Here's one of my million favorite excerpts to lure you into reading this book yourself:
Clay: "So why did he make you? Especially if he knew you would turn out ... like this."And another excerpt - Lucian, speaking about the creation of Adam:
Lucian: "I could ask you the same thing .... Why El made us, I've never known. One could surmise that El was lonely, but the fact is that he didn't really need us. You, created in his image, might actually have more insight into that question than I do. We're not so privileged as you in that way. As for me, my purpose for living, my role in this great scheme was clear to me from the first: to fall down, to worship, to praise, to wait upon the word of El."
Clay: "That sounds really boring."
Lucian: "Really? Imagine the bliss of fulfilling one's created purpose."
"We on the periphery lingered in the humid air. What was he doing? There was God, doing something in the muck. We looked at each other. Even Lucifer stared, dumbfounded. You should have seen the look on his face!.... El was sculpting the earth into some thing, some likeness, creating this time not by word...but in person.... In person, Clay. As though by hand! ... We were all staring, gape-mouthed as you, by then. And then he surrounded this thing. He was everywhere around it, as if he had gathered the dirty thing in his arms and cupped it by the head. And then I heard it. ... The sound, it was the same expectant sound at the dawn of all the world. A breath exhaled into the mud! Given to the mud things as surely as if he had set his mouth against those dirty lips and breathed. Oh, divine exhale! It was himself. Much more than life, it was everything - the awareness, all the emotion, the propensity to love, to nurture, to create. And he endowed it all upon this new creature made of mud. ... Image of El, breath of God. In such an unworthy vessel. Something far more precious than diamonds, denied even to us but entrusted to a container of mud."And as always, I collected a handful of delicious, well-chosen, and/or new-to-me words from the book:
pickax, ankh, cudgel, brooked, seminormalcy, preamble, narthex, baritone, masterwork, seraphim, lore, unflappability, a brief infinity, lilt, eiditic, dandled, pintingled, rivulets, sibilant, append, molder, Shekinah, quicksilver, pave, coalesced, compatriots, alchemy, interlopers, specter, wrest, dispassionate, iteration, eddy, chinoiserie, stratum, acumen, discordant, pulpous, wending, gauche, convivial, mania, lothario, cusp, besieged, peckish, rejoinder, privy, pantheon, specificity, celebrants, briny, moue, blithe, odium, cohere, pathos, hauteur, lorelai, nutriment, rictus, unflappable, crux, scrabbling, despoil, ziggurats, showcase, proxy, hitherto, steeliness, chronograph, banshee, expansive, recumbent, gabardine, bulwark, festooned, panache, rankling, arcing, berserkers, forfeiture, pell-mell, emotive, longsuffering, jubilation, disquiet, heartened, dispassion, patrician, menage, idyll, pastiche
5 comments:
Imagine the bliss of fulfilling one's created purpose.
Wow. I love that quote and all that it brings to mind for me. Thanks for sharing about this book; I'll have to add it to my list for this year.
I love your fascination with words and phrases. It's such a fun and interesting part of your personality that enriches my life. :)
My favorite word from your list: chinoiserie
Knew you'd enjoy this one! It's on my must reread list for the summer.
That quote was one I had to stop the girls in Baltimore to read aloud to them before we left for dinner one night. It made me catch my breath...I love that it resonates with you, too. (and btw - thanks for ignoring my typo on that quote the first time around.) :)
Now if I could just PRONOUNCE chinoiserie.
For some reason - ankh - was most intriguing to me. Never heard the word in my life. And who wouldn't be curious about the combo nkh?!
Yes, Amy - you nailed me on this recommendation! What about you...have you started Peace Like a River yet?
I'm hooked - will be reading it soon I can guarantee. Especially since we just finished studying creation, flood, etc. in our Chronological Bible Study on Tues. mornings. This will really resonate! Thanks!
Yay! It will be a nice complement to your study then! (though a fictional telling, it speaks to so many truths!) I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. So well written!
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