God Knows (the book)

Recommended by a friend as a book I should read, an attempt to summarise it as requested by another friend, and a need to remind myself why I enjoyed the book (3 good reasons to write this post after 3 years of reading it once)

The story is unlike any other book that I have read. Set in the Phillistines, I guess it touches on the eccentricity (until I get a better word) of King David. Seen through the eyes of the good old king himself, it is like perusing his secret diary.

Firstly, he has (I forgot the number, but I'm not exaggerating when I say many) wives, and he has a fantasticly positive (and humorous) outlook towards his life, his wives, and (his harem, kids and kingdom, etc)

He mentions how he got hold of wife (No 2), the (former?) wife of his army captain... He sends the guy out to war; checks her out and decides to get her for himself. Sneaky guy, this David.... :)

And then of course there's Solomon, one of his kids. There's this old story about how a KIng Solomon solved a problem of 2 ladies fighting for a baby by suggesting that they cut the baby in half- the logic being the natural mother will never allow such a thing to happen. However, according to David, Solomon actually did think of cutting up the baby (David sighs as he narrates how silly some of his kids could be)

Hmmm... looks like Solomon isn't as wise as ppl used to think.
What I found particularly endearing about this book is the perspective each incident is seen by david, and at times, you do feel sorry for him when he shares with the reader the problems he faces while performing his duties as king and/or father, especially when he has to bear with his kids trying to kill each other to become king and some other forms of sibling rivalry/animosity (putting it really mildly there)

I'd read the book again if I ever come across it (again) ;)