My review of A Reluctant Queen: The Love Story of Esther by Joan Wolf.
Well, let me begin by saying that I love the story of Esther. Isn’t it just a lovely fairy tale?
This novel is no different. It was a quick read and it was delightful. I really felt sympathy for the characters and could not put the book (or mouse, since I downloaded it on my Kindle for PC) down.
I was disappointed that the author felt the need to create a fictional king. Why not use Xerxes, like most historical accounts suggest? The king in the novel was loving as a man and cold as a king. Xerxes was featured as this king’s brother. I wonder for this choice.
I was surprised that I felt real pity for Haman. The author created his character as a man hungry for the love of the king rather political power. He had such jealousy of anyone close to the king that it just ate him up. Haman was characterized as having a mental disease similar to the obsessions we read about in the news today. I was interested in this new characterization of the villain Haman.
I was hoping for more Biblical references and that the plot would more closely follow the Biblical account of Esther. I would think that Esther would have prayed more.
She was a very real and lovable character in this book. I love how she was characterized in her weakness. The Bible mentions that she fasted and prayed before appearing before the king to ask for an audience. In the book, there was only one meal with the king and Haman, instead of two.
The author left out the reward of Mordecai’s being paraded through the streets for revealing the plot to kill the king. Mordecai was probably the least important character in this book and I would have liked him to appear more interesting.
I understand that this book is fiction, but I can’t even call it historical fiction, much less Biblical fiction.
Overall, I enjoyed the book. I just think it could have been better had it more closely followed the Bible and historical account.
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