HONORED

This simple, unadorned novella imagines what would have happened if "Luke," the Antiochian, Greek-speaking author of the Gospel of Luke, had paid a visit to Mary some years after Jesus' death and asked her about her miraculous experiences. Dorr makes much of the church tradition that the author of the Gospel of Luke was a physician, having him speak of his own "analytical Greek mind" and of being "an educated, sophisticated Greek." The fictionalized approach conjectures vibrant details that are not elucidated in the Gospels: the disbelief of Mary's parents at her angelic visitation and subsequent pregnancy; and her fear, upon passing Rachel's tomb en route to Bethlehem, that she too would die in childbirth. Dorr does a fine job of showing how the Gentile Luke slowly learns Jewish customs and law. She uses the biblical texts faithfully while using her imagination to expand their emotional reach. (Apr.)