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vasha's review
3.0
Some things here caught my attention, others were hard to comprehend or seemed to miss the mark.
seebrandyread's review
3.0
There are certainly women in the Bible who don't get a fair shake, and Gomer, the wife of the prophet Hosea, is one of them. Kwame Dawes's book, Gomer's Song, is an imagining of Gomer's story. Note, it's not a REimagining because the actual story of her in Hosea gives almost no information besides that God commanded Hosea to marry a "harlot" as a representation of the Israelites' unfaithfulness to God. Hosea buys her back from her other lover(s) to show God's love in spite of sin.
Dawes's poems attempt to give Gomer more of a voice, more autonomy over her body. But no one's body belongs to them in the Bible. You have free will, but you aren't acting through your own vessel. Women suffer from a double ownership: God's and men's. Perhaps Gomer is behaving from a sense of survival or maybe she is in love with someone who won't or can't marry her, but her motives are unimportant in the grand scheme.
I appreciated that this book tries to give Gomer more control, but her body seems to be the most important thing about her. I didn't feel like I ultimately learned much about her other than her sex life. I also don't necessarily think the book is written the way it is just because a man wrote it. Men should be able to write from female perspectives, and many do it well. But in this case, Dawes has written about a woman who belongs to God, can only be legitimized by a husband, and now her story is through a male filter. I can't help but question the authenticity and wish that Gomer could speak for herself.
Dawes's poems attempt to give Gomer more of a voice, more autonomy over her body. But no one's body belongs to them in the Bible. You have free will, but you aren't acting through your own vessel. Women suffer from a double ownership: God's and men's. Perhaps Gomer is behaving from a sense of survival or maybe she is in love with someone who won't or can't marry her, but her motives are unimportant in the grand scheme.
I appreciated that this book tries to give Gomer more control, but her body seems to be the most important thing about her. I didn't feel like I ultimately learned much about her other than her sex life. I also don't necessarily think the book is written the way it is just because a man wrote it. Men should be able to write from female perspectives, and many do it well. But in this case, Dawes has written about a woman who belongs to God, can only be legitimized by a husband, and now her story is through a male filter. I can't help but question the authenticity and wish that Gomer could speak for herself.
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