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I have two ladies in my reading group to thank for this read. I remember Rebecca and Robyn saying how much they enjoyed The Red Tent, and as I browsed the book shelves at the local thrift store, I pulled the book Sarah because of its title, took a second look at it because one reviewer mentioned its likeness to The Red Tent, and thought a fictional narrative about the life of Sarah (and Abraham) would be interesting, to say the least.

Before, during and after my reading of Sarah, I read the biblical account and found these differences, which I understand are the result of poetic license/historical fiction writing:

1. Sarai was Abram’s half sister, not some random youth living outside of the walls of Ur.
2. Abram was ten years older than Sarai, not a mere one or two.
3. “He took her as his wife� means a whole lot more to a historical fiction writer than to a Bible reader.
4. Sarai was beautiful, not ageless.
5. Sarai was taken into Pharaoh’s house. Whether or not she was forced into a physical relationship with him is speculation.
6. Issac and Abraham went to mount Moriah; Halter’s addition of Sarah’s trek there seems a bit farfetched.
7. Isaac and Ishmael gathered to mourn Abraham’s death, not Sarah’s, like Halter narrates.

Before reading Sarah, I hadn’t given much thought to: women’s hygiene in biblical times (The Chamber of Blood was pretty interesting), family relationships (How would you react to a family member hearing God’s voice and being instructed to leave everything and go to a new land?), faith and religion before God spoke to Abram (How many gods did (and do) people believe in?!? How would they react to the idea of one god? What would it (and does it) take for people to believe?), nomadic life (No, thank you!), getting married and being barren (Oh, how differently we view marriage and parenthood in the US today.), jealousy spawned by extramarital affairs (Ouch.) and how marital love changes (and hopefully GROWS) through the years and the motivations/backgrounds of Lot, Hagar and Eliezer of Damascus.

In addition to those realizations, I appreciated the reminder of how badly we can mess things up when we fail to be patient and wait for God’s plan. Halter’s book doesn’t necessarily focus on this “learning�, but that’s the lesson I’ve always associated with Abram/Abraham and Sarai/Sarah. Having spent the past two weeks reading and researching Genesis has once again made me think about what patience should look like in my life.