guest book review: "The Book of Love"

Book Review

The Book of Love

by Kathleen McGowan

Watching action movies, and even classic fantasy films, like “The Lord of Rings,” I have often wondered what a female “action” story would be like.  Kathleen McGowan’s novel, The Book of Love, answers the question.  The story might never be made into a movie, but it’s filled with conflict between good and evil.  Instead of swords and guns, the heroine uses intuition and negotiation.  (A secondary heroine does lead armies and brandish a sword very effectively, under the tutelage of her best instincts and in service to the greater good.)  Cunning, bravery and risks inhabit the pages.  The tension between pursuing truth and hiding truth stalks both the outer and inner worlds of the characters.
McGowan’s deft handling of a tremendous amount of material—imaginal as well as  historical—creates a page-turner.  I learned more about the Middle Ages, art, architecture, the labyrinth and Chartres Cathedral in this one piece of fiction than in all the reading and studying and memorizing of a lifetime.  I am not a historian by nature, and don’t read about those topics of my own volition.  Because they are woven seamlessly into the narrative and move it forward, and because I cared about the story and the characters, I gleaned an education.  
In addition, I felt the love and humility with which the author approached this project.  Her characters ooze humanness.  The “quotes” from “The Book of Love,” a gospel written by Jesus, serve up poetic instruction that speaks to our current world and the individual seeker’s place in it.  McGowan re-visions old tales, infusing new meaning and fresh understanding into stories that have been overlooked or deadened through patriarchal bias.  After I finished the novel, I wanted to go back and type out every legend and teaching recorded in her “Libro Rosso” (Red Book) so that I would have the beautiful writings together in one place, at my fingertips.
The story follows a modern-day woman who is given a task by something/someone greater than herself.  In this way, Maureen reminds me of Frodo.  Like him, she grows weary, makes mistakes, and needs her companions to keep her going on the right course.  Like The Lord of the Rings, McGowan’s The Book of Love encourages us—mere mortal readers that we are—to say yes to what life asks of us.  It’s a tale that feeds the heart, the head and the soul.  
This is the second in a series of three.  The first is The Expected One.  The third, The Poet Prince, is due out soon.

Peggy Voth
Nov 28, 2009