I've just started reading my friend Charlotte Gordon's most recent book, The Woman Who Named God, which explores the saga of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, that mythical love triangle at the root of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Too be honest, if I hadn't met and been charmed by Charlotte as a human being, I would never have picked up this book: I rarely read any nonfiction about religion. But already I'm finding her book fascinating, mostly because she's not afraid to link the religious tradition to our own approach to myth and storytelling. Here, for instance, is a bit from the introduction, which proves that Charlotte is not only perceptive but has also read all my favorite books.

Perhaps [one] reason this story is so compelling is that Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar are Biblical characters who behave like real human beings. With their jealousies and passions, doubts and anxieties, they are among the first in the western assemblage of cultural icons to be racked by such modern ailments as self-doubt and inner turmoil. In this way, their heirs are not only Jacob, Jesus, and Mohammed, but also Hamlet and Ahab, the Reverend Dimmesdale and Isabel Archer, Anna Karenina, Mrs. Dalloway, and Jane Eyre. This is especially true of Abraham, who seems more like an Updike character than an ancient as he stands at his tent, torn between duty and desire, his love for one woman and his responsibility to another, and tormented by faith in a god whose motivations he doesn't always understand.