Status Updates From Escape from Egypt

"He told her of his dead brothers, unknown to him, but always a shadow over his life, and how he felt responsible to provide double and triple goodness to make it up to his mother."

This hits differently when you know that the author is a Holocaust survivor.

"You change from day to day, brother."

EVERYONE DOES! It's both funny and infuriating that characters keep pointing it out, because Levitin clearly knows that she's writing everyone inconsistently but just...won't stop doing it.

Y'know, it occurs to me that the ancient Israelites practiced polygyny. Jesse could just marry both of them.

(Though both of them could also do better.)

How much time has passed? 'Cause they seem to have gone from leaving the 10th Plague to the Splitting of the Sea in a day, instead of a week. Are we supposed to read "yesterday's miracle" literally? Because if so, it seems really quick for them to already be whining about lack of food.

"Dogs barked hysterically.*

Hey, Exodus 11:7 says they're supposed to be quiet!

The two of them never kissed. Jesse tried to kiss her once, but she didn't let him.

Is this all happening tonight? In the Bible, this is announced on 1 Nissan, they take the lamb on the 10th and slaughter it on the 14th.

"You know if you spend the night with a woman, you must marry."

I'm pretty sure that kind of rule is predicated on you being ALONE with the woman. They had two chaperones. By this logic, why don't Avi or Omar have to marry Talia?

"He changed his opinion as often as the clouds turned in the sky."

This is actually applicable to every character.

More than 20% through the story, and we finally have a scene of our main couple, who are already madly in love with each other, actually interacting.

"[Jesse] looks like the sun-god, Ra."

Does...does he have a bird head?

This would be more effective if we established their relationship as it happens, rather than having them both think about the other after the fact.

Huh—a Biblical novel with a Jewish writer. Don't see many of those.

Jesse has had a conflict where he got lost and found a goat, he had to kill the goat because he was hungry. This has made him think about things like not to run away from your friends and trust people and don't always distrust them. And even though he got lost, his friends, Jennet and Rimon found him. He has learned from his mistakes and will never do this again.

Jesse is a slave of Pharaoh in Egypt and he and his friend Jennent are trying to get out of Egypt and much to their luck Moses comes and saves them.

Jesse is a slave until Moses help him and the Israelite's outta Egypt, he is hot tempered and hates waking for long periods of time.