false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175702954m/547152.jpg 547152 1 <I>Give Us a King! Samuel, Saul, and David</I> is Everett Fox's new translation of Saul I and II. Fox, whose translation of <I>The Five Books of Moses</I> is by far the best contemporary rendering of Hebrew Scripture, has performed another literary miracle with <I>Give Us a King!</I>. His style presumes that "the reader of the Bible should ideally recite the text aloud, allowing himself or herself to be led by its sound rather than presupposing what is to be found there," as Fox explains in this book's introduction. Consequently, Fox's translation (which appears on the page in the form of free verse, not as prose) preserves the strangeness of the Hebrew text, rather than smoothing it over with English euphemisms and elegant transitions. The style of Fox's translation, one hopes, will bring new readers to consider the perennially urgent matters described by Samuel I and II. According to Fox, the central themes of these stories are personal responsibility and leadership--"a people's struggle with what it means to ask for leadership, how the leaders measure up to the task, and how the ideals of a culture fare in that process." This book might be most productively read along with Robert Alter's very different but equally impressive translation of the same texts, <I>The David Story</I>. <I>--Michael Joseph Gross</I> 534417 2 11 1999 Give Us a King!: Samuel, Saul, and David total:7|5:3|4:3|3:1| 7 30 10 1 4 0 false false Thu Jun 19 15:19:35 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 19 15:19:46 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Tue Mar 31 14:12:33 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 31 14:12:33 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Mar 29 11:34:51 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 11:34:56 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Nov 11 14:37:11 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 11 14:38:28 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Tue Aug 05 19:49:15 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 05 19:49:15 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Tue Feb 12 21:01:01 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 12 21:01:01 -0800 2008 5 0 false false Wed Jan 09 17:02:05 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 09 17:02:05 -0800 2008 5 0 false false Sun Nov 25 20:33:20 -0800 2007 Sun Nov 25 20:33:20 -0800 2007 0 0 false false Sat Nov 17 18:01:09 -0800 2007 Sat Nov 17 18:01:09 -0800 2007 5 0 false false Wed Jun 06 05:39:45 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 06 05:40:00 -0700 2007 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=547152