King David

Neat excerpt from a NYT review of The Life of David by Robert Pinsky.

[David's] story is also far fuller than that of any other biblical character. Moses' occupies more space, but that austere figure never strays from his narrow role as lawgiver and leader. David comes to us in I and II Samuel as headstrong youth, soothing minstrel, hunted outlaw, brutal warlord, beloved friend, divine poet, ecstatic dancer, despised husband, sexual predator, master politician, august ruler, grieving father and dying king - a man in full, a matchless hero equal to every occasion. And yet although -or perhaps because - we see him in so many roles, we somehow never get a complete picture of him. His story, in the way of biblical narrative, is often fragmentary and elliptical, marked by contradictory accounts, terse notations, motives left unstated, gestures and phrases whose meanings we've lost. Trying to grasp him, we embrace a vapor. Like every true dancer, he is a figure of constant change: vivid, elusive, unforgettable.