What sheer joy and pleasure! Cunningham gives us real flesh-and-blood characters, a compelling plot, lyrical writing, and intimate knowledge of the slow but radical changes that take place in a woman's life when she opens herself up to the Goddess.
This book is satisfying on all levels. It has everything I require in a good read: intelligence; allusions to beloved classics; depth and richness of character in females, males, young and old; plot twists, suspense and a bit of new knowledge ("lady" means "loaf-giver"). If that weren't enough, it also gives us a sacred grove, a fascinating tarot reading that is integral to the plot, the "good deaths" of two elderly characters, and the transcendence and earth-healing power of sacred sex.
I read this book in one day (I read fast), a day of heavy bleeding, laying in bed with Helen working nearby on the computer and Kati just outside sewing away in the schoolbus studio. Every once in a while I had to put down the book and say, "This is a wonderful book! I love you both! I am so happy!" And when James and John came home, they got sloppy kisses too. This book made me ecstatic. I floated all day. Give it to your friends, give it to your mother. It will appeal to the same folks who fell in love with the Goddess when they read Mists of Avalon.
~review by Joanna Colbert
Author: Elizabeth Cunningham
Station Hill Press, 1992.
pp. 384, $12.95
