Kirsch's retellings of these bible stories are interesting, although they sometimes flatly contradict the actual text of the Bible. It is always fun to read what people think of these stories, but Kirsch's scholarship is sloppy: (1) He surveys only liberal biblical schoalrship, referring to it as "the consensus of biblical scholarship," and ignoring a whole string of other views (2) He makes anachrnoistic mistakes (3) He apparently was not much familiar with the bible to begin with if he did not know these stories existed. When he does approach them, he does so with a skewed view, and without a history of studying the bible in its entirety for its own sake. (4) Intent on revealing some supposedly supressed tale beneath the text, he ignores the plain meaning of the text. If you are not familiar with the Bible, please read it in its entirety first, and don't swallow everything you read here.

Anyone who is really familiar with the Bible knows these stories and their relevance to the more general situations. I was hopeful that more scholarship would have been employed in trying to explain the deeper meanings or lessons of these stories, or that they would have been put into context within the culture of the time. However, what I got was a "National Enquirer" approach to these episodes -- a little bit of fact -- no more than what's actually printed in the Bible, and where you think it's vague, put in some swaying breasts (not really printed anywhere in the Bible) to spice it up.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The stories were interesting and the writing was lucid. It is an easy read and I would highly recommend this book to anyone - Christian, Jew, Muslim or atheist.

Jonathan Kirsch fictionalizes some of the most scandalous passages in the Hebrew Bible for his novel "Harlot by the Side of the Road." Each fictionalization is followed by a chapter explaining the history and mystery surrounding these forbidden texts."Harlot by the Side of the Road" is an absolutely fabulous work! Kirsch does such a wonderful job with his fleshing out of each Biblical passage and the historical chapters were fascinating. I found this book hard to put down! Anyone who is a fan of biblical fiction would surely enjoy this work!

this buckle is very nice.... look's like the picture.. i like it a lot.....if you like black label society this just for you....

I ordered this as a gift for someone and was excited when i had found it because the person it was purchased for is a HUGE bls fan. I must admit i feel like i wasted my money and i'm not sure if i should give it. there is not really a good description of this item so i must admit i didnt know what i was getting. it seems, to me at least, very cheaply made (and i think it shows)and way oversized. not worth more than a few bucks in my opinion, im just totally disapointed with this item and wish i could get my money back to spend on something better/more worth while for the intended recipient. i think i will only buy from amazon (the actual seller)from now on since they seem more reasonable with their pricing and give descriptions of the items they are selling...bottome line...RIP OFF!!!