The Book of V.

Starred review from March 1, 2020
Esther, the Old Testament teenager who reluctantly married a Persian king and saved her people, is connected across the ages to two more contemporary women in a sinuous, thoughtful braid of women's unceasing struggles for liberty and identity. Biblical Esther, second-wave feminist Vee, and contemporary mother-of-two Lily are the women whose narrative strands and differing yet sometimes parallel dilemmas are interwoven in Solomon's (Leaving Lucy Pear, 2016, etc.) questing, unpredictable new novel. All three are grappling--some more dangerously than others--with aspects of male power versus their own self-determination. Esther, selected from 40 virgins to be the second queen--after her predecessor, Vashti, was banished (or worse)--is the strangest. Her magical powers can bring on a shocking physical transformation or reanimate a skeletal bird, yet she is still a prisoner in a gilded cage, mother to an heir, frustrated daughter of an imperiled tribe. Vee, wife of an ambitious senator in 1970s Washington, finds herself a player in a House of Cards-type scenario, pressured toward sexual humiliation by her unscrupulous husband. Lily, in 21st-century Brooklyn, has chosen motherhood over work and is fretting about the costumes for her two daughters to wear at the Purim carnival honoring Esther. Alongside questions of male dominance, issues of sexuality arise often, as do female communities, from Esther's slave sisters to Vee's consciousness-raising groups to Lily's sewing circle. And while layers of overlap continue among the three women's stories--second wives, sewing, humming--so do subtly different individual choices. Finely written and often vividly imagined, this is a cerebral, interior novel devoted to the notion of womanhood as a composite construction made up of myriad stories and influences. A bold, fertile work lit by powerful images, often consumed by debate, almost old-school in its feminist commitment.

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Starred review from March 23, 2020
Solomon (Leaving Lucy Pear) models this clever, heartfelt triptych on The Hours, weaving a retelling of the biblical story of Esther with the linked stories of a senator’s wife and a Brooklyn mom. In the ancient Persian town of Susa, new king Ahasuerus banishes his wife, Vashti, after she refuses to strip for Ahasuerus’s friends. At a house party in 1970s Washington, D.C., Vee Kent’s husband, Sen. Alexander Kent, makes the same lewd request Ahasuerus made to Vashti. Vee refuses, and is sent packing by Alexander’s chief of staff. Vee takes refuge with her best friend, Rosemary, who’s converting to Judaism in solidarity with her husband. In 2016 Brooklyn, Lily is getting her kids ready for Purim when she learns that her mother, Ruth, has been diagnosed with cancer. Later, Lily connects with one of Ruth’s old friends, who shares surprising details about her mother’s identity and past experience. Solomon connects these stories in a way that’s fresh and tantalizing, with fascinating intergenerational discussions about desire, duty, family, and feminism, as well as a surprising, completely believable twist. This frank, revisionist romp through a Bible tale is a winner.

April 15, 2020
Solomon's (Leaving Lucy Pear, 2016) latest is a well written, evocative novel following three women grappling with their newfound identities. Esther, as in the Book of Esther, has been chosen as the next queen after the disgrace and disappearance of Queen Vashti. Esther's magical powers do little to keep her safe or protect her people targeted by the crown. In the 1970s, Vee is left out to dry after refusing her senator husband's shocking request. In the present, Lily navigates her role as a stay-at-home mom and second wife while preparing her children's costumes for a Purim carnival, which she feels wholly underprepared for. While their tales are thematically linked throughout, it is not until late in the book that further connections appear?but each story line is captivating regardless. The three women's interior monologues dominate the book, sometimes at the cost of secondary character development, but that does little to distract. A winner for fans of historical fiction, literary women's fiction, and Jewish interest stories, this would also make for an interesting book discussion.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)