Eve: A Biography

As I read this book I kept alternating between being fascinated and appalled. I would ask myself, "Were men really that afraid of women?" Ms. Norris does a wonderful job of tracing through how the story of Eve has been used to create and justify various attitudes toward women in Hebrew and Christian societies with a side trip to look at the Greeks and how they became part of the mix. In many ways it is even more interesting to see what happened as women got access to and were able to leave their own written tradition. There is the temptation in this sort of work to write about the most extreme views that are floating around rather than the ones that were the most influencial. Ms. Norris is aware of this and I think she avoids it. Many of the most extreme quotes and stories were from people that I already knew something about such as Hesiod, Ben Sira and Tertullian.

Eve is a wonderful book. I expected it to be informative but dry, and instead it was lively and funny and entertaining. Norris offers an eclectic history of not just the figure of Eve, but many of her sisters in crime--Pandora, Delilah, Lilith--and provides a bracing account of these good and bad sisters and mothers through the ages. It's also a gorgeous book, with great color and b+w illustrations throughout. It's tops on my holiday gift list, especially for friends interested in religion and women's history. What can I say, I loved it.

Like Scorsese's Personal Journey through American Film, this book is an incredibly enlightening journey through religious, historical and literary reactions to stereotypes of female icons and behaviour. I found this book extremely readable, amazingly broad in its coverage, humourous and thoughtful. I look forward to similar works by the author!! Unreservedly recommended to people interested in theories of history and religion and especially literature and art theory.