Lovers

In Midrash--commentaries on the Old Testament--the biblical text represents the whole of reality, equivalent to all experience and knowledge. Midrash actively engages the reader as a participant in the interpretation of the text, allowing him to play with it, recreate it, improvise on it and add personal comments and stories. Initially a purely oral form, meant to be memorized and recited, midrash encompasses every thought or event that can and does occur. Continually recreating itself, it is is timeless, incorporating the past, the present and the future. Even after it was set down in written form, probably around 200 B.C., it retained its poetic quality. Midrashic activity was traditionally the reserve of men. There is no written record of women engaged in this activity. With Lovers: A Midrash, Ravel brings midrash to the present in a richly metaphorical and satisfying imaginative work.


Genre: Literary Fiction