Walking the Bible

Starred review from April 1, 2001
Prolific author Feiler has turned from his earlier subject (clowning, in Under the Big Top) to more serious fare: the Bible and the Middle East. Jewish author Feiler offers himself here as a pilgrim, walking through biblical lands and interviewing individuals from many religious traditions and walks of life. He reads the stories of the Pentateuch in the places they are thought to have happened, he records the latest archaeological understandings of the Bible, and he wrestles with his own faith. Of course, contemporary politics sneaks into the story, too; Arab-Israeli conflicts are hard to avoid when one is writing about the biblical Canaan. Feiler is an accomplished wordsmith. When he describes the "smells of dawn cinnamon, cardamom, a whiff of burnt sugar," the reader is transported to Turkey. He has the rare talent of being able to write in the second person, a gift he uses sparingly here: "Light. The first thing you notice about the desert is the light." In the sections of the book where his content is banal (readers can only take so many descriptions of dusty museums, bustling streets and breathtaking sunsets), Feiler's prose carries the narrative through. This book belongs on the shelves next to classics such as Wendy Orange's Coming Home to Jerusalem. Readers who find Westerners' encounters with the Holy Land enchanting will cherish this book.

October 31, 2005
When Walking the Bible was first published in 2001, Feiler set up a Web site where readers could respond to the book. The most frequently-asked question was, "Do you have any pictures?" Now the answer is yes. This coffeetable companion volume features 150 color and black-and-white images (many of them taken by Feiler himself, who comes from a family of amateur photographers), paired with snippets from the original book's text. The highly visual nature of Feiler's project-to revisit the sites and locations mentioned in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and discover their meaning for Jews, Christians and Muslims today-lends itself perfectly to a photographic rendering, and these images do not disappoint. As well, Feiler has an enviable talent for helping modern readers visualize large-scale landscapes that can't be easily captured with a camera ("The Fertile Crescent was structured like a modern American shopping mall, with an anchor store at either end-Mesopotamia and Egypt-and more vulnerable boutique stores in the middle"). He also suggests the sights and sounds of these places, remarking, for example, that the Sinai desert is unexpectedly loud, with whining wind and "tinkling" sand. With its journeys to Egypt, Israel, Palestine and Turkey, Feiler's photographic pilgrimage is a rare treat. Readers will be delighted to learn that in 2006, his travels will also be the subject of a three-hour PBS miniseries.