ADIEL

The Greatest Story Ever Told, sort of. Set in the age of Genesis and narrated by an angel, Adiel (winner of the 1999 Jerusalem Literary Prize) is a very weird history of the world as written down by Israeli novelist DuNour (Yet Another, 1978, not reviewed).

It’s not easy to have a boss who is invisible, but then just about every aspect of Adiel’s job is strange. An angel from the tribe of the Uriels, he was responsible (as all Uriels were) for guiding the sun along its daily course until it passed into the care of the Melanols, who took it at eventide and doused it in the sea for the duration of the night. Like all angels, Adiel is keenly aware of hierarchies, and he’s well aware that he ranks pretty low in terms of angelic glory and power—not that he’d have it otherwise. He is still higher than the strange being named Adam, who has lately been set loose in his own private paradise. Adam looks like trouble, frankly, and none of the angels can understand why the Creator has devoted so much care to him (it may have something to do with his having been made in the image of the Creator himself, incredible as that may seem). He even receives private visitations from the angel Lilith, who ministers to Adam’s grosser desires until he’s presented with a mate named Eve. After that, things progress quickly from bad to worse, until the Creator becomes so sick of the entire lot that he sends a flood (managed, of course, by the angels) to wipe the whole earth clean. After that, a new start is made and there’s more hope for mankind. Throughout, Adiel is guided by the greater angels (especially Michael), who make clear that the Creator’s ways are not always logical but invariably just and worthy of praise.

A New Age Old Testament, at once pompous and vapid.