‘This matter would need to be covered up, and swiftly,” writes the prophet Natan, in Geraldine Brooks’s new novel, The Secret Chord. “It was the kind of thing that corrodes, like a drop of lye fallen upon linen. You don’t see the effect at first, but in time the fibers weaken and fray, a hole widens, and the garment is spoiled. Only if the drop is washed away directly can the damage be gainsaid.”
When it comes to describing the damage wrought by sin, especially on the part of political leaders, Brooks has a master’s touch. And The Secret Chord gives her plenty of opportunity to exercise that skill, since her focus is on the life and reign of the Biblical King David. In Natan’s mouth, Brooks deftly describes the potentially cancerous effect of the monarch’s seduction of Batsheva, the wife of Uriah, one of his military officers.
Comments