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They: A Biblical Tale of Secret Genders
THEY is a groundbreaking work that will prove to be lifesaving for those in the LGBT community and enlightening and liberating to others. In this novel, we met Tamar from the Hebrew Bible. Tamar lives as a hermit in the desert, is content with her life and is happily barren. She is attached to her pet camel. Her aversion to goat sacrifices becomes so strong that it prompts her to become a vegetarian. Tamar has a twin sister Tabitha who becomes pregnant after seducing a young muscular shepherd. Tamar plots with Tabitha to trick Judah (a patriarch from the Bible) into believing that the baby is his so that she can have status in society rather than being burnt at the stake. Tabitha gives birth to twins. Tamar becomes attached to the children (born intersex), who call her auntie, and follows their line of intersex twins.
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First published March 11, 2018
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About the author
Janet Mason
22 books132 followersJanet Mason (born 1959) is an American writer and poet. Her poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and essays have appeared in literary journals including the Brooklyn Review and the Exquisite Corpse.
Her work includes the poetry collections When I Was Straight (Insight to Riot Press, 1995),
A Fucking Brief History of Fucking (Insight to Riot Press, 1992), and A Woman Alone (Cycladic Press, 2001), and the nonfiction work Tea Leaves: A Memoir of Mothers and Daughters (Bella Books, 2012). Her novel Loving Artemis, an endearing tale of revolution, love and marriage was published in August of 2022 by Thorned Heart Press.
Her novel THEY, a biblical tale of secret genders was published by Adelaide Books in 2018 and
The Unicorn, The Mystery was published by Adelaide Books in 2020.
She lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Her work includes the poetry collections When I Was Straight (Insight to Riot Press, 1995),
A Fucking Brief History of Fucking (Insight to Riot Press, 1992), and A Woman Alone (Cycladic Press, 2001), and the nonfiction work Tea Leaves: A Memoir of Mothers and Daughters (Bella Books, 2012). Her novel Loving Artemis, an endearing tale of revolution, love and marriage was published in August of 2022 by Thorned Heart Press.
Her novel THEY, a biblical tale of secret genders was published by Adelaide Books in 2018 and
The Unicorn, The Mystery was published by Adelaide Books in 2020.
She lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 20, 2019
DNF @ p62
I wanted to be fair to this book because Stephanie sent it to me at my request. Sadly, this bilge is simply too turgid, too exceedingly poorly written, too just plain gawdessawful to treat as a serious publication. The soi-disant author must've subsidized this publication and the publishers must have looked the other way as they cashed the check. No one edited the book. There is not one single sentence in the quote above that wouldn't have an artery's-worth of red ink spilled over it. If one were fortunate, the red spill would utterly block out the horrible, stilted, affected, pseudo-what-the-hell-ever it's trying to be.
It has been many a long year since I've seen something this horrifyingly unreadable in actual print. Most things this ghastly are Kindle originals. That a tree died to perpetrate this terrible affront to readerly sensibilities appalls me more than any other thing about it.
As to the subject matter, I really hope someone with discernible literary talent will take it up. It's a fascinating topic and well worth some storyteller's time to explore.
"It seems like everyone was ashamed of their nakedness. Are we supposed to believe that this is still Eve's fault?"
"Don't forget the serpent," answered Tabitha.
"I remember that we had lots of questions when we were little." Tamar walked over to a basket and pulled out the bas relief of Ishtar.
"And Great Grandmother didn't have the answers," said Tabitha as she reached up and took the bas relief.
"Maybe she should have made up a different ending," replied Tamar.
I wanted to be fair to this book because Stephanie sent it to me at my request. Sadly, this bilge is simply too turgid, too exceedingly poorly written, too just plain gawdessawful to treat as a serious publication. The soi-disant author must've subsidized this publication and the publishers must have looked the other way as they cashed the check. No one edited the book. There is not one single sentence in the quote above that wouldn't have an artery's-worth of red ink spilled over it. If one were fortunate, the red spill would utterly block out the horrible, stilted, affected, pseudo-what-the-hell-ever it's trying to be.
It has been many a long year since I've seen something this horrifyingly unreadable in actual print. Most things this ghastly are Kindle originals. That a tree died to perpetrate this terrible affront to readerly sensibilities appalls me more than any other thing about it.
As to the subject matter, I really hope someone with discernible literary talent will take it up. It's a fascinating topic and well worth some storyteller's time to explore.
September 8, 2020
Not quite sure what I expected. But interesting - good midrash. Tamar has always been an Old Testament fav of mine.
January 18, 2020
Mason reimagines the life of Tamar from the book of Genesis as she takes readers on a stunning journey, vividly evoking the world of Old Testament women and intersex individuals.
Content and happily barren, Tamar occupies a far different world from other women in the society, living as a hermit in the desert with her pet camel. When her twin sister Tabitha, a widower and the daughter-in-law of Judah, becomes pregnant after seducing a shepherd, Tamar connives a cunning plan to save her from being burned alive at the stake for the crime of adultery. Tabitha gives birth to intersex twins: Perez and Zerah. Tamar becomes attached to the twins and follows their line of intersex twins.
Familiar passages from the Bible come alive as Tamar questions the validity of many stories and wonders about the unanswered questions in the Bible (Eve’s so-called birth from Adam’s rib, the gender identity of the Garden of Eden’s serpent, the reference to God as a man). As in the Legends of the Jews, Tamar in the novel is also endowed with a prophetic gift which allows her to know the future of her descendants (later in life) before she takes rebirth as an intersex. Mason vividly brings the period alive with rich details and poignantly evokes the strong bonds the women form as a sect.
Mason’s narrative is fluid and her prose clear and elegant. Excluded from the public sphere and silenced by men, the women in the book are forced to stay dependent on men. But the female protagonists (Tamar, Judith, the Mother) in the book are fiery, cunning characters who know their ways around the stronger sex, becoming a resonant symbol of womanly strength, love, and wisdom. Mason’s depiction of the lives of the women (living with the fear of casting as witches and getting burned alive on stakes for minor transgressions and prohibited from learning to read and write among other) explores deep roots of misogyny and issues of gender inequality (which are still prevalent in many communities), striking an occasional melancholy tone.
Without reverting to religious jargon, Mason's book narrates the passions and traditions of the early Israelites while her characters’ gender fluidity leaves readers to contemplate their perceptions of present-day members of LGBT community.
A book that is sure to garner Mason plenty of fans.
Highly recommended to lovers of literary fiction!
Content and happily barren, Tamar occupies a far different world from other women in the society, living as a hermit in the desert with her pet camel. When her twin sister Tabitha, a widower and the daughter-in-law of Judah, becomes pregnant after seducing a shepherd, Tamar connives a cunning plan to save her from being burned alive at the stake for the crime of adultery. Tabitha gives birth to intersex twins: Perez and Zerah. Tamar becomes attached to the twins and follows their line of intersex twins.
Familiar passages from the Bible come alive as Tamar questions the validity of many stories and wonders about the unanswered questions in the Bible (Eve’s so-called birth from Adam’s rib, the gender identity of the Garden of Eden’s serpent, the reference to God as a man). As in the Legends of the Jews, Tamar in the novel is also endowed with a prophetic gift which allows her to know the future of her descendants (later in life) before she takes rebirth as an intersex. Mason vividly brings the period alive with rich details and poignantly evokes the strong bonds the women form as a sect.
Mason’s narrative is fluid and her prose clear and elegant. Excluded from the public sphere and silenced by men, the women in the book are forced to stay dependent on men. But the female protagonists (Tamar, Judith, the Mother) in the book are fiery, cunning characters who know their ways around the stronger sex, becoming a resonant symbol of womanly strength, love, and wisdom. Mason’s depiction of the lives of the women (living with the fear of casting as witches and getting burned alive on stakes for minor transgressions and prohibited from learning to read and write among other) explores deep roots of misogyny and issues of gender inequality (which are still prevalent in many communities), striking an occasional melancholy tone.
Without reverting to religious jargon, Mason's book narrates the passions and traditions of the early Israelites while her characters’ gender fluidity leaves readers to contemplate their perceptions of present-day members of LGBT community.
A book that is sure to garner Mason plenty of fans.
Highly recommended to lovers of literary fiction!
November 18, 2018
All the Bible stories from your childhood suddenly jump to life in Janet Mason’s new novel. They. The manner in which they are presented I found to be a lot of fun.
The story is about a woman named Tamar who lives in ancient times, around the same time as Joseph who had the cool colorful coat. Tamar and her family live in tents; she is obsessed by her camel, Aziza, who she keeps reminding everyone is not a camel, but a dromedary because she only has one hump. Her friends and family don’t seem to care a fig about the difference, but it is very important to Tamar. She and her dromedary have a special relationship as important to her as her relationships with her friends. Aziz is so important to Tamar that she has her sleep inside, an action that will later bring her problems.
I, especially, enjoyed discovering Biblical characters though their stories and name. I was part of the discovery. I’m watching people from a different time period living their lives and suddenly I realize their talking about someone I know.
AS a young teenager I was in search for answers. so I read the Bible cover to cover looking for those answers. I don’t know that I found any answers, but I enjoyed the stories. The way the stories are told do not sound Biblical, they sound human.
The main character, Tamar, takes us through the whole book. She even dies and lives in the book as a spirt. Then she ends up in a womb until she is born again into a new life
Gender is flexible in these Biblical stories. Although the people are as hung up about gender as we are—I guess we probably got this way because of them. The different genders appears. Tamar in her first life has an lesbian experience that she wanted to continue, but the other woman couldn’t accept Tamar’s favorite camels sleeping in the same hut. There were also intersex twins who lived their lives as males because this was the preferred sex.
Vanda, author of the Juliana series
November 18, 2018
All the Bible stories from your childhood suddenly jump to life in Janet Mason’s new novel. They. The manner in which they are presented I found to be a lot of fun.
The story is about a woman named Tamar who lives in ancient times, around the same time as Joseph who had the cool colorful coat. Tamar and her family live in tents; she is obsessed by her camel, Aziza, who she keeps reminding everyone is not a camel, but a dromedary because she only has one hump. Her friends and family don’t seem to care a fig about the difference, but it is very important to Tamar. She and her dromedary have a special relationship as important to her as her relationships with her friends. Aziz is so important to Tamar that she has her sleep inside, an action that will later bring her problems.
I, especially, enjoyed discovering Biblical characters though their stories and name. I was part of the discovery. I’m watching people from a different time period living their lives and suddenly I realize their talking about someone I know.
AS a young teenager I was in search for answers. so I read the Bible cover to cover looking for those answers. I don’t know that I found any answers, but I enjoyed the stories. The way the stories are told do not sound Biblical, they sound human.
The main character, Tamar, takes us through the whole book. She even dies and lives in the book as a spirt. Then she ends up in a womb until she is born again into a new life
Gender is flexible in these Biblical stories. Although the people are as hung up about gender as we are—I guess we probably got this way because of them. The different genders appears. Tamar in her first life has an lesbian experience that she wanted to continue, but the other woman couldn’t accept Tamar’s favorite camels sleeping in the same hut. There were also intersex twins who lived their lives as males because this was the preferred sex.
Vanda, author of the Juliana Series
October 31, 2019
Don't deprive yourself of an incredible journey, order this book now!
Women will cheer the way Janet Mason brings out the facts regarding male privilege. I found it to be very revealing of truths I never once considered as a man. It's a surprising eye opener for any man who doesn't think male privilege is real. Obvious things that most men don't think of... because we have male privilege! This is an ancient plight of hermaphrodite people, having to chose their outward gender and hide the truth. A struggle of unimaginable inward suffering and fear of being discovered. The fiction story ties in a little with the family of John the Baptist, which made it quite interesting. However, something happens to the main character that is simply amazing in the way Janet Mason presents it. This is an astonishing book for any gender, straight, LGBT, non-binary, etc. A truly fascinating read that will ride in the back of your mind for a long time after you've read it.
Women will cheer the way Janet Mason brings out the facts regarding male privilege. I found it to be very revealing of truths I never once considered as a man. It's a surprising eye opener for any man who doesn't think male privilege is real. Obvious things that most men don't think of... because we have male privilege! This is an ancient plight of hermaphrodite people, having to chose their outward gender and hide the truth. A struggle of unimaginable inward suffering and fear of being discovered. The fiction story ties in a little with the family of John the Baptist, which made it quite interesting. However, something happens to the main character that is simply amazing in the way Janet Mason presents it. This is an astonishing book for any gender, straight, LGBT, non-binary, etc. A truly fascinating read that will ride in the back of your mind for a long time after you've read it.
July 13, 2022
I wish this book had gone through proper, professional editing channels, because it could be so much more than it is. This is not to say I didn't enjoy it, but I felt like I was reading an un-proofed galley - it's full of typos and grammatical errors and overlooked, unfinished little details, and while I feel like a bit of a jerk pointing it out, this is why editors exist.
Regardless of its self-published feel, however, it's an important read, whether you're learning about "secret genders" or intersex people or you *are* a secret gender or intersex person, it's important to recognize that people who encompass both, some or all genders, and that people who are born physically both male and female, do exist and have every right to choose how they express themselves. It's necessary educational literature but please, someone out there take this book under your wing and run it through the editing process.
Regardless of its self-published feel, however, it's an important read, whether you're learning about "secret genders" or intersex people or you *are* a secret gender or intersex person, it's important to recognize that people who encompass both, some or all genders, and that people who are born physically both male and female, do exist and have every right to choose how they express themselves. It's necessary educational literature but please, someone out there take this book under your wing and run it through the editing process.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews