The First Love Story

January 9, 2017
Feiler (Walking the Bible) addresses the impact that the first couple, and their complex experiences in and out of Eden, have had on Western society. While some of the insights are expected and cover well-trod ground, such as his discussions of Michelangelo and other artists, others are surprising and open trajectories into popular culture, as he considers the influence of Adam and Eve on people like Mae West and Frank Sinatra. Feiler explores how the larger paradigm of love, loss, recovery, and redemption in the Eden story has cast a long and enduring shadow across the wide spectrum of popular art and culture. “Humans might spoil the garden, but love never dies,” he writes, and this undying love of God for people, and people for each other, can all be best understood in light of the Eden narratives. Taking the oldest story of romance and giving it a new gloss, this book may be Feiler’s best work yet. A wonderfully readable, powerfully presented look into the influence of the original love.

December 1, 2016
Feiler (The Secrets of Happy Families, 2013, etc.) examines the saga of the first romantic couple in an intellectual exploration that could have been titled "A Thousand Ways of Looking at Adam and Eve."The author relates how he began contemplating Adam and Eve obsessively while visiting the Sistine Chapel in Rome with his 8-year-old twin daughters. One of the girls examined the ceiling, saw the image of God pointing at Adam, and asked, "Why is there only a man? Where am I in the picture?" Noticing a different detail, his other daughter asked, "Who's that woman under God's arm? Is that Eve?" Those questions caused Feiler to realize the centrality of Adam and Eve in conversations about male-female dynamics over the past 3,000 years. "One story," he writes, "has served as the battleground for human relationships and sexual identity." To understand that centrality, the author researched the Bible carefully, read countless other religious and secular portrayals, and consulted dozens of scholars from a variety of disciplines. Although torn from the start about whether Adam and Eve were flesh-and-blood individuals or mythical creations, Feiler seems to lean toward the former throughout his exploration, which is impressively wide-ranging but repetitive to a fault. The author discusses the couple foremost as examples of love for and loyalty to each other. In addition, he examines them as sexual beings, parents, trailblazers for equality between genders, and much more. The repetition revolves around Feiler's insistence, in somewhat varied words in each chapter, that the couple invented and defined love--both at the guidance of God and somewhat independently of God. At times, he comes across as a college debater trying overly hard to prove points that are impossible to prove. Despite the sometimes-exhausting repetition, Feiler provides a fascinating look at why Adam and Eve matter in understanding couples today.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 1, 2016
The author of six consecutive New York Times best sellers and writer/presenter of the PBS series Walking the Bible and Sacred Journeys with Bruce Feiler, Feiler uses the story of Adam and Eve to illuminate human relationships. With a national tour.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2017

When people think of the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis 1 and 2, they tend to focus on the negative aspects: creation, life, and death in a world of sin. New York Times columnist Feiler instead emphasizes the positive aspects, notably Adam and Eve as the first love story providing insights on contemporary relationships. The author examines the narrative in its context as Hebrew Scripture, but his main emphasis is on how this story shows the love between Adam and Eve in art and literature, particularly through Michelangelo's depictions of the first couple in the Sistine Chapel and John Milton's depictions in Paradise Lost (1667). Such representations show the first couple as symbols of mutuality, interdependency, and love. Feiler also uses insights from psychologists and cognitive scientists to further show the relevance of Adam and Eve in the present day. He sees Adam and Eve as figures who provide a message to current societies, which he believes are often deficient in the areas of love, family, and interconnectedness. VERDICT Readers with a curiosity about religious thought, as well as those interested in male-female relationships, will find this unique book appealing.--John Jaeger, Dallas Baptist Univ. Lib.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2016

The author of six consecutive New York Times best sellers and writer/presenter of the PBS series Walking the Bible and Sacred Journeys with Bruce Feiler, Feiler uses the story of Adam and Eve to illuminate human relationships. With a national tour.

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.