Note 5: The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks

What is it? 

The book is set in 1000 BC in what later became known as the Holy Land and subsequently as Israel and surrounding countries.  It is the story of King David and his successful campaign to unify the various tribes living in this region and found the city eventually known as Jerusalem. It is told by his prophet and advisor Natan (Nathaniel of the Bible), whose first prophecy, taken to be the words of the Name (God), was that David would become king and found a dynasty.  It is this that spurs David on to fulfill Natan’s words by whatever means necessary – for the most part with ruthless violence. 

Why read it?

The book is clearly the product of extensive research into this period of ancient history and gives a good idea of David’s life and to a lesser extent of Natan’s.  None of us were greatly engaged by the detailed accounts, full of gory and often shocking detail,  of David's numerous military campaigns, which take up most of the first part of the book. However we did gain a sense of his significant achievement in unifying the region. From about the middle of the book the story becomes more about people rather than events, with details of  David’s sexual appetite, as well as those of some of his sons, particularly with the account of his rape of Bathsheva, wife of Uriah the Hittite and its aftermath. We were also interested in the snapshot the book gave of women’s lives and the importance of religion at that time:  David’s brutal military campaigns are believed to have legitimacy thanks to Natan’s 'divine' prophecies. Fortunately the book is not all blood, guts and rape - the writer also lets us see a little of  David’s gentler side with his renowned musical talent – song writing and playing the harp- his love for some of his wives, his fondness for Natan and later on his son Shlomo (Solomon of the Bible).  Overall, we agreed that we learned something about the history and morality of that world. 

Why give it a miss?

Our main gripe was that the book falls into a trap, possibly as a result of the writer’s detailed research, of seeming overstuffed with detail. The result is that the many military campaigns and conquests become repetitive, tedious and confusing. More confusion occurs with the structure – Natan is asked by David to write a memoir of his life which he is to research by talking to various people from his past. Natan embarks on this task but also throws in bits from his own story as well as jumping about in time from present to various points in the past, so that at times we had no idea where we were.  Two further complaints were that the book has as many characters as a Russian novel, so that we needed to keep checking the ‘cast list’ at the front to keep track of them all. Also, although the writer tries to give us a full sense of David as a man, inevitably he is defined by his largely egocentric and brutal behaviour.  The result was that many of us found him unsympathetic and were not particularly engaged in his story. Natan is less well drawn than David. Despite being described as David’s counsellor, friend and critic he comes across as little more than a mouthpiece for the prophecies. His criticism of David’s brutality in doing ‘whatever is necessary’ to become King is limited and the book never gets to grips with the moral dilemma posed by this philosophy.

What we asked.

Why did the writer choose to tell David’s story?

Did we care about any of the characters?

Does using Natan as a narrator add or detract from our engagement with David's story?'   

Keep?

Most of us thought we'd keep it - more as a reference book than as a good read though. 

Score - 3.5