THE PRESERVATIONIST
A novel by David Maine
Submitted by Dianne SnellÂ
My favorite book?  Please!! Thatâs like asking a mother to pick her favorite kid! I have readâjust guessingâ hundreds of books in my near-70 years (Okay, 65 years since I couldnât read until age 5) and you ask me to pick my favorite? Even so, in order to enter the contest, I decided to choose one book I have read and write an essay on it.
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I never read books that I donât like. I may start one but never finish it. A recent book that I finishedâtherefore likedâwas âThe Preservationistâ by David Maine. Not my usual reading fare, but in his new slant on this ancient tale Maine captured my imagination with his vivid descriptions of the insurmountable problems faced by âNoeâ as he obeyed Godâs commands without question.
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I learned the Bible story of Noah and the flood early in life, but until Bill Cosby came out with his comedy version back in the 1960âs I never really questioned the premise of a 500-year-old man building a huge boat to save his family and two of each kind of animal from a flood that was to cover the entire earth.
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First Cosby, and now Maine, started me pondering the logistics of such a colossal undertaking. In Cosbyâs version. God said, âNoah, I want you to build an ark.â Noah said, âOkay Lord.â (pause) âWhatâs an ark?â (laughter). âThe ark is to be 300 cubits long.â âOkay Lord.â (pause) âWhatâs a cubit?â (laughter)
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Maineâs version reads more like a reality show, only with more reality! Hear âthe wifeâ questioning in Part One: âSo when Himself starts with the visions and the holy labors and the boat full of critters, what am I supposed to do? Talk sense? Ask questions he canât answer, like, How do you propose to keep the lions from eating the goats? Or us for that matter? No thanks. I just fuss with the stew and keep my thoughts stitched up in my head where they belong. Long ago I quit asking questions.â  What wife doesnât relate to that kind of logic?
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The astounding thing about âThe Preservationist?â I expected a farce, but the more I read the more logical it became until I could almost believe that the events happened just like the author said. Impossibilities were explained away and made to seem entirely possible. Maine managed to allot a distinct personality to each character and I found myself playing favorites among the sons and daughters-in-law.
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âThe Preservationistâ was a fascinating read, and I have already ordered Maineâs âSampsonâ to see what take he puts on that familiar story.
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Tags: Annie Barrows, contest, Guernsey, potato peel pie
Dianne,
What a joy to read your essay of The Preservationist! You’ve intrigued me enough to check it out.
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