David: The Divided Heart

Giant killer, warrior, home wrecker, murderer, and adulterer, Israel's King David%E2%80%94whose kingdom was looked upon as the "golden age" of Israel and who is portrayed as an ancestor of Jesus%E2%80%94remains perhaps the Bible's most colorful and enigmatic figure. After all, how can a man who murders his lover's husband in order to cover up an adulterous affair be fit to be king? While Wolpe (Making Loss Matter) treads familiar territory and covers little new ground in this biography, he gently and gracefully explores the many facets%E2%80%94king, sinner, father, lover, and husband, among others%E2%80%94that together create David's outsized personality. As the young man who slays the enemy Philistine giant Goliath, David is "someone who does not follow the normal paths but brings into being, conjuring solutions and possibilities from the void." As a leader, Wolpe points out, David's ability to listen is as crucial as his courage. In the end, the author observes, contemporary readers identify with David so well because he is full of contradictions, and he is great because of this complexity, not in spite of it. (Sept.)