1950s Bible epic--my review of "The Song of Ruth" by Frank Slaughter

The Song of Ruth by Frank G. Slaughter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

(I read the Spanish translation--"La Canción de Ruth." Not a great translation, but very readable.)

I enjoyed reading this book, which is why I give it 3 stars. However, it wasn't a very good book, which is why I don't want to score it any higher.

Much of the novel was fun to read, like a romance/action adventure. The characters were pretty good, and although it is a story from the Bible it was not written in a devotional way, so that the bits of religion didn't feel too cloying. However, it had flaws that were impossible to ignore, even reading for fun.

Many of the plot points were not believable, and felt like blind spots in the author's research. It has the kind of flaw that drives me crazy in fiction, relating to errors in scale and size. Sometimes, two points are treated as close, as if they are just a short walk apart, and other times they are days between. Sometimes, the Israelites feel like a community of a couple hundred who all know each other, and then they are treated like a nation of tens of thousands. A related error is the way the author has the characters handling weapons, which he did not write about with much authority. I think he was guessing.

In other words--using a term that might or might not have been current in the 50s when it was written--the author has done a poor job of world-building. Too much was implausible. Honestly, it felt a lot like a 50s-era Hollywood set standing in for the Middle East. That impression is intensified by the fact that Ruth, a Semitic woman of 3000 years ago, has red hair, as if she is played by a European actress. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it better if I had imagined it like a sword and sandal epic, with Tony Curtis as Boaz and Sophia Loren as Ruth. Yeah, that's better.

Or better still, imagine it with William Shatner and some green lady on a red planet. Then I can forgive the cheap Paramount sets. :)

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