By Steven Jay Griffel
Queens, NY, USA
When I heard that Pulitzer Prize-winning
novelist Geraldine Brooks had published a new book, I was anxious to read it. When
I learned that Brooks’ new subject was David, King of the Jews, the book became
an irresistible draw.
You see, I have a long personal history with King
David, dating back to my childhood when I’d stare for hours at an illustration
I owned of a wispy shepherd boy standing victorious over a fallen Philistine
giant: my first secret gloating that bigger
isn’t always better.
Such was my admiration for the boy who slingshot
to stardom, I decided I’d one day name my own first son David, the most
noble-sounding name I knew. As it happened, I had daughters.
Still, I did not allow biological
fate to dissuade me. A few years later, while birthing my first novel, I named
my narrator and fictional alter-ego “David Grossman,” a name meant to suggest the
great range of human expression.
The David at the heart of Brooks’ brilliant
novel The Secret Chord does not need
a last name. The first and greatest “David” is an amazingly full realization of
the complex and conflicted biblical character.
I finally met with Geraldine Brooks in Spring 2018,
to discuss her novel and the wondrous David who inspired it.
STEVEN JAY GRIFFEL: You were born in Sydney, Australia, and came to the United
States to do your graduate work. You met and married writer Tony Horwitz and
converted to Judaism. At what point did you begin to develop your special
interest in David?
 |
| Geraldine Brooks |
GERALDINE
BROOKS: I’m not sure I can pinpoint it
exactly anymore. I was an art history major with a special interest in
Mannerist and Baroque art, and I recall being struck by the diversity of
depictions of David in painting and sculpture: what a capacious character he
had to allow for so many different visions, from Michelangelo’s muscular
Abercrombie and Fitch model to Donatello’s effete boy-man, to Caravaggio’s
street thug, and on and on. I also recall being in shul one day when the
haftarah reading was David’s deathbed scene, when Bathsheva and Natan are
ducking and weaving to get Shlomo on the throne. There’s an intensity to that
whole scene, especially when you recall all that has passed between these three
protagonists. Why is David relying on Natan, who was previously his harshest
critic? Generally, once you’ve excoriated a king, you wouldn’t expect to be his
closest confidant. So I started wondering, what was the career path for that
guy? And then there’s the question of Bathsheva: how did she build a relationship
from such a problematic, if not tragic, beginning? I’d been a news reporter in
the Mideast and it reminded me so much of the succession shenanigans around
King Hussein’s deathbed; women without evident public power nevertheless
wielding great private power. Now, of course, I think of it as totally Game of
Thrones.
STEVEN JAY GRIFFEL: How did your son’s decision to learn the harp help inspire
you to write this book?
GERALDINE
BROOKS: It was all the hours taking
him to music lessons, seeing this small, eight-year-old boy dwarfed by his
teacher’s concert instrument, which put in my mind the musical connections to
David as the warrior/poet/politician/musician. It sent me back to the texts.
STEVEN JAY GRIFFEL: As part of your extensive research you went with your son to
visit places associated with the biblical David, like the Judean hills and the
Valley of Elah, where David fought Goliath. Please share a special insight or
anecdote.
GERALDINE
BROOKS: Why do so many leaders in the
Bible begin life as shepherds? What is it about herding sheep that is such a
great entry-level position for future CEOs of the Israelites? To find out, my
ten-year-old and I tried being shepherds for a day on a thyme-scented hillside
in the Sheffala, not far from where David would have tended his family’s flock.
My conclusion was that in leading and safeguarding a flock, you have to learn
to understand the nature of those you’re trying to direct. We couldn’t figure
out how to, for example, separate the sheep from the goats, till we learned how
differently each species responded to pressure. (Goats scatter, sheep flock
together.)
STEVEN JAY GRIFFEL: I think much of the book’s success is due to your choice of
the prophet Natan as narrator. How did you arrive at this decision?
GERALDINE
BROOKS: It was the reference, in the
Book of Chronicles, to a “Book of Natan” which, of course, we do not have any
more. But the idea that there was once such a book about David’s life—“all his
acts, from first to last”—deeply intrigued me. What else would we know about
David if we had such a book, authored by a man who wasn’t afraid to be critical
of him and to confront him?
STEVEN JAY GRIFFEL: Throughout the novel, Natan’s prophecies guide David’s
decisions. How is David’s free will to be measured against events that are
fated or divinely ordained?
GERALDINE
BROOKS: Is Natan always a reliable
narrator? Is he really divinely inspired, or does he only think he is? That’s
for the reader to decide. He has a certain view of himself and his motivations,
but other characters in the story express skepticism about his abilities and
his motives. So I think it is for the reader to determine whether he is as
influential as he thinks he is, and what role, if any, the divine is actually
playing here, or whether David is in fact merely responding to the human
guidance of a wise, but very mortal, adviser.
STEVEN JAY GRIFFEL: The biblical narrative of David’s life is uniquely
comprehensive, a long arc from childhood to old age. However, like all biographies,
the writer(s) chose what to put in and what to leave out. Is there an event or
relationship in your novel that differs significantly from the Bible, either in
detail or emphasis?
GERALDINE
BROOKS: Well it’s all so terse in the
biblical telling. Almost a Power Point Presentation with bullet points; this
happened, then this, then this. There’s no room for these incredible episodes
to stretch out and breathe. I was trying to imagine what else happened; the quotidian detail, the emotions, the personalities,
the background histories.
STEVEN JAY GRIFFEL: In the biblical narrative there is an emphasis on cause and
effect but a dearth of psychological insight and emotional coloring. What were
your greatest challenges—and delights—in providing what was left unsaid in the
Bible?
GERALDINE
BROOKS: Exactly. So it’s in the nature
of a midrash, and there’s a deep and rich tradition of that in Judaism. And
it’s what we do at my shul every Shabbat: take the words of the week’s parsha
and hold them up to the light of our own lived experience, squeeze them for
every bit of juice they’ll give. Judaism gives enthusiastic permission for
that.
STEVEN JAY GRIFFEL: David had a ruthless approach to statecraft: “Whatever it
takes. What was necessary.” Have times changed? Would a modern David be more
likely to rely on diplomacy?
GERALDINE
BROOKS: That was a brutal time, but
then, so is our own. He was trying to knit together fractious tribes with
divisive histories. And guess what? We’re still fractious and divided, and statecraft
is mostly ruthless. Even though most wars end at the negotiating table rather
than on the battlefield, we still make heroes of our warriors and ignore the
grinding, crucial, life-sparing work of diplomats.
STEVEN JAY GRIFFEL: In your book, Natan says: “A man will silence the voice of
his conscience when it suits him to commit sin.” Despite his manifold sinning,
David is generally held in a high regard. Your thoughts?
GERALDINE
BROOKS: What’s different about
David—his greatness—is that he admits his failings when he is confronted with
the truth. And then he tries to make amends.
I just don’t see that in modern leadership. Not
Trump, not Clinton, not Bush, not Putin, not Netanyahu. None of them, not one,
owns up to their sins and their flaws. They deny and they prevaricate and they
blame others.
STEVEN JAY GRIFFEL: I was particularly fascinated by your handling of Batsheva’s
feelings and point of view. She has a more modern temperament than I
remembered.
GERALDINE
BROOKS: I think the plain words of the
text tell you everything you need to know about her predicament. David, we’re
told, sent “men” to fetch her from her home. This wasn’t a polite invitation,
clearly. The power imbalance is blindingly obvious. How she survived and
thrived—to be the wife with the power at the end of David’s life—the Bible
gives us no details of those intervening years. But it’s fascinating to imagine
how she played what was initially a terrible hand in order to secure the throne
for her son.
STEVEN JAY GRIFFEL: Throughout the book much is made of David’s extraordinary
talent for playing the harp, singing, and writing verse—his famous Psalms. What
is “the secret chord” that David played?
GERALDINE
BROOKS: Well, if we knew, it wouldn’t
be secret! But the many references to his beautiful voice and the power of his
musicianship, coupled with the evident and enduring lyricism of the psalms.…
What can you conclude other than this was an exceptionally talented guy?
STEVEN JAY GRIFFEL: In the book’s Afterword you wrote that: “… David must have
actually existed, for no people would invent such a flawed figure for a
national hero.” What does this say about the Jews as a people, that they value
such a complex and conflicted character as the “lamp of Israel”?
GERALDINE
BROOKS: A certain clarity about human
nature. We’re all flawed, we’re all going to come up short. But that doesn’t
have to define us. As ha tzaddik
Leonard Cohen put it, there’s a blaze of light in the duality of the holy and
the broken. And If God could love David in spite of his many flaws, in spite of
his brokenness … well, it’s consoling and a hopeful sign for the rest of us.
STEVEN JAY GRIFFEL: Are you able to share with us the subject of your next book?
GERALDINE
BROOKS: It’s based on the true story of
a remarkable nineteenth-century racehorse and the people—mostly enslaved—who
trained him in the antebellum era and saved him during the Civil War.
(Geraldine Brooks photo credit: Randi Baird)
Links:
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Steven Jay Griffel is an Amazon bestselling novelist, an editor, and a publisher. His latest novel, The Ishi Affair, was released in March 2017.