RACHEL AND LEAH, by Orson Scott Card, Shadow Mountain, 418 pages, $23.95.
Orson Scott Card has done it again. He's gotten himself so involved in a story that he has to break it up into two novels, instead of the intended one.
He did it three years ago at the end of the his well-known "Ender's Game" series with "Xenocide" and "Children of the Mind."
He did it this time trying to finish his "Women of Genesis" biblical-fiction series with "Rachel and Leah" and the soon-to-be published "The Wives of Israel."
The basic story is complicated enough, and trying to tackle it in one book would have compromised the integrity not only of the story, but also Card's innate ability to realistically create characters from the minimal descriptions offered in the Bible.
"Rachel and Leah" is, as the title suggests, about the two sisters who both marry the prophet Jacob, and along with their handmaidens Zilpah and Bilhah, later bear the 10 sons whose descendants become the 10 tribes of Israel.
Leah is covered with a veil most of her life, only because she is, interestingly enough, "tender eyed." Being sensitive to the light, she wears veils while outside and often has to be led around by servants from place to place. Her eyesight has hindered her activity in her family's camp, and she is left doing the only task where acute eyesight is not required — weeding the gardens.
As a result, Leah develops an ornery, spoiled attitude, and it doesn't help that her younger sister Rachel is the pretty one, the spoiled one, the daughter that everyone loves. Rachel herself isn't without fault; she is overly defensive around Leah, and she always gets her way with their father. But when cousin Jacob comes to the camp, bringing with him his holy books, things start to change.
Jacob's presence has a calming effect on everyone, even helping Leah re-think her attitude problem. When he enters into a contract for seven years of hard labor in order to marry Rachel, he becomes indispensable to Rachel, Leah, their father, their handmaidens and everyone else in camp. It is only when Jacob marries the wrong daughter that they all find out who they have become.
With four woman as key characters in this book, Card expertly crafts the relationships between each of them and Jacob. They are not just characters in an ancient story — they become real people, with real problems facing real consequences. Believable dialogue helps the story move along, and readers get a true sense of life in a nomadic, biblical society. More than that, they see how legendary people from the scriptures may have lived their lives trying to be the people God knew they could be.
E-mail: ltaylor@desnews.com