Traditional ideas
This book is obviously offering a spin on traditional ideas, even from its title. The Book of Mrs. Noah implies a gender reversal of one of the oldest stories on the earth. As proto-historical legend, Noah's story provides a complete spectrum for consideration. Assisting Mrs. Noah in her point of view are five essential sibyls, each of which isolating one particular aspect of Mrs. Noah which speaks most to them. They make her daily life in Venice into epic literature, and in the meantime, the text comments on the substance of traditional ideas, preserving some ethical principles and rejecting outmoded ones.
Gender roles and truth
One of the more obvious moral ideas of the text concerns the nuances of gender (the Book can be read in a moralistic way because of the obvious juxtaposition to the book of Genesis which is obviously a nod to religious authority). Although the traditional idea of gender shapes the opinions of the majority living in Venice, the plot is clearly showing the modern everyday woman as a true hero. She is the one who is called upon for greatness, and her skill is found not in her femininity or masculinity, per say, but in her willingness to do what needs to be done and to explain herself clearly.
Narrative as redemption
Throughout the novel, the thematic idea of the plot remains that the sibyls are able to elevate the normal daily life of a modern woman to the heights of epic literature. The narrative is playful about that, so that by the time the novel culminates in the community of saved women sharing the stories of their lives, the reader has experienced a story so richly that the epic nature of one woman's story is automatically applied to the other minor stories that the reader doesn't get to follow to the same degree. In other words, the story offers not only one narrative, but an epic defense for story-telling as an art, woven together in a bouquet of narrative ideas.
