Eleanor De Jong

My quest to find decent novels about Ancient Mesopotamia continues, although I’m still not having much luck finding books about this period other than Biblical fiction. And so I came to Eleanor de Jong’s Delilah, the story of my favourite Biblical harlot-hairdresser. It turned out to be quite a contradiction: a Biblical tale that doesn’t particularly follow the Bible; an historical novel which shows little interest in history; and a story which should show women at their most wily and powerful, neutered into a love story. Come, join me, as we try to tease our way through an increasingly unfamiliar Biblical tale...

For my full review, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2018/10/22/delilah-eleanor-de-jong/… (meer)

The story piqued my interest from the start and was easy to read. The descriptions were good although I detected a bit of 'info-dumping' at times (I really didn't need to know in great detail what every dress of Delilah's looked like).

The middle of the story was slower and felt like it was held together by many love scenes one after the other, with certain character actions and thoughts thrown in just to show the reader "look, I haven't forgotten about this very important point!". One character that I thought would be central completely stopped appearing after the first few chapters for no apparent reason. And although I thought the plot was well thought out, with its rationalising of certain events and making the characters seem human, some behaviour I did find odd, like Delilah's family's lax attitude towards their teenage daughter, letting her disappear for days and nights on end and sleep with whoever she wanted.

I found the ending quite shocking; although I vaguely knew what to expect, I'm not familiar with the biblical story and I don't know what has been elaborated on. It seemed a bit harsh. But overall it was an enjoyable, easy read and a bit different.… (meer)