From Scotland on Sunday, UK

Seven Days To The Sea

Review by PETER BURNETT

A religious conversion: from Biblical epic to the airport novel
'The parting of the Red Sea is painless, the burning bush is a spooky rumour'

WOMEN are introduced into the Old Testament as help-meets for their men. Their starring roles are few, they are bit part players in the patriarchal epics of Adam, Noah, Abraham and Moses. Each Biblical wife shares the same fate and ultimately plays second fiddle to the great man in question. Despite their virtual anonymity, not all women in early Israelite history look and sound alike. Given the ubiquity of these stories, however, it's sometimes incredible to think that it has taken nearly 3,500 years to read them from a female point of view.

In Seven Days To The Sea, Rebecca Kohn doesn't take the feminist line but delivers Exodus as a potboiler, noticing that this epic has the required elements in spades. The two women who narrate it are Miryam, the sister of Moses, and Tzipporah, his lover, so already there's jealousy and race rivalry, spiritual visions and battles of faith. There are exotic landscapes and heroic deeds, miracles and triumph over adversity. Seven Days To The Sea tackles its subject matter with aplomb, gliding through the saga with ease. No time is spent sketching the set-piece events which appear thrilling but incidental. The parting of the Red Sea is painless, the burning bush is a spooky rumour and all the plagues are over in a jiffy.

Meanwhile, childbirth and domestic duties abound. Those expecting blockbuster spiritual entertainment will find little in Kohn's work, as will those expecting historical verity. But there's no point in throwing darts at the novel's vulnerabilities. The publisher's usual claims that it will make you laugh and cry are equally out of place. Instead, Seven Days To The Sea is like along sunny bath, impregnated with great ruminations on how handsome Moses is. The Egyptians are a satisfyingly evil lot, while the Hebrews lost in the wilderness are a host of truculent ingrates. This doesn't make the novel an unpleasant read; quite the opposite, and in fact it's the ultimate poolside companion. It's long and lazy and at the same time, moderately disrespectful of the importance of its so-called "great story". The effect is of Moses' lover and sister speaking softly over history as if they've been running the show all along.

When Cecil B DeMille directed The Ten Commandments he used 14,000 extras and 15,000 animals. He created sandstorms using the jet engines of tied down Egyptian air-force planes and shot the parting of the sea by spilling 300,000 gallons of water into a tank and reversing the film. But what's so biblical about that?

Seven Days To The Sea concentrates on sheep obstetrics and gossip. Unlike Charlton Heston, Kohn's Moses doesn't have the magnificence of a man who has seen God, but is a moody and flawed leader. While we're spared the imperious camp and solemn theology of the Movies, Seven Days To The Sea absorbs you, making it perfect deck-chair material. One can only approve of this; after all, the Bible's not just for Sundays. It can be an airport book as well.