In the second book in his series of novels based on the wives of the Old Testament Patriarchs, Orson Scott Card tackles Rebekah, wife of Isaac, mother of feuding siblings Jacob & Esau. With Rebekah, Card has a more complicated figure than Sarah, the subject of his first book. The family of Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob & Esau is a pretty toxic one and Rebekah’s story in the Bible climaxes when she conspires with Jacob to deceive Isaac into giving Jacob the firstborn birthright that should rightly go to Esau. But what Card is getting at in this novel is how people can be well-meaning and still deal horrific emotional damage to those they love. This book begins when Rebekah is a young girl and so we get a lot of time spent with her and her family as they grow up and there are layers and emotional minefields everywhere. Card is just really gifted at developing even the supporting characters in really compelling ways. Rebekah’s mother has died prior to the beginning of the book and the story arc given to Rebekah’s father is significant enough that you could have gotten a whole novel just out of that character. He’s damaged by his loss and then, when he’s deafened in an accident, his struggles to adjust to his deafness and find a way to lead his remaining family and camp in his new circumstances are often heartbreaking. And Card develops Isaac in a really compelling way as well; we see that Isaac, though he isn’t exactly bitter or angry, has remained traumatized (understandably) by the moment when Abraham prepared to sacrifice him on Mount Moriah. And this is to say nothing of Rebekah herself; she’s a fascinating character as written here, a woman who has been shaped by her original family’s mistakes but can’t seem to help falling toward those same old cycles in her new family. There’s overall just a lot of thematic rivalries here: Isaac & Ishmael (another fantastic character who only appears briefly); Jacob & Esau; Rebekah & her brother Laban. And the toxic thing about rivalries is that they expand; what begins as two people opposed ends with everyone else forced to take sides until minor breaks become huge fault lines. Card really tackles so much here that I genuinely wanted this book to be longer, so I could spend more time with these characters. Given that I’ve spent my whole life hearing stories about these characters in church, I think that’s pretty impressive. As with Sarah, the most impressive thing Card does is bring these icons to life as real people, deeply flawed, but trying to do the right thing most of the time. He brings fascinating themes out of the struggles of these real people as well. I really loved Sarah, but I think this one is even better. I’m really glad I stumbled across this wonderful series. 4 stars.
tl;dr – author explores one of the most complex women of Genesis in a thematically rich, incredibly well-characterized novel; an improvement over the already excellent first book in the series. 4 stars.