Not as good as Sarah but still very interesting and entertaining. I learned a lot from it.

Thought Provoking

Anyone who knows the story of Rebekah (Rivkah) and Isaac (Yitzhak) will get much out of this story. Rebekah is a woman after YHWH'S own heart from birth. Her father BethuEl goes deaf after an illness, so she and her brother Laban come up with writing things out for him using Hebrew as a way to communicate with him. Rebekah learns what comes of having an idolatrous bride mother the children of a servant of YHWH. Her own mother was just that kind of woman. As we're Esau's hittite wives. Such a woman will undermine belief in HIS goodness, HIS willingness to answer prayer and any real intimacy without illicit behavior attached in their way of worship, in one way or another. This invariably happens because other gods "must" insult the One who is indeed the Only True Power. Rebekah hears from YHWH, accepting HIS direction and guidance. Her learning to read and write later helps in the teaching of her son Jacob (Yakov). Abraham and Isaac raise Esau to be like IshmaEl, hoping to "fix" in the next generation what they thought of as harm done due to Isaac's birth. But YHWH looks at the heart, not just the outward actions. I'd never thought about it that way before, but it is definitely plausible line of thought! Clearly the author understood that Isaac realized belatedly that giving Jacob the blessing was the right thing to do. Thought provoking!

This novel by Orson Scott Card about the life of the matriarch Rebekah, is at once moving and engaging.
Unlike some novels, such as Sarah by Marek Halter and The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant, where the women are portayed as worshiping idols and other gods, she is shown as a strong women, devoted to the service of Yahweh since she was little, as are the other matriarchs in the Women of Genesis series.
Card has done a great job of filling in the gaps and bringing the women of the Bible to life.
The digressions from the Biblical account are not major and are, I believe, in the overall spirit of the Biblical account.
As a believing Jew, I did not find anything incongruent or objectionable in this book, although it is written by a Mormon.
Rebekah loses her mother as a baby, and is brought up under by a doting father, by her simple-minded and devoted nurse Deborah. She is also close to her brother Laban.
Her beauty is renowned and she has a headstrong and powerful personality temprered by an innate compassion.When she is seven years old an accident renders her father, Bethuel, deaf. She rejects marriage to a wealthy nobleman Ezbaal, because he worships pagan gods, and not Yahweh, and is by a strange series of events reunited with her mother Akyas, who was sent by Bethuel shortly after Rebekah's birth.

Later she knows, through G-D, when Eliezer meets her at the well, that it is her destiny to go with him and marry Isaac, and go's with Isaac to dwell at the home of his father Abraham at Kirjath-arba.
The love between Rebekah and Isaac is great but it is strained by the rivalry with his brother Ishmail, and the domineering nature of Isaac's father,. Abraham. She falls pregnant after twenty years, and in a dream is visited by her great ancestors Seth, the son of Noah, and Eber, and several others of whom she knew less. They inform her she will give birth to twins " You have two great men inside you, two mighty nations, two ways of life, and the one will be stronger than the other, and the elder will serve the younger".
Not long after the twins Jacob and Esau are born, their different natures become apparent. Jacob is good natured and obedient, while Esau is wild and wilfful. Rebekah favours Jacob and Isaac favours Esau. Esau hunts and kills the animals, while Jacob tends and loves them. A powerful anecdote is related to show their different natures, when they are five years old and and Jacob weeps because Esau throws stones at a puppy until it is blinded.
They grow up and finally Esau shows his true waywardness, bloodthirsty caharacter and his disinterest in the word of G-D, and he marries two Hittite women.
The book draws to a close with the famous events where Esau sells his birthrigh to Jacob for a mess of pottage, and where Jacob tricks Isaac into giving him the birthright instead of Esau. But according to the author's interpretation, Isaac really knows it is Jacob, but G-D tels him that indeed Jacob is worthy of the blessing.
The dialogues show the conflicts prevalent in the narrative.
It is written in modern language, and should bring the narratives alive to the readers.
I look forward to reading the other Women of Genesis novels.

I love that the characters aren't just 21st century people in Bible times. They react in ways that seem correct to them but not to us. Great book.

While the Old Testament only tells the story of Rebekah, Isaac, Esau and Jacob in about 4 chapters, Orson Scott Card makes it into a whole book, so there are many liberties taken in the retelling of this story. I thought it was an interesting way to think about the account with fictional additions that helped with the storyline and seemed quite possible.

A nice way to revisit biblical stories from my youth.

It was interesting to read this fictionalized account of Rebekah and Isaac as we've been studying these characters from Genesis in "Come Follow Me." Orson Scott Card creates a back story and a lot of relationship details that make sense of the strange occurrences in the scriptures. I don't love his interpretation, but it's as good an explanation as any for the lack of detail on Isaac and the favoritism shown to both Jacob and Esau.

I would recommend this book for those who want to put more time into pondering the Biblical patriarchs and matriarchs. If you're not already interested in the Old Testament, don't bother.

3.25 stars.

Another good book by Orson S Card. He tells the story of Rebekah in a different light than I thought of her. However, I did not enjoy it as much as Sarah, his 1st book in the series. There was just too much disagreeing, first with Abraham, then her husband Issac as well as with her son Esau. Everything seem to turn out as it should. I didn't realize what they had to go throught to get to that point.

It was same as first book in series - same dilemmas, same problems and similar solutions. And clearly I am not the audience :)

Loved this book. Best one I've read in a while. I read this one before Sarah so I guess we'll see how much I like Sarah if it really is repetitive. It felt good to read a book that could keep me up at night.

Eh.
It was not the lack of swash-buckling, swordplay, magic, Austen-worthy wit or romance that left me unimpressed, it was the bleakness and constant fretting of the characters. Isaac was weak and self-doubting. Rebekah was a whiner. Abraham was a manipulator. All they did was argue. (Har! Where were the pirates?) The jarring switch between third and first-person narration made me dizzy. And good heavens, what does one expect from a Bible story, other than bleakness? In all fairness, Card did portray the relationships between the characters believably, and his representation of their faith was inspiring. However, I think I'll try the Ender's series to partake of his literary prowess.

I really liked the beginning of the book about Rebekah's childhood and how she married Isaac, but then I did not like how Card portrayed Isaac and Abraham and especially their relationship with each other. I ended up disliking both of them very much, which is terrible way to feel about these wonderful Old Testament prophets.