The Book Within the Book: Writing in Deuteronomy, by Jean-Pierre Sonnet. Biblical Interpretation Series 14. Leiden/New York/Cologne: Brill, 1997. Pp. xvi + 299. $93.75. As questions of the history of composition continue to generate heated discussion within Pentateuchal studies, slowly and more quietly scholars have turned their attention to literary questions. Jean-Pierre Sonnet's study of the book of Deuteronomy, a revised dissertation completed at Indiana University under the direction of James Ackerman, and revised under the guidance of Meir Sternberg, contributes to these burgeoning literary discussions. Interacting consistently with the work of Robert Polzin and Norbert Lohfink, Sonnet attempts to define the process of written communication as depicted in the narrative world of Deuteronomy, as well as the book's communication to the reader. He does this by unfolding the relationship between speech and writing that occurs within Deuteronomy. The book's seven chapters unfold in three movements. Following a preface and an introduction, chapter 1 examines the depiction of oral communication in the represented world of Deuteronomy. According to Sonnet, this oral setting grants Moses prophetic authority and establishes a "subtle dialectic" between Moses' voice on the plain of Moab and YHWH's voice at Horeb. Moses' oral communication at Moab therefore becomes closely related to the written Torah given to the reader of Deuteronomy. Yet the written communication of "this Torah" also occurs within the represented world of Deuteronomy. Chapters 2 through 6 examine the development of this written communication through a narratological reading of Deuteronomy, especially focused on chapters 27-34. First, though, Sonnet briefly surveys references to writing in Deuteronomy 5-26. Here Moses himself does not actively participate in written communication. References to writing either point to the past at Horeb or into the future in the land. In Deuteronomy 27-28, writing "this Torah" on large stellae on the other side of the Jordan accompanies the transition into the land; chapter 28, Sonnet argues, refers to this written, inscriptional Torah with the term "seper." Indeed, Sonnet states that "it is my contention that Deuteronomy 27-28 is built upon such a continuity" (p. 101). When seper appears four times in Deuteronomy 29-30, it raises the reader's curiosity concerning its identity in relationship to this inscription as the reader turns to Deuteronomy 31. Chapter 4 examines Deut 31:1-32:47 and represents the crux of Sonnet's reading. In chapter 31, Moses writes "this Torah" for the first time. According to Sonnet, Deuteronomy 31 tells "the story of a process of completion-a process turned dramatic by the unexpected theophany and by the ensuing interpolation of the Song in the already written Torah" (pp. 159-60). Contrary to much previous scholarship, the author finds a continuous narrative plot throughout chapters 31-32. The written Torah receives a written addendum in the Song of Moses, which announces Israel's coming rebellion against God once Israel enters the land. Both placed in the ark, the Song "will confront the sons of Israel in their unfaithfulness wherever they are" (p. …