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.
InThe 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.
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.
Mario Brelich (1910-82) gained fame in the Italian literary world with the publication ofThe Holy Embracein 1972. Also available from The Marlboro Press / Northwestern areNavigator of the Flood, about Noah andThe 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.
I. Abraham laughs
II. The discoverer
III. Love's mystique
IV. Love's magic
V. A little apologetics
VI. Sarah laughs
VII. A cry reaching heaven
VIII. Honeymoon in Gerar
IX. The Lord laughs (Epilogue)
![Holy Embrace [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/9/3/9/2_5197539.jpg "Holy Embrace [Paperback]")