The Book of Longings

The character of Ana struggles with the woman she yearns to be, and the woman her society and her culture say she is to be. As the only daughter of a prominent court scribe, Ana receives encouragement early on from her father to explore the world of language and the intricate play of words as a powerful vehicle for self-expression. “The act itself of writing evoked powers, often divine, but sometimes unstable, that entered the letters and sent a mysterious animating force rippling through the ink” (9). Ana grows up without knowledge of her limits. She is pure potential, defined by her longing to have her voice heard. She is ambitious, passionate, independent, and willful.

It is only when she matures into adolescence that fully understands the reality of her role in her culture. She is to marry well and bear children. In her writings to that point, she invested giving voice to the critical female characters in the Old Testament whose pivotal role in Jewish history and culture had been entirely neglected because of that perception. When betrothed in a loveless marriage, she feels the first stirrings of her rebellion. Her profound and abiding love for Jesus, exactly the wrong kind of man, an itinerant unkempt stonemason with a radical perception of a world compelled by love rather than power, frees her to become a strong, independent woman with a voice that demands and deserves others to hear her.