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Adiel
Adiel is a re-telling of the Old Testament story of the Bible, from the Creation of Adam and Eve through the ten generations that culminates with Noah and the Flood. It is told through the observations of Adiel, an angel, appointed by God and the Archangel Michael, whose responsibility it is to record the events of Man--a sort of protective angel of history. Utilizing the ancient forms of Midrash, the Jewish term for literary and creative Biblical exposition, it is a reflection on the place of man in the universe, and on good and evil.The angel Adiel is chosen to witness the tragedies of the ten generations of man.
Translated by Philip Simpson.
Translated by Philip Simpson.
- GenresJewish
306 pages, Hardcover
First published October 10, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 12, 2023
This is complete madness.
I'll try, not promise though, to write it as vague as possible to avoid all the embarrassing moments the author, for some strange reason, tends to cover in full with such an amazing AbUndAnce of words.
I do not understand why this book was awarded Jerusalem Literary Prize honestly. No idea.
Adam and Eve constantly behave like 1-year-old children. These are minor in comparison with other book events, but still.
*Adam, staring at his reflection in the water*: Oh, what a marvelous creature I see, let's get acquainted, dear fellow!
*Brushed water surface unintentionally*: Oh no, return! I have not yet told you the names of all the animals in the garden!
*Adam, staring at his shadow in despair with wide-open eyes not knowing what to do with it. Getting furious when it shrinks if he sits down...*
The author sure has a great imagination, which proves to be so true right at 1/3 of the book.
Plot twist be like:
*Adam, minding his own business at the Garden*
*Lilith spawned*
*Lilith steadily approaches Adam*
*Adam, has no idea what's going on*
God: Meh... Let her be, she was created with those urges and desires...
You see the slightest glimpse of logic? I do not. And who the heck is Lilith? Why does she even appear in the book? She proved to be a bane of the whole story. Her absence could have made it more worthy than it is as is.
At that moment, I was like: "OK, OK... Emm... Did I grab the wrong book? Does this part of the story really take place at the Garden, where disgusting and filthy things and actions should not be appearing even at the beginning of thought itself? Well, it seems so. There are several plots running in parallel... Maybe things will get sorted out later. ".
Spoiler: they do not.
Then I was half through the book. The part where Noah and his family are in the ark. The story pieces are scattered across, but let's unite them into one chunk.
Well, if you do not believe in the story as it is written in the Bible and it's every word you better not read this part at all. Because there is an accessive amount of dead body descriptions trying to make you weep over it with no chance of succeeding. And it gets worse the more days Noah and his family stay inside the ark. Truly there was no need for wrapping the story more in such a bitter tragedy when you do not see actually God weeping about these events too. The wrong thing is stressed here... The God in this book doesn't have any emotions. He appears only when it is needed to make justice or punish somebody, or to show who did what wrong. There are no chances for any of the characters to create or develop their relationships with Him cause there is just no way. They live in an aquarium. They cannot talk normally. All their communication is narrowed down to disobeying and pissing Him off when the chance comes. Why so? Isn't the reason of creating people in talking to and engaging with them?
Got carried away a little bit. About the situation on the ark when the sons of Noah locked him down with his wife in the cage and started making a feast of some animals in celebration of their soon-to-be-true arrival... C'mon... Was that really necessary after all the events already described before? What a waste of paper...
Then again to Adam and Eve...
Who cares what features, male or female, or both, Adam had before Eve was created from his rib and how it went further?
Why deep dive into this sort of detail? I was not that curious, you know.
Then they get banned from the Garden and have two children, they get older, and what do you think happens next?
Lilith spawned once again! What a plot twist #2. Why do that and what for?
I could not tell what could have gone more wrong here, that is the only reason I got to the last page, my brows just couldn't be lowered of shock.
I feel like some things truly should not have been covered at all, or at least sugarcoated a bit.
Cause... Isn't there enough of such content in the modern world already to find it in a book based on biblical events? Wherever, not here. Well, no fluffy unicorns either, such a pity, but it's not the case.
And there is also a strong feeling that book seems to cover some life-important questions, but the grounds for their "explanation" seem very lame to me personally, lacking a solid surface and sucked from a finger.
And oh, what does the author have against small children, and what's with the stones hit and all the green tragedy?
I do not know what was I expecting, but that was definitely not it. Not the story to be all purple and naive, but what I got to read was definitely too much. To see the communication of the first people with their almighty Creator. Him, grieving to ban Adam and Eve from the Garden... Leading and arriving Noah to the safe place despite all the troubles and sorrows on the way and making a further promise for future generations... Caring about the future of mankind and giving them at least some glimmer of hope... Where?
But no, there is only filth, dirt, and death, even the last three pages do not save the situation.
I'm definitely missing the point here.
Yeah, my bad, I've been too stupid to read it till the end.
I'll try, not promise though, to write it as vague as possible to avoid all the embarrassing moments the author, for some strange reason, tends to cover in full with such an amazing AbUndAnce of words.
I do not understand why this book was awarded Jerusalem Literary Prize honestly. No idea.
Adam and Eve constantly behave like 1-year-old children. These are minor in comparison with other book events, but still.
*Adam, staring at his reflection in the water*: Oh, what a marvelous creature I see, let's get acquainted, dear fellow!
*Brushed water surface unintentionally*: Oh no, return! I have not yet told you the names of all the animals in the garden!
*Adam, staring at his shadow in despair with wide-open eyes not knowing what to do with it. Getting furious when it shrinks if he sits down...*
The author sure has a great imagination, which proves to be so true right at 1/3 of the book.
Plot twist be like:
*Adam, minding his own business at the Garden*
*Lilith spawned*
*Lilith steadily approaches Adam*
*Adam, has no idea what's going on*
God: Meh... Let her be, she was created with those urges and desires...
You see the slightest glimpse of logic? I do not. And who the heck is Lilith? Why does she even appear in the book? She proved to be a bane of the whole story. Her absence could have made it more worthy than it is as is.
At that moment, I was like: "OK, OK... Emm... Did I grab the wrong book? Does this part of the story really take place at the Garden, where disgusting and filthy things and actions should not be appearing even at the beginning of thought itself? Well, it seems so. There are several plots running in parallel... Maybe things will get sorted out later. ".
Spoiler: they do not.
Then I was half through the book. The part where Noah and his family are in the ark. The story pieces are scattered across, but let's unite them into one chunk.
Well, if you do not believe in the story as it is written in the Bible and it's every word you better not read this part at all. Because there is an accessive amount of dead body descriptions trying to make you weep over it with no chance of succeeding. And it gets worse the more days Noah and his family stay inside the ark. Truly there was no need for wrapping the story more in such a bitter tragedy when you do not see actually God weeping about these events too. The wrong thing is stressed here... The God in this book doesn't have any emotions. He appears only when it is needed to make justice or punish somebody, or to show who did what wrong. There are no chances for any of the characters to create or develop their relationships with Him cause there is just no way. They live in an aquarium. They cannot talk normally. All their communication is narrowed down to disobeying and pissing Him off when the chance comes. Why so? Isn't the reason of creating people in talking to and engaging with them?
Got carried away a little bit. About the situation on the ark when the sons of Noah locked him down with his wife in the cage and started making a feast of some animals in celebration of their soon-to-be-true arrival... C'mon... Was that really necessary after all the events already described before? What a waste of paper...
Then again to Adam and Eve...
Who cares what features, male or female, or both, Adam had before Eve was created from his rib and how it went further?
Why deep dive into this sort of detail? I was not that curious, you know.
Then they get banned from the Garden and have two children, they get older, and what do you think happens next?
Lilith spawned once again! What a plot twist #2. Why do that and what for?
I could not tell what could have gone more wrong here, that is the only reason I got to the last page, my brows just couldn't be lowered of shock.
I feel like some things truly should not have been covered at all, or at least sugarcoated a bit.
Cause... Isn't there enough of such content in the modern world already to find it in a book based on biblical events? Wherever, not here. Well, no fluffy unicorns either, such a pity, but it's not the case.
And there is also a strong feeling that book seems to cover some life-important questions, but the grounds for their "explanation" seem very lame to me personally, lacking a solid surface and sucked from a finger.
And oh, what does the author have against small children, and what's with the stones hit and all the green tragedy?
I do not know what was I expecting, but that was definitely not it. Not the story to be all purple and naive, but what I got to read was definitely too much. To see the communication of the first people with their almighty Creator. Him, grieving to ban Adam and Eve from the Garden... Leading and arriving Noah to the safe place despite all the troubles and sorrows on the way and making a further promise for future generations... Caring about the future of mankind and giving them at least some glimmer of hope... Where?
But no, there is only filth, dirt, and death, even the last three pages do not save the situation.
I'm definitely missing the point here.
Yeah, my bad, I've been too stupid to read it till the end.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 18, 2009
I really loved this book! Different and really interesting perspective.
January 30, 2011
The first parts I read have some great statements but maybe I was not in the mood for the pace.
August 2, 2011
The language was beautiful. Great character development and great framing of the plot.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews