The Handmaid And The Carpenter (2006) - Plot & Excerpts
Berg re-imagines the story of Jesus's birth from the perspective of his parents - following them from the moment they met until Joseph's death.I picked up the book because I've enjoyed similar attempts to re-tell such a well-known story in the past, such as Lamb, or Testament. I find it an interesting exercise with a lot of potential. Handmaid, however, is absolutely terrible.Firstly, there's the writing quality. Some reviews describe Berg's writing as "poetic," by which I assume they mean "full of purple prose and stilted faux-historical dialogue." If that's the case, then yes, it's very "poetic."The plot of the book shows that while Berg has probably picked up her Bible a few times, she's done very little research besides. For example, when the angel comes to Joseph, it tells him that Mary's son will be fulfilling the prophecy of Emmanuel, born of a virgin (p.97), except that there's no such prophecy. The whole thing is based on a wonky translation in Greek - which Joseph had no reason to be familiar with in the first place - and a bibliomantic search to shoe-horn "prophecies" into a text after the fact. It's one of Matthew's most well known errors, and Berg should have known that. At the very least, she might have just skipped over it and avoided looking the fool.She also follow's Luke's narrative and sends the family to Bethlehem for a census. This makes no sense in the gospel account anyway, since a census strives to document a population's current positions, not their positions at birth. The premise is absurd. Then Berg makes it all the more absurd by having Joseph and Mary go all the way to Bethlehem for the supposed census, give birth, and then immediately leave for the circumcision in Jerusalem, without the census ever actually taking place.This also means that Joseph puts a woman who has literally just given birth - mere hours earlier - onto a donkey's back for an 8km walk. And when they finally arrive at their destination, Mary is "sore from the ride" (p.126). Not from giving birth, but from riding a donkey.I don't know if Berg has children of her own, but if she does, she clearly hasn't let that experience temper her theology. Jesus is, of course, a calm newborn who "cried rarely: only to show his want for food" (p.132). That's pretty typical for a newborn, first of all. But also, crying is a baby's last resort when it's hungry. I dislike it when books so blindly promote this idea of crying as a feeding cue because babies left to starve until they have to resort to crying are often too upset by that point to be able to actually nurse. Many women who wish to breastfeed and don't know any better give up because their babies just won't stop crying long enough to nurse - all because of this media image of only taking crying as a hunger cue. As a feminist, it really bugged me that Berg so casually and uncritically furthers that image.Then there's Joseph. Despite multiple angelic visitations, and all sorts of strangers - including the Magi - pointing out that Jesus is the messiah (something which has had disturbingly little impact in the fortunes or lives of his family), he still firmly believes that Jesus's father was a Roman soldier. Further, he forced a woman so close to her due date to accompany him on a long journey - knowing that it would be painful for her and potentially disastrous if she went into labour - because he didn't trust her enough to leave her alone at home (p.130). This is abusive behaviour, by the way. Then, with a newborn in tow - a mere few hours old! - he forces his family on even more journeys for no reason other than to avoid his personal discomfort that a few shepherds stopped by to see a new baby. Surely, Joseph must have known how precarious newborn lives are, how easily and how quickly they can die. His selfishness is absolutely astounding.The whole book is trash, a little piece of theological masturbation for people who, I guess, really don't want literature to challenge them. Thankfully, the book is blessedly short and the font very large, so it's quickly over with.
In this wonderful novel about love and trust, hope and belief, Elizabeth Berg, the bestselling author of We Are All Welcome Here and The Year of Pleasures, transports us to Nazareth in biblical times to reimagine the events of the classic Christmas story. We see Mary young, strong, and inquisitives she first meets Joseph, a serious-minded young carpenter who is steadfastly devoted to the religious traditions of their people. The two become betrothed, but are soon faced with an unexpected pregnancy. Aided by a great and abiding love, they endure challenges to their relationship as well as threats to their lives as they come to terms with the mysterious circumstances surrounding the birth of their child, Jesus. For Mary, the pregnancy is a divine miracle and a privilege. For Joseph, it is an ongoing test not only of his courage but of his faith in his wife as well as in his God. Exquisitely written and imbued with the truthful emotions and richness of detail that have earned Elizabeth Berg a devoted readership, The Handmaid and the Carpenter explores lives touched profoundly by miracles large and small. This powerful and moving novel is destined to become a classic.Berg's sweetly understated dramatization of the Nativity story casts Mary and Joseph as provincial teenagers who try to honor family tradition in spite of challenging circumstances. Alternating between the voices of the holy couple, Berg relates a romance that blossoms at the wedding of relatives between the 16-year-old carpenter from Nazareth and the comely 13-year-old girl originally from Sepphoris. Mary, dreamy and intractable, already entertains notions of miraculous circumstances surrounding her own birth to her barren mother, Anne. Joseph is instantly smitten and engenders the trust of both families for a betrothal, yet Mary holds back, cherishing a sense of greater destiny. Escaping a near rape by a Greek man by the river, Mary then receives the angel's message that she will bear an extraordinary son, despite never having known a man; the sadly unwed Mary must return to Joseph, who repudiates her until he, too, is visited in a dream by an angel directing him on the honorable course. With Herod's decree that everyone return to their hometowns to register for the census, Joseph and the near-term Mary set off on their arduous and momentous journey to Bethlehem. Berg handles the gospel passages with a tender reverence.
What do You think about The Handmaid And The Carpenter (2006)?
I thought this was just a beautiful little book. At its core, it is a love story; the story of an ordinary young couple who find themselves in extraordinary circumstances, whose love carries them through hardships, doubts and their own imperfections. It makes Mary and Joseph highly accessible and human without detracting from the wonder and miracle of the Christmas story. This is not a retelling of events, but a fleshing out of the events as presented in the Bible. As such, one's faith might affect one's appreciation of this book, though I am not sure. It is written in such a lovely way that it might just appeal to readers of any faith.
—☕Laura
Elizabeth Berg's "The Handmaid and the Carpenter" is a difficult book to review. It is, as some big-name reviewers have pointed out, poetic and reflective. It means well. Nevetheless, this novelization of the Holy Family in its early years also suffers from careless theology. In brief, the carpenter gets his just desserts, but the handmaid -- somewhat surprisingly -- does not. Joseph is here portrayed as a model of traditional rectitude. Mary, while not promiscuous, is rather shockingly forward with her betrothed. Her conduct is such that the virgin birth of Jesus is even harder for Joseph to accept than it otherwise might be, and Berg's attempt to lend perspective to familiar characters robs Mary of some of her dignity.The best part of the novel involves Mary's interaction with her older cousin Elizabeth. Berg there sheds light on how the two women might have helped each other. She also gets the chronology of the visit from the Magi right -- they do not show up at the manger together with adoring shepherds. Beyond those wonderfully written episodes, however, Berg pays no mind to the (admittedly Catholic) doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary. Consecrated virginity, while never common, was not then or now unheard of, yet it does not figure here. Instead Berg goes in the other direction, positing Jesus as the firstborn of seven (!) siblings. Why our savior from the cross commended His mother to the care of the apostle John, rather than to any of His alleged siblings, is never explained: Berg ducks some of the questions that would sabotage her choices by ending the story with the death of Saint Joseph. Without giving too much away, it also pained me to see Joseph ennobled partly by the cost of his struggle with gossip about Jesus that made no sense when raised in our own day by especially imaginative members of the "Jesus Seminar," and would have made even less sense in first-century Judea, given what we know through scripture and tradition about the character of the people involved.This is a quick Christmas read, but there are better such out there. An evocative description of the wise men from Persia, a poignant rendering of mutual love between cousins of different generations, and a gift for describing simple meals deliciously are not enough to pull this novel from the postmodern morass of doubt and cynicism that looks selectively at scripture, soft-pedals the Magnificat, and puts nearly every miracle in figurative quotation marks, except for Mary's admirable but undeveloped convictions that the earth is full of miracles, and virtuous life is itself a miracle.
—Patrick
Meh... It was okay. It is the author's interpretation of the love story between Mary and Joseph. So, not about Jesus hardly at all, which is fine for the story. Somethings were portrayed in a way that didn't jive with me. I wouldn't recommend it.Also, it was read by the author. I don't think a lot of authors should read their books. Her specially. I felt like it took SO LONG because she read.... everything... so.... slooooowly...... It felt like she was trying to put feeling into it but it just made it drag.Spoiler****I was really bothered that on his death bed Joseph asks Mary who Jesus' father is. Really? Two angels, divine guidance and you haven't gotten it yet? Even some of the circumstances before Mary becomes pregnant kind of hint that it's not a virgin birth so it was just a little bit weird.
—Marielle
