We don’t just surrender to disease and warfare, we fight them. We feel the need to control, to attempt, at least, to control our lives. After all, in a world devoid of modern medicine, who would not engage with potions and amulets to protect oneself through childbirth, to protect the newborn baby, and to protect those who engaged in combat? As human beings, we seek agency. I was personally able to lose myself in this world, and take it on as realistic. I think if each of these stories had been shortened and had less of the “other-world”-ness it would have moved along better. Each contains much much much Hoffman-trademarked magic, omens, superstitions, potions, spells, witches, angels, demons, ghosts, amulets, symbols, beasts…you get the idea. Each narrator’s section of the story is quite long and detailed. told from the perspectives of four women who had sought refuge there in the stronghold built by King Herod. “The Dovekeepers” is the story of the Roman defeat of the Jews at Masada ~70 C.E. Second, was there really an awareness of an afterlife among Jews at that time? And then, of course, one has to ask if Josephus’ account of Masada was accurate, or more of a myth or legend. First, it was said that there was too much magic, that these people were barely recognizable as Jews. I noticed in the Amazon reviews, several criticisms of this book. The narrators did not seem to represent a typical life of a woman at that time. I was ambivalent about the long-winded detail, the dark, murky atmosphere, and the marginal circumstances and dysfunctional relationships of the four narrators. It was hard to get through the first 50 pages, hard to engage in such a sad story with a known ending. I have just finished reading The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman, a novel of the fall of Jerusalem and the siege of Masada.

The dovekeepers book review