WHY THE PROSTITUTE LIVE

By Patricia Tuaweri 

This is a book for all tastes. A book with a title that tells a story about art,…literary art that is imaginatively inspiring. ‘Why the Prostitute Live’ sustains in a very literal sense, a show-casing that every sentence in the bible comes from the best literary tome…there was and is.

The book tells the story of the Israelite, essentially, of the taking of the city of Jericho and the people that live in the city, including a prostitute called Rahab. Though times have changed, the many struggles people faced at the time, including clashes between neighbors over land acquisition and religion, are just as critical today as it was at the time of the historical setting in the book. Patricia’s book paints an intimate portrait of a people and communities dealing with each other’s differences and their relationship with God.

Rahab is a struggling woman who makes ends meet by selling her body. But despite the trade she is involved in which everyone is seen in terms of monetary value, she made exception to strangers who turned out to be angels, sent by God. Essentially, she is a good person and this forms the backdrop to getting her break.

When the Israelite moved to take over Jericho, Rahab, like many others like her, strangers and by standers to the squabbles, were caught up in the violent feud that was to see not only the taking over of the city but sacking the entire population and leaving the place desolate with a cures that whoever rebuilds it does so at a risk of dire consequence. In Patricia’s novel, the lifestyle; deceptive, scandalous with heightening religious fervor, all that created volatile relationship among the people and with God still exist today and therefore makes the principles that underlie the need to live right in accordance with the best practice and God’s law remain relevant.

One of the things I liked most about the book is the personal view it brings into biblical historical story-telling. Rahab by her deed helped to justify the novel principle of God; of rewards for every good deed; of hope for the condemned, but most of all, of the goodness that can come despite oppression, stigmatisation or discrimination all which were subtly revealed as the real evil in the world. Patricia Tuaweri’s book provides a powerful glimpses into life the way it should be lived, the principle that should be the guiding light, and finally, presents an entertaining book that should challenge the readers mind and imagination.

The book is a splendid tale-tell writing with very serious thoughts on good living, morality and the search for the human soul. Many people search for solace in this world; through all sort of people, recordings and books, sadly, they don't find much comfort or clarity but sometimes fall into deeper, disappointing and shadowy dept than what led them into the search in the first place.

Why the Prostitute Lives is written in plots that tie itself to the rhythms of biblical principled lifestyle, and so the book is divided into sectional headings according to the lesson that the goodness of Rahab’s good deeds teaches. The narrative spends no time on those aspects of character development but instead from Rahab’s character relationship with other characters. By the conclusion of book, Patricia’s has been able to establish the tenets of the storyline, but there are too many digressions to make this a truly compelling read.

If only Rahab’s life, i.e. all she did and her relationship-as drama development was the entire story, then perhaps ‘Why the Prostitute Live’ would have been much more interesting read from beginning to end. My emotional investment was largely a result of faith rather than true novelistic character development but I must confess, as a christian, I was drawn in from the word go by the title and the curiosity of why the prostitute live.
All that said, Why the Prostitute Live is still a deep, imaginative, good and quick read. Its setting—Jericho, the middle east --allows readers not from that neck of the world to travel to a foreign place and time.
I highly recommend ‘Why the Prostitute Live’ because, apart from all I have mentioned above, writers like Patricia Tuaweri should be encouraged to help give female point of views and perspective on aspects of the bible that touches on sensitive subjects which if not handled properly may be internalise in a sad and violent contextually manner.