Boulder Book Club discussion

I enjoyed the opening quote from Genesis 30, thinking "well, either she's stretching the tale out of context, or you can find whatever you want in the bible, if you look hard enough."

There's no stretching. It goes on, and there are more maids, and a sisterly rivalry over lucky Jacob on these grounds. He's even bought for a night. His labors are successful too, so that proves the infertility wasn't HIS fault, though such proof is hardly necessary because the text is utterly convinced any shortcoming (sic) can only be the woman's fault anyway.

Oh, and the price for lucky Jacob's siring services? Mandrake ! You might want to look that up for fun: think superstition, poison, witchcraft, fertility, homunculae: all the usual biblical stuff. The wikipedia entry is a page turner! ...or, tbe Harry Potter scene got it mostly right, if you've seen that.

You definitely deserve some points for the pun on "shortcoming."

Yah, I score!