Using a literary approach that is influenced by structuralism, Peter D. Miscall endeavors to explain why the Old Testament narratives can sustain so many different and competing inter-pretations. The book engages in intensive readings of parts of the Abraham Cycle in Genesis 12-25 and the David narrative in 1 Samuel 16-22. These readings attempt to account for the ways in which the narratives work-in all their richness, complexity, and elusiveness-without disregarding their concreteness and details.