The Women at the Well

“In The Women at the Well, Bauer sings out of silent alternative stories of the Biblical women she first encountered as a schoolgirl listening to the nuns. Wry humor is only one element of Bauer’s illuminating re-vision as she inhabits her women in the longing, sassiness, rebellion, compassion, wavering, and triumph. She lets them like each other—Rachel and Leah reconcile—and lets them relish their bodies. Mary complains about never ‘knowing pleasure.’ She creates The Prodigal Daughter who, like Woolf’s Judith Shakespeare, experiences a vastly different fate from her male counterpart’s. But unlike poor Judith, this daughter survives and bears her own girl child . . . I had my favorites among Bauer’s women, and you will, too. Whoever they are, the Bible will never be the same.”—Carole Simmons Oles