The Potter's Hand

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Then theLordGod formeda man from the dust of the groundand breathed into his nostrils the breathof life,and the man became a living being. A novelization of the life of Josiah Wedgewood of the famous Wedgewood pottery. Lots of fascinating historical reveals -- I didn't know that Josiah Wedgwood was Charles Darwin's grandfather, and I'd never heard of the Frog Service or the Portland Vase, both of which I immediately had to google -- but I wonder if this novel wouldn't have worked better as a biography, or maybe just a history of the time. (Although Richard Holmes' The Age of Wonder, peopled with many of the same characters and occurring in much the same era, does that just fine.) It saddens me when such great writers focus on the sordid and not necessarily true elements of life when they could put their genius to far more edifying material. In true modernist terms, Wilson presents Josiah Wedgwood as a genius but flawed ... sexually ... and the second main character, Wedgwood's nephew, Tom, another sexual deviant who is also remarkable professionally. Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. House of Israel, can't I do with you as this potter?' says the LORD. 'Look, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.'

Shall I not be able, O house of Israel, to do to you as this potter? behold, as the clay of the potter are ye in my hands.House of Israel, can’t I do with you as this potter?” says Yahweh. “Behold, as the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel. O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?” says the LORD. “Look carefully, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel. For we are God’s handiwork,createdin Christ Jesus to do good works,which God prepared in advance for us to do.

As this potter am I not able to do to you? O house of Israel, an affirmation of Jehovah. Lo, as clay in the hand of the potter, So are ye in My hand, O house of Israel. O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith Jehovah. Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel.There are some wonderfully descriptive scenes, including the canal boat ride Sukey takes to London, which reads like a lament for a bucolic, pre-industrial England

This is a compelling idea but the novel never quite does it justice. Though several of the invented characters have the spark of life, their stories are too peremptorily abandoned and too often their dialogue, stuffed to the brim with historical information, is as wooden as the potter's peg-leg. This stiffness is exaggerated by a self-consciously intrusive authorial presence, a novelistic style that is perhaps intended to summon the spirit of 18th-century fiction.

We will have to go through a harrowing molding process afterward, but God will never leave our side. He's not much of a father, either, turning his sons into gentlemen with the result that none of them have any desire or ability to step into the business, and expecting his nephew Tom first to bring him white clay from the Cherokees in America and then run the business without much affection, respect or trust in return. Not that his progeny didn't amount to something a generation on, as in the aforesaid Charles Darwin and many more leading lights of their day. God chose us before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4) and formed us with a specific purpose. He told the prophet Jeremiah, “ before I formed you in your mother’s womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you as my prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5) O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the LORD. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand. O house of Israel, declares the LORD, can I not treat you as this potter treats his clay? Just like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. The women don't come off well at all. Jos' wife Sally has to be a bitch because of sexual frustration. Really? His daughter Sukey, exposed to all the enlightenment of the society of the Wollstonecrafts is never considered to run the family business instead of her worthless brothers, and it doesn't even bother her when she's married off at the age of thirty the year following her father's death. The family maid-of-all-trades, Heffie, is chorus-like in her simple pronouncements and animal in her appetites.Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.