Having seen enough of the results of autonomy and imagination with Adam and Eve, and dull obedience in the shape of the dutiful Noah, God tried once more to infiltrate humanity by seeking a solitary man whose history he could control and develop. Abraham was his chosen one. But accidents happen, unforeseen consequences of the best laid plans. Not even God, it appears, is exempt from jealousy. When the Lord made his final creation on earth, love came along for the ride and caused havoc, even to the Creator himself. Between the way of the world and the way of love, no one is safe. As the Creator and the barren wife wage war, they struggle not only over the affections of Abraham, and control of posterity, but the very notion of truth and storytelling. This brilliant, bitter-comic love story asks awkward questions about the nature of love and faith, and incidentally throws new light on the motivations of our superior Being...
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Take one grandiose, petulant God, add (his?) Abram and Sarai from Genesis, put the iconoclastic Sarai centre-stage, and you have the makings of Jenny Diski's eighth novel, Only Human: A Comedy. Readers have come to count on Diski's work for its uncomfortable challenges and witty subversions. Here she tackles the biblical account of origins, but her version is filled with sly volte-faces and lovely twists: Who creates who? Who can claim ownership of the grand narrative? Why believe?
Sarai's story is one of innocence tempered by longings that harden into a refusal to suffer fools gladly--and that includes Abram for his obedient faith in his God, as well as this quixotic God himself. In alternating voices this aggrieved, easily dumbfounded God speaks to us in the first person, admitting to being astounded by the inventiveness of humans, and foxed by their desire to become us, when what he has shown them is his eternal I am. Abram's and Sarai's trials and tribulations are many and great: shame and exile, desert wanderings, and, most terrible of all, Sarai's barrenness, which she accepts as "the way of the world", but Abram is consumed by the loss of his begetting. God, meantime, stamps and stomps, and peppers his watchfulness with what he learns from his humans until "I had my fill of mankind and its seething, fleshy, unreliable ways" and so decides that he will become "ahead of the game". What he hadn't bargained for was love--and the consequent desolations of loss. Becoming all too human, he wants to be loved by Abram, and is consumed by jealousy and revenge towards Sarai. He plots against Sarai but her machinations are a match for his. She organises the birth of Ishmael by Hagar; he orchestrates the birth of Isaac, and incidentally renames them Abraham and Sarah and then he tops it with: "The story's mine, not hers, never was. The interruption is the narrative, the interrupter is the narrator". But one wonders how it is that Sarah knew the story all along, passed down through generations of women.
Audaciously inventive and humanely rich in its observation of emotional tumult, although just occasionally this slips over into "emotional literacy" speech rather than nuance, Jenny Diski has done her story proud. --Ruth Petrie --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'...this book delves into all kinds of byways infertility, obedience, autonomy in a relationship with wit and intelligence.' -- MARIE CLAIRE
'a hugely engaging and entertaining book' -- SUNDAY EXPRESS
'both intimate and ambitious - not only human, but also divine' -- DAILY TELEGRAPH
'a hugely engaging and entertaining book' -- SUNDAY EXPRESS
'both intimate and ambitious - not only human, but also divine' -- DAILY TELEGRAPH
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Sarah
Format:Paperback
I have enjoyed all of Jenny Diski's novels and this was no exception. I found her interpretation of this age old story so original and clever.....and so human.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
What If You Could Read God's Mind?
7 Jun 2001
By Lee Armstrong
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
This is a stimulating novel. Based on the covenant between God and Abraham, it brings the characters to life, gives them flesh and bone. What would it have been like to be Sarai (Sarah) and married to a guy who went around talking to God? How would a woman of that day react? What if we could read God's mind and understand what the thoughts were that lead to the chosen people? Diski weaves and intriguing dialogue between God and man, and addresses fundamental questions of existence within each of the human characters. The book is intelligently written, witty, and keeps you glued to the page. At only 215 pages, it goes by quick. I think you'll find it fascinating with an occasional splash of humor.
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