Official Review: Ruth in Verse by J. David States

Erin Painter Baker · Post by **Erin Painter Baker** » 30 Oct 2020, 19:30

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Ruth in Verse" by J. David States.]

3 out of 4 stars

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I am not a religious person, but religion fascinates me. I have read the English translations of many religious and mythological stories for what they teach us about history and the people who wrote (or told) those stories. Because of this, I am very familiar with most of the stories in the Bible. The story of Ruth is one of my favorites, so I was happy to pick up Ruth in Verse by J. David States.

Ruth in Verse takes the story from the Old Testament Book of Ruth and tells it in poetic form. For those not familiar with the story, Ruth is a young widow. After her husband and her brother-in-law both die, she chooses to go with her mother-in-law, Naomi, back to Naomi’s homeland instead of returning to her own mother to possibly remarry. Once they have reached Naomi’s homeland, Ruth goes out to find work in order to support them both. She ends up in the fields of a man named Boaz, who is a relative of Naomi’s. It was the tradition and obligation of the closest male relative to marry a widow in their family in order that the line not be broken. Boaz is not the closest male relative to Naomi and Ruth, but he gets that man to renounce his claim, and Boaz and Ruth marry and have children. Naomi lives with them and cares for the children as a grandmother.

It is a very simple story and not a long one. It is a story of love, fidelity, and faith rewarded. It is as much Naomi’s story as it is Ruth’s. What I like most about States’s version is that he keeps it simple. He does not see the need to embellish or invent new parts of the story. He just takes the story of Ruth and Naomi and writes it as a poem.

The poetry itself is my least favorite part of the book. That is not to say it is bad, just that States chose a very restrictive form—four-line stanzas with an ABAB rhyming scheme—that sometimes forced his hand and limited his ability to convey emotion. I will give him credit that he was willing to go with near rhymes on occasion in order to maintain the feel of the story as well as the meter and measure, but I think free verse might have been better able to convey the emotions involved in this tale.

The book was well edited. I found no errors in the poem itself and only a couple in the introduction (which is almost as long as the poem). The introduction is also the only part of the book where the religiosity of the story is focused on. The poem touches only lightly on Naomi’s faith and Ruth’s willingness to convert to it. However, in the introduction, States does focus overtly on Naomi’s Hebrew faith. Nothing in the poem is likely to turn any reader off, but someone who does not wish to read a short sermon should probably skip the introduction.

I give Ruth in Verse by J. David States three out of four stars. The poem is well done and holds to the simplicity of the story, though I might have chosen a different form of verse. The sermon feel of the introduction turned me off a little bit, but that was to be expected given that this is a story from the Old Testament. It is a story that is appropriate for anyone of any age to read and might be a good way to introduce the story of Ruth and Naomi to a younger audience, as kids tend to like rhyme. The introduction will appeal more to Christian and Jewish readers, but that can easily be skipped.

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Ruth in Verse
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