Book Concierge — Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor® Dreamcoat

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice will be Skylight Music Theatre’s holiday show this season.  The musical is based on the biblical story in Genesis of Jacob and his sons. Joseph is a favorite, and his brothers scheme to sell him into slavery, telling their father that Joseph is dead. 

There are many novels based on Old Testament stories, as well as books with a theme of sibling rivalry.

Let’s start with Joseph’s story.  Angela Elwell Hunt has written a trilogy: Legacies of the Ancient River.  The three volumes - Dreamers, Brothers and Journey. -  tell a gripping tale of love, faith and courage, following the relationship of Joseph and the slave girl, Tuya.

Considered his magnum opus, John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, is a retelling of the Cain and Abel story. The writing style is compelling. Sentence structure is short and keeps the story moving forward. Yet, Steinbeck still finds time to describe the setting and the people in a way that makes them come alive on the page. (The movie, though wonderful in its own right, tells only part of the story. Read the book.)

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant focuses on the story of Dinah, daughter of Jacob and Leah. While the Bible gives her but a scant mention, Diamant’s novel brings her into the foreground. In telling her own story, Dinah reveals the traditions and turmoil of ancient womanhood. This was a favorite read among book clubs in the late 1990s.

In Love Amid the Ashes, Mesu Andrews tells the well-known story of the long-suffering Job through the eyes of the women who loved him. The novel breathes life, romance, and passion into the classic biblical story of suffering and steadfast faith.

Queenmaker by India Edgehill tells the story of the first kings of Israel - Saul, David and Solomon - told through the eyes of Queen Michal, daughter of Saul, first wife of David, and loving friend to David's mistress Bathsheba. The story is one of intrigue, lust, war, hate, passion, treachery, and love.

If you are up for another classic, try The Brother’s Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. This 800-page novel is not based on any biblical story, but has sibling rivalry in spades, with a complex storyline and multiple characters. God and the devil in various forms are set against each other throughout the work. The murder of Fyodor Karamazov, father of the three brothers, is the incident that drives the plot. (And I recommend you keep a list of characters as you read.)

Happy reading!

Tessa Bartels

a/k/a Book Concierge