THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 11, 1996 TAG: 9609110033
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEPHEN HARRIMAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 169 lines
JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA, one of the great bit players on the stage of life, is about to find some serious limelight. He's embarking on a cross-America book tour with Charlottesville writer Alexandra Ripley.
Joseph is the central character of Ripley's latest historical novel, ``A Love Divine'' (Warner Books Hardcover, $25), a modern-day Bible story of sorts, due out Sept. 19.
His moment in time, as described by four contemporary writers, could not have taken more than two, maybe three, hours to play out. Then he left the stage.
But his cameo appearance came at one of mankind's most dramatic spiritual moments. Joseph of Arimathea removed the body of Jesus from the cross and laid it out in his own rock-hewn tomb.
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John describe his role that late afternoon outside the walls of Jerusalem in a collective 17 sentences, some of them repetitious. That is all we really know about the man. And then he disappears - at least from contemporary recorded history.
Actually, he keeps re-appearing, in sequels, as it were - in apocryphal ``gospels'' of the second and fourth or fifth centuries, in 12th century verse, that sort of thing.
If you've been to Glastonbury in the southwest of England, you've certainly heard the legends of Joseph, now Saint Joseph, of Arimathea: of his thrusting his walking staff into the ground and its turning into a great thorn bush that flowers at Christmas and Easter, of his bringing the Holy Grail, or maybe vials holding blood from the Crucifixion, to that remote spot nearly 3,000 miles by boat from Jerusalem.
Surely there must be some basis for all these subsequent Joseph sightings. What a story it would make - who was this guy anyway, and how did he end up in England? - if someone could only put it all together, flesh it out.
Someone like Alexandra Ripley, Alexandra Ripley figured. Matter of fact, she's been waiting to sink her teeth into this one for nearly a quarter of a century.
``I kept telling my publisher: `I know this great story. It's sort of a Bible story,' '' she said. ``And they kept saying, `More hoop skirts, please.' ''
But wait. Alexandra Ripley? Isn't she Scarlett's ``stepmother,'' the woman who upset the purists very, very much when her ``Scarlett: The Sequel to Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind'' hit the New York Times' best-seller list in 1991?
Well, yes.
In fact, Ripley says it was the success of ``Scarlett'' that gave her the time, resources and freedom to finally write the novel she has been mulling over since she visited Glastonbury in 1973.
She was in Hampton Roads last week to tape a segment for CBN's ``700 Club'' (scheduled to run Oct. 8 at 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. on the Family Channel) and to visit the Chrysler Museum with husband John Graham. ``We're both museum nuts,'' she said.
Ripley is tall, stylish and 60ish with light hair that was still carefully coiffed from the television makeup session. Her ready wit brings forth frequent smiles and laughter. She speaks, openly and candidly, with the husky voice of a cigarette smoker.
``When I got back from Glastonbury,'' she said, ``I looked him up. I realized this man that legend says brought Christianity to England was the same Joseph I'd heard about in Sunday school. The facts were bare, but I was hooked.
``I wanted to know why would this rich, powerful Jew do something as dramatic as go to Pilate, ask for the body of Jesus and give him his own tomb, why would a man steeped in Judaism be drawn to this itinerant, peasant preacher from Galilee. That was sort of `redneck' country. The people of Jerusalem even made fun of their accents.''
For Ripley, who previously had written only Southern historical fiction, there was a lot of research to be done to understand the times of Joseph.
``The dimensions of my ignorance were stupendous,'' she readily admits. ``Oops, he's Jewish, I realized. I had to research Judaism. Judaism was so different then than it is today.''
And so the voluminous research began. And so she was drawn into the world of Jesus, Herod, Caesar Augustus and the expanding Roman Empire, into the world of Jewish farmers, Phoenician sailors and the early tin trade of a Celtic England dominated by Druids.
``I write fiction,'' Ripley says. ``But for me it is absolutely essential that the fictional story be built on a sturdy foundation of fact, that there is no reason that it could NOT have happened.''
It that respect, this work was no different from her previous novels: ``Charleston,'' ``On Leaving Charleston,'' ``New Orleans Legacy,'' ``From Fields of Gold'' and, of course, ``Scarlett.''
In the first pages, we meet Joseph of Arimethea as he appeared on April 8, 6 A.D. - the day a young boy from Galilee created a disturbance in the temple at Jerusalem by arguing with the teacher Hillel.
Ripley's Joseph is a short man, only 5-foot-2, neither thin not bulky but muscular. He is clean-shaven with thick, wavy black hair; large, slightly protuberant ears; and thick, shaggy eyebrows arched over dark eyes that have extraordinarily clear whites. His nose appears to have been broken and not healed well, and his wide smile reveals strong, large, evenly spaced white teeth.
These details are part of a storyteller's craft. Research also plays a part.
``This was the Hellenistic Age, when many men were clean-shaven,'' Ripley explained. ``He might have had a beard (later he does), but I prefer to have a reason for Joseph to be clean-shaven, or bearded.''
And Joseph's size?
``It is a fact that Caesar Augustus was 5-foot-4 and wore platform sandals to make him appear larger,'' she explained. ``In order for Caesar to take a liking to Joseph, Joseph had to be `agreeable' to him. Caesar had to be able to think, `I feel good about being around him.' ''
Ripley's Joseph is a smart, ambitious man who hungers for adventure. He comes from a family of farmers, but at a young age he disguises his Judaism so he can learn the sailing skills of the Phoenicians. He masters the sea and discovers the route from the Mediterranean to the coast of Belerion (now Cornwall, England), where he accumulates great wealth as a tin trader.
As a respected businessman, he becomes a favorite of King Herod and Caesar Augustus, dividing his time between Rome and Alexandria, Jerusalem and Arimathea.
Joseph's only failure, it seems, is not becoming a father. His wife, Sarah, whom he has loved since childhood, seems unable to bear children. To avoid divorce, which Jewish law requires if a wife had not produced a child in 10 years, Joseph takes a second wife, who bears him a son, Aaron.
Still, it is Sarah whom he loves and with whom he wants a child. Finally, at age 50, Sarah gives birth but dies soon afterward. Joseph is left with a beautiful but crippled daughter, Helena.
It is his daughter's crippled legs that lead Joseph of Arimathea to Jesus of Nazareth. From then on Joseph's life takes on a new purpose.
Ripley treads carefully with her dialogue in dealing with Jesus. His voice is never connected with actual dialogue, and, in fact, Joseph isn't even present when he heals Helena, or Ella, as she is called.
However, Ripley does try to humanize Jesus.
``I noticed in the Bible that at no time does Jesus laugh,'' she said. ``I thought, `That's not fair. Certainly he must have laughed.' So I was able to slide it in there in the telling of how Ella was healed.''
``A Divine Love'' is a compelling feat of historical fiction writing, about a man about whom virtually nothing is known, because it IS plausible.
After more than 700 pages, I closed the covers with reluctance.
``What did you think of the ending?'' Ripley asked.
``Illuminating,'' was the first word that came to mind.
She laughed. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
BILL TIERNAN/The Virginian-Pilot
Alexandra Ripley's latest novel is ``A Love Divine.''
Graphic
Ripley's life as a novelist
Alexandra Ripley lives outside Charlottesville - she doesn't like
to be any more specific than that, because Margaret Mitchell
devotees who regard her ``Scarlett'' as a sacrilege still seek her
out - with her second husband, John Graham, a long-time professor at
the University of Virginia.
They have been married 15 years. A native of Charleston, S.C.,
who lived for a time in Manhattan, she keeps the surname of her
first husband as her professional name because it was under that
name that she first began writing.
``If I were to asked to label myself, `storyteller' is what I
would choose,'' says Ripley. ``Not historian, or philosopher, or
educator, or theologian. I love a good story, whether I'm hearing
it, or reading it, or watching it, or making it up. The story is the
thing.''
As a writer, she is a night person, writing all night long.
A typical night?
``John and I have supper and watch the news. If there's something
interesting on TV, `Masterpiece Theater' or something like that, I
might watch it.
``About 10 o'clock, I usually begin to write. I sit in a big
chair and write longhand on a legal pad. It goes to a typist later.
I suppose I might write eight to 10 pages a night . . . with
frequent stops for M&M's and Cokes.
``Often when John gets up about 7:30, I hand him the pages to
read.''
``In theory,'' she said, ``I take Sundays off.''
Stephen Harriman
KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY WRITING
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