The Book of Lilith is a work of serious fiction. You should find
it entertaining, and it should make you think. The general category for
the work is magical realism, or perhaps satiric fantasy in the spirit of
Barth's Chimera. It is a story set in a pseudo-academic framing
story involving the supposed discovery of lost scrolls in war-torn Iraq
by a somewhat mysterious maiden.
These scrolls, when translated, turn out to be the oldest written
documents ever discovered, the first person story of Lilith
herself. Although the frame is of course just part of the story
(and yet told realistically enough that it fooled at least one early
reader into asking the author "so where are the real scrolls") the story
itself is carefully researched and spans four cultures from the
early Bronze or late Stone age. Lilith takes the reader with her
as the crazy course of her life ensouled carries her from its beginnings
in a magical Eden located in ancient Sumeria to Sidon in early
Phoenicia, to Mohenjo Daro and the Harrapan civilization, and finally to
a wicked and corrupt India in the years immediately preceding the
violent cleansing portrayed in the Mahabharata. It is lovingly
derived from many scholarly and historical works and epics, including
The Book of Genesis, the Epic of Gilgamesh, the
Upanishads, the Alphabet of Ben-Sirra, the Dead Sea
Scrolls and more.
Note well that the Lilith portrayed is not the "goddess"
worshipped by various cults, nor is she the she-demon portrayed
by various patriarchal writings. She is a real person -- the first,
untamed wife of Adam, with a surprising relationship with the more
submissive Eve. In fact, she is the first real person gifted
with a soul by God, and it is her appointed task to bring the gift of
Soul to all things in Creation (beginning with Adam) by means of her
love, just as it is Adam's task to bring about the rule of Law and hence
begin the process of evolving a just and ethical society. Lilith enjoys
both preternatural knowledge and a personal relationship -- one
that involves sharing sushi and shopping trips to early bazaars - with
Goddess in the metaphor of Inanna (given that any human
representation of God is at heart an anthropomorphic projection of a
genderless state of Perfect Knowledge and Perfect Being).
Many themes (some of them somewhat disturbing or even shocking, be
warned) are woven into the story. Lilith is in turn an eager young
bride in love, a young mother coping with what turns out to be a
possessive, insecure, and slovenly husband, a beaten and raped wife who
prefers to work as a harlot to feed herself and her children rather than
ever again be "owned" by any man, a miracle worker beloved by God and
granted the power to heal the sick or punish the wicked, a penetrating
judge who can plumb the depths of the darkest heart and consign its
possessor to freedom or a horrible death, and (throughout) a seductive
lover with the uninhibited knowledge of sexual pleasure she is ever
willing to share -- as long as she gets to be on top, or at least
to take turns.
At the end of all this -- eventually -- she turns out to be neither more
nor less than an extraordinary human being who suffers from her pride
and mistakes, who struggles with her appointed task (sometimes
succeeding and sometimes failing) and who learns from the pain and
reward of a life well spent that knowledge and wisdom are not the same
thing.
There are surprises and adventures, wickedness and great good, laughter
and tears, and -- perhaps -- a nugget or two of wisdom, so give it a
try. I think you'll enjoy it!
