Thus Saith Eve

by Chris Wind

A collection of epistles, each written from the point of view of one of the women from The Bible, as if she had a contemporary feminist consciousness. For example, Eve does not accept blame for choosing the apple, for choosing knowledge over obedience. And you can imagine what Noah’s wife had to say about his grand idea.

Other women present are Lilith, Abel, Cain's wife, Noah's wife, Hagar, Zipporah, 'the certain woman', Delilah, Eshta, Ruth, the Queen of Sheba, Vashti, Judith, Mary the mother of God, Mary of Bethany, Mary Magdalen, Thecla, and Satan.

Feminist theology. New audition monologues.

Bible monologues

69 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Chris Wind is the author of This is what happens, dreaming of kaleidoscopes, Satellites Out of Orbit (including Thus Saith Eve, Soliloquies: the lady doth indeed protest, Snow White Gets Her Say, Deare Sister, and UnMythed— all individually available), Paintings and Sculptures, Particivision and other stories, and Excerpts . Her prose and poetry has appeared in numerous journals and magazines, including The Antigonish Review, Ariel, Atlantis, Bogg, Canadian Author and Bookman, Canadian Woman Studies, Contemporary Verse 2, The Copperfield Review, event, Existere, (f.)Lip, grain, Herizons, Herstoria, The Humanist, The New Quarterly, Other Voices, Poetry Toronto, Prism International, Rampike, Shard, The University of Toronto Review, The Wascana Review, Waves, Whetstone, White Wall Review, and Women's Education des femmes, as well as several anthologies, including Contemporary Monologues for Young Women, Clever Cats, Visions of Poesy, and Going for Coffee. Her theatrical work has been performed by several companies, including Venus Theatre and Shoestring Radio Theatre, and read on CBC Radio. She has been awarded sixteen Ontario Arts Council grants. chriswind.net

Reviews

[Lee Harmon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This little book finally gives the women of the Bible license to speak, and speak they do! A cantankerous bunch on the whole, yet their contributions (as true as they may be) left me ROFLing. Our Bible, I’m now convinced, is much the poorer for its women being silenced.

There are nineteen chapters, nineteen women in all who get to have their say. Technically speaking, only fifteen of the nineteen speakers are “women of the Bible.” Two are extra-canonical, one is a dastardly angel (we call “her” Satan), and one is … well, I was equally astonished to learn that Abel, son/daughter of Adam, also made the feminine list. Can’t say I didn’t learn anything from this book.

My favorite was Noah’s wife. Poor thing, with a ship the size of the football field to clean, and animal excrement everywhere. Yet, she seems quite able to hold her own, and as she rightly points out, if the whole creation was destroyed by a flood, then she is mother to us all. (What she leaves unsaid is whether or not Noah is the father of us all … hmmm.)

Short, but definitely entertaining … and serious between the lines.