My initial review of Julia Navarro’s THE BIBLE OF CLAY (as translated by Andrew Hurley) contained a four-letter word and the phrase “ham-handed.” I thought that was a bit harsh, because in all fairness, there is an adventurous story here of Nazi atrocities, hidden history, duplicitous intrigue, murderous dealings and a setting of modern-day Iraq before the American invasion that promised thoughtful insight as well as an exciting tale.
Unfortunately, that all got mangled in the wildly improbable plot, the presence of way too many irrelevant characters, the unlikability of almost everyone involved, the bloated length of the book, and a political and social analysis of Iraqi society and the impending conflict that was utterly boring and predictable. But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?
It’s frustrating because Navarro is a “political analyst for Agencia OTR/Europa Press,” which makes one hope for at least a semblance of investigation into the Iraqi psyche. Standard talking points are inserted into various mouths, but it all feels tremendously shallow. Saddam is a bad man. So are the Americans. It’s all about oil. Whatever. The main character’s insidious complicity with the Hussein regime is bad enough, but the levels of evil encountered in the book are hardly explored at all.
Okay, so not every book can be a subtle masterpiece of thoughts and ideas. And the plot, while it sounds like a draft of an Indiana Jones movie, has some interest. An archaeologist has come across two ancient tablets of clay written by one Shamas, that indicate he is about to be told the story of Creation by Abraham himself. The tablets have been acquired by dubious means, the archaeologists in charge are a little suspect themselves, and the area where they want to dig to uncover more of these tablets is in the heart of Iraq — an Iraq that is about to be bombed by the Americans as the war begins. That’s good. It’s the execution that’s half as successful.
The tablets were “found” by one Alfred Tannenberg, who was a particularly brutal Nazi SS officer. His wartime actions have instilled a vendetta for revenge in the hearts of four Holocaust survivors, who vow to kill him and all his offspring. His only offspring is granddaughter Clara, who heads the archaeological investigation in Iraq and who is obsessed with “the bible of clay.” But instead of one brutal Nazi officer, and one person intent on hunting him down, Navarro feels it important to include six other characters — three on each side — who do little but confuse the narrative.
While it seems our sympathies should lie with Clara, since she is the heart of this book, she is also a particularly nasty piece of work who is incapable of self-examination. In the end, we yearn for the appearance of the priest Gian Maria or the archaeologist Yves Picot, simply because their characters seem less oppressive.
It all plods along with leaden dialogue and unnecessary padding, which was also a fault with her debut, THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE SHROUD. However, that first book was much more fun to read. This one needed a stronger editorial hand. Navarro’s imagination is vibrant, and her inclination to write religiously-themed thrillers should keep her marketable, but the reader hopes for a further refinement of the craft. —Mark Rose
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE HOLY SHROUD by Julia Navarro
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I understand the interest in authors who can set their works in the midst of current events and countries of interest. Certainly it’s an opportunity to really learn something as readers, while the publishers take advantage of the ‘popularity’ of a topic. It’s just unfortunate that it seems the authors who get drafted to write these books often aren’t skilled enough to write something meaningful, and their works are hurried out the door without enough oversight in order to take advantage of their timeliness. That’s how it seems, anyway.
As for me, I enjoyed THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE SHROUD.