Holy Embrace - Hardcover

Brelich

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1568970021 ISBN 13: 9781568970028

Publisher: Marlboro Press,The,U.S., 2006

Synopsis

This imaginative reworking of the story of Abraham and Sarah combines myth, rabbinic lore, storytelling, and psychological insight to create new and revealing interpretations of ancient texts.

In The Holy Embrace, Abraham repudiates the idols worshipped by his ancestors and accepts God when the Lord selects him as the ambivalent patriarch of His chosen people. But the greatest impediment to God's designs is Abraham's infatuation with his wife, "the most beautiful woman in the world," who is also narcissistic and frigid. How the miracle of their holy embrace is finally accomplished, and how their son Isaac is conceived in accordance with God's command, forms the substance of this profound and witty book.

About this title

About the Author

Mario Brelich (1910-82) gained fame in the Italian literary world with the publication of The Holy Embrace in 1972. Also available from The Marlboro Press / Northwestern are Navigator of the Flood, about Noah and The Work of Betrayal--the story of Judas Iscariot's betrayal of Christ as "investigated" by Poe's great detective, Dupin.
John Shepley has translated the works of Brelich, Camon, and Pasolini, among others.

From the Back Cover

Pursuing and expanding the concept of the "novelized essay" that had served him so well in Navigator of the Flood, his first venture into writing, Brelich here takes up the biblical story of Abraham and Sarah. After the long quiescent interval succeeding the Flood, Abraham, repudiating the idols worshipped by his forebears, "discovers" God - which is to say that the Lord once again takes an interest in human affairs, settling upon another willing but divided patriarch as the instrument for procreating His chosen people. It is Abraham's servile infatuation with his frigid and narcissistic wife Sarah - "the most beautiful woman in the world" - that poses the greatest stumbling block to the Lord's designs. But this is also the story of a long and painful marriage between two mutually exasperating people. How the miracle of the "holy embrace" is finally accomplished - that is, how their son Isaac (whose name means "Laughter") is conceived in accordance with God's command - forms the substance of this profound and witty book.

Edition details

• Publisher: Marlboro Press,The,U.S.
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1568970021
• ISBN 13: 9781568970028
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 229