most anyone else around -- his input is priceless. I highly recommend this book to anyone with a thirst for more knowledge about Old Testament times in the Holy Land, and particularly to those in their 20s or 30s who may come to the book with backgrounds similar to that of Feiler. I learned quite a bit, particularly in regards to the motivations of Israeli immigrants and Judaistic views on God's interaction with his people during Exodus. And yet that book does not proselytize in any way -- it simply presents the experiences on the journey.
As to those reviewers who critize Feiler's undertaking of the Biblical journey as unoriginal: "Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it." - C.S. Lewis, MERE CHRISTIANITY
I believe that most people will walk away from reading this book glad that they read it, laden with new information and, perhaps, new questions.
Rating: 5
Summary: An amazing journey - an insightful view
Comment: This is an amazing book. While I doubt any of us would have the opportunity (or the traveling companion) that Feiler had in his quest to review the Pentauch, we are richer for his trip. Launching from the premise that the Bible had roots in history and developing culture (if not exactly a fact by fact account), the travelers look to tread where the stories come from, and to read the portions of the first 5 books of the Bible that relate to that location. Thus they can take the land, which is forever written about and under conflict, and the word, which often gets more remote from us, and joins them back together to see what we can learn. The connection begins with the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and the fertile crescent giving birth to Genesis and the patriarchs, and continues through Israel, Egypt and Jordan until Feiler stands on the mountain top where Moses may have seen the promised land and then died.
In addition, there is an exploration of what the bible means today, and what it means to the people who live in the area where the stories take place. The five books of Moses are extremely important becuase they form the starting off point for Judiasm (and later Christianity) and Islam. Thus the area, and the book, have varying importance to a large amount of the world. But does a book written 2-3 thousand years ago still resonate today in the lands of desert and oasis? Feiler finds that it does, even more so than he expected. In the way of discovering a new nuance of our heritage - what is part of our collective cultural history.
The writing is easy going, insightful and fun. The author is able to draw out new visions and stories from one of the most written about areas of the world. I came away from the book with a much better and new understanding of the early stories of the Bible and look at their place in history in a new light. A great read, that teaches you without lecturing to you.
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Title: Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths by Bruce S. Feiler ISBN: 0380977761 Publisher: William Morrow & Co Pub. Date: 17 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: In the Steps of St. Paul by H. V. Morton, Bruce Feiler ISBN: 030681112X Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: April, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden: A Jew's Search for God with Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land by Yossi Klein Halevi, Yossi Klein Halevi ISBN: 0688169082 Publisher: William Morrow & Co Pub. Date: 04 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: In the Steps of the Master by H. V. Morton, Richard John Neuhaus ISBN: 0306810816 Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: April, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Excavating Jesus: Beneath the Stones, Behind the Texts by John Dominic Crossan, Jonathan L. Reed ISBN: 0060616334 Publisher: Harper San Francisco Pub. Date: 02 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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