Before I tell you that I’m writing a review about a novelization of the biblical Book of Judges, you should know that the sea-god Dagon makes an appearance. I’m not kidding. The bible is the original Lovecraftian tome.
This article is about my grandfather, Gordon C. Krantz, and his book: Judges, Rulers, and One Angry Levite. He’s just published it at Lulu.com.
I read this book several years ago while it had the title "Judges, Generals, and One Angry Levite." At the time I knew the author’s work through his memoir "What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?", a surprisingly light-hearted look at his service in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II. Most of the anecdotes seemed to involve the whimsical mis-use of explosive ordinance.
His historical fiction based on the Book of Judges breaks from that mold. For those of you unfamiliar with this particular part of the bible, it’s a recounting of the leaders and political turbulence affecting the Hebrew community from 1400 BC to 1050 BC. Anyone with even a passing understanding of the history of the Middle East knows the area has fostered bewilderingly complex politics and cultural shifting from the dawn of civilization to the present. The Hebrews lived side-by-side with a diverse array of cultures and military powers, with nobody needing to travel more than a few miles to engage in some healthy genetic cleansing.
For a scattered community of Hebrew tribes with no clear leadership hierarchy and a weird monotheistic religion, this period was a constant struggle against assimilation.
Some highlights of "Judges, Rulers, and One Angry Levite":
-history’s first recorded use of the name "Barak."
-Samson going to town on the Philistines with the jawbone of an ass.
-The revelation that the Jews, unlike Crom, didn’t know the secret of steel.
