The Gilded Chamber: A Novel of Queen Esther

I couldn't put this one down! one of the best reading experiences I had in a long, long time, I really felt connected and sympathetic to Esther and her situation, Very well written, A Rich and involving Book I RECOMMEND IT WARMLY!!!

A quote on the front of my copy of this book compares this novel to The Red Tent and Memoirs of a Geisha. Thankfully, I found it more like the latter than the former. It is like The Red Tent in that the underlying story is found in the Old Testament, but while The Gilded Chamber does take a few liberties with the Old Testament account (particularly the apocryphal account if you are familiar with that) the essence of the biblical account remains mostly intact. In other words, Esther and Mordecai remain at their core monotheistic Jews trying to survive in a hostile religious environment. Yes, they make compromises but in the end they remain religious Jews. In contrast, The Red Tent completely changes the religion of the main characters and turns the lives of the Jewish patriarchs into pagans or blithering monotheistic idiots. Yes, there is a lot of sex and sexual politics in all of the novels mentioned but it is not gratuitous. These are essential elements for understanding the lives and politics of a world that is unlike anything most sheltered American women would ever have to endure. Like Memoirs does for the closed Japanese world of the Geisha, The Gilded Chamber does for the life of women in an ancient Persian harem with a rich tapestry of cultural details. It speculates on what Esther might have had to endure to simply survive in a world where one's worth rested soley on the kings' favor. In a way, Esther faced choices similar to that of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof....how much can you compromise and remain true to what you believe? Too often, we view the story of Esther through our modern western eyes as a kind of ancient Cinderella tale. The truth was probably far from a happy-ending-type fairy tale. I particularly liked that the narrative did not end with the events told about in the Bible but speculated on Esther's life to the time of Xerxes' death and her escape from the harem as Vashti's son was crowned king. I learned something from the notes at the end of the book. Apparently there is a tomb in Iran called The Tomb of Mordecai and Esther. Wouldn't it be something if the two were reunited at the end?

I am a historical fiction lover but at times I enjoy some scheming, backstabbing and romance sprinkled into novels. This book was all of those things in one. The book was beautifully written and it made me feel like I was living in King Xerxes palace. Esther is this beautiful, strong heroine who you just want to see happy after all she is put through. I loved The Red Tent just as much as I loved this book!

Amazing story that brought to life the scriptures. It reminded me of The Red Tent and as with that book, I found it very difficult to put The Gilded Chamber down. I am now reading Marek Halter's Sarah, which is equally as good and thus I recommend also. The one thing I did not care for in this book was the frequent descriptive sex, which I thought could have been less explicit and less "described" and detailed. There are ways to speak about what occurs in a sexual act without giving the reader a somewhat explicit image in their head as they read.I read Esther again from the KJV side to side with Esther and found it helpful to see the parallels.Thank you Rebecca for a lovely book...... please write some more! Perhaps a book on Deborah the prophetess?

First a disclaimer: Ms Kohn is a neighbor and a friend--so some partiality is likely unavoidable in this review. That said, it was a considerable relief to open the pages of the book and find that no partisanship would be required to sing its praises. I read the first hundred pages in one gulp and was captivated. The story of Esther is one we know so well that we may cease to consider what it really means. Its characters are become so iconic we may forget they were human beings. Ms Kohn makes the story fresh and exciting, not least by expanding upon the character of Esther so that her actions are those of an engaging woman whose motivations we understand and whose courage we respect. Granting us a new look at the old tale, Ms Kohn makes us consider its lessons anew and they are as timely today as they were thousands of years ago.The Biblical account of Esther is intact here, but Ms Kohn does take some liberties around it. For one thing, she has the young Jewish girl Haddasah initially betrothed to Mordechai, before being sent to the harem of King Xerxes. Mordechai himself has taken on the coloration of the court and of the worshippers of Ahura Mazda and urges the young Haddasah to: "Let yourself be known only as Esther, foster daughter of Marduka the Babylonian." Then the great bulk of the action occurs in the harem. The novel focuses on how Esther learns to wield political power within that closed world, which will serve her in good stead when she later needs to affect the wide world. She develops believable relationships with the other women, servants and eunuchs of the harem and Ms Kohn is particularly good at portraying the internal conflict that being Jewish and loving Mordechai causes Esther as she is forced to disguise her true religion and serve a king she does not love: I could eat the food of the harem. I could submit myself to the authority of a eunuch. I could go in to the king as a virgin and return to the harem as a harlot. I could live a life like [her servant] Puah's, with little joy over the generations.But I could not worship the gods that were an abomination to my father. I could not betray Avihail, whose living seed remained in none other than me. I could not crush the memory of his righteous ways.I had hoped to fulfill my days in Mordechai's household and to give him strong sons. Mordechai was a stranger to his people's ways, but my father would have lived on through the generations of our children's children. For Mordechai was still a Jew in his heart. He would walk among the idolaters, but he would not worship a stranger's gods.And I could not do so now.This doubleness is, of course, the key to the story, indeed to much of Jewish history. The struggle of a stateless Jewish people to conform sufficiently on the outside to fit into hostile societies but to maintain their faith and their traditions internally has played out for thousands of years, often with tragic results. As we look back at the story of Mordechai and Esther