A great deal of reading has been done in the span of time since I last posted, but I'll see what I can do.

I finished Genesis, and have nearly finished with Samuel(1 and 2). I debated reading the book my group was assigned at the same time as the rest, but I decided I'd finish Samuel and then return to reading the Bible straight through.

I'm now to Bloom's commentary on Joeseph in The Book of J, which I am finding very piquant. Mr. Bloom's style takes a little getting used to(a bit dense or esoteric, at first glance) but once you do, you realize he has some very astute critical observations. He says in this book that J had no heros, only heroines. There's a very similar claim in his Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human; that Shakespeare for the most part prefers his heroines to his heros. Hm.

And this is definitely a belated commentary, but I'd like to do it anyway. I read Singer's The Slave over Labor Day weekend. I meant only to start it, reading a chapter or so at a time, but it was just so involving I couldn't put it down. Mr. Singer has a lovely, intensely visual prose style(if that makes any sense). Being a person who cares deeply for movies, I was struck again and again by moments that made me think "Now this would be a great movie scene."
But great care would have to be taken if it were to be made into a film if you wanted all the layers of religous meaning and questions to be preserved, and this would be essential. I don't really want to get into discussion of the plot yet--I don't want to spoil anything for those who haven't started--but I will say confidently that it is a good novel to be reading in a Biblical Lit class. Not only because of the multitudinous Biblical references, but because the structure of the story itself is so much like the Bible. There is the irony of delayed punishmnet for evil, or achievement of happiness, there is a change of name for one of the characters as with a great many Biblical characters(ie. Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Isreal etc.). A central point of difference, of course, would be that in the Bible(at least with J) God is present and involved, perhaps too much so. The characters in The Slave often have a tangible sense of God's distance, if not outright absence. The issue of theodicy would certainly be one of this novel's key themes.