-
Get a Free Issue
of our Ezine!
Summary | Excerpt | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
Book Reviewed by:In The Book of Samson, David Maine has created an unforgettable portrait of a man who believes he is touched by the hand of God---then instructed by that God to slaughter his enemies.
“This is the story of my life and it’s not a happy one. If you wish to read about me you’re welcome to but if you’re looking for something to give you hope & joy comfort & inspiration then you had best leave off here straightaway and go find something else. My life has an abundance of frustration and pain plus a fair bit of sex and lots of killing and broken bones but it’s got precious little hope & joy comfort & inspiration.
It’s got some women in it too plus a wife. Dalila is the one you may have heard of and a rare piece of work she was. You may think you know the story but believe me there’s more.”
--from The Book of Samson
From the author of the acclaimed and provocative novels Fallen and The Preservationist comes a tale about a man who believes he is touched by the hand of God---then instructed by that God to slaughter his enemies. It is the story of “this worldly existence of men & brutes desire & unkindness” and of the woman, Dalila, who figures at the center of it all. In The Book of Samson, David Maine has created an unforgettable portrait, a unique and astonishing masterpiece that puts a face on a previously faceless icon.
Excerpt
The Book of Samson
This is the story of my life and it’s not a happy one. If you wish to read
about me you’re welcome to but if you’re looking for something to give you hope
& joy comfort & inspiration then you had best leave off here straightaway and go
find something else. My life has an abundance of frustration and pain plus a
fair bit of sex and lots of killing and broken bones but it’s got precious
little hope & joy comfort & inspiration.
It’s got some women in it too plus a wife. Dalila is the one you may have
heard of and a rare piece of work she was. You may think you know the story but
believe me there’s more.
It’s an interesting question why anyone would seek hope & joy comfort &
inspiration in a story in the first place. Something to think about. Maybe
because there’s precious little of it in life so we gather up as much as we can
find and put it in our stories where we know where...
Maine returns with The Book of Samson - a rip-roaring and audacious interpretation of the life of Samson, the Herculean hero of the Israelites famed for his big hair, huge strength, weakness for the ladies and ability to kill 3000 in a day with the jawbone of a donkey. It's a fantastically entertaining read as is, but there's also a strong theme running through the text that puts a modern twist on this old tale...continued
Full Review
(992 words)
This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access,
become a member today.
(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
David Maine was born in 1963 and grew up in Farmington, Connecticut. He
attended Oberlin College and the University of Arizona and has worked in the
mental-health systems of Massachusetts and Arizona. He has taught English in
Morocco and Pakistan, and since 1998 has lived in Lahore, Pakistan, with his
wife, journalist and novelist,
Uzma Aslam Khan (author of The Story of Noble Rot, 2001; and
Trespassing, 2003), who was born in Karachi, and has studied and taught English in
the USA, Morocco and Lahore.
The story of Samson appears in the Old Testament Book of Judges. It
also appears in the Tanakh (the sacred book of Judaism, combining the Torah and
other writings) where Samson is known as Shimshon or Simson, which ...
This "beyond the book" feature is available to non-members for a limited time. Join today for full access.
If you liked The Book of Samson, try these:
The Brotherhood of Book Hunters
by Raphael Jerusalmy
Published 2014
A riveting tale of plots and counter-plots that takes place in Jerusalem, France, and Italy in the time of Louis XI.
by Alice Hoffman
Published 2012
Over five years in the writing, The Dovekeepers is Alice Hoffman's most ambitious and mesmerizing novel, a tour de force of imagination and research, set in ancient Israel.
.gif)
The Very Long, Very Strange Life of Isaac Dahl
by Bart Yates
A saga spanning 12 significant days across nearly 100 years in the life of a single man.
.png)
Smothermoss by Alisa Alering
A haunting, imaginative, and twisting tale of two sisters and the menacing, unexplained forces that threaten them and their rural mountain community.