Monday, July 09, 2007
 
Book Report: Sonnets of Eve by Flora May (Mae) Johnson Pierce (1973)
As you may recall, gentle reader, I bought this book earlier this year at the Friends of the Webster Groves Library book fair.

It's a collection of 82 sonnets that tell the arc of the Eve story. You know, Adam and Eve, but not limited to the Genesis account of it. Using that myth as a framework, the sonnets explore the archetypal experience of womanhood as each woman discovers good and evil, relates to her husband, and raises her children. All in the pursuit of knowledge and godliness after the fall.

It's definitely a labor of love; the book was probably a short run and misspells the author's name either on the dust jacket (Mae) or on the title page (May). Author has signed the book twice, once with an inscription, and has added some hand-written corrections to the credits on the dustjacket. A note tucked inside the book indicated that its going price on the Internet was $28.00, and that wasn't even signed. Since that book is apparently still on the Internet for the same price, it's probably best that the Friends of Webster Groves Library only priced it $5.00.

Now, what of the sonnets themselves? They were okay; author was certainly familiar with the form. However, I didn't think that most of them stood alone nor offered individual quality that impressed me. As a fan of the sonnet and the sonnet series myself, I appreciate the effort, but not everyone can do Fatal Interview like Millay.

But the book was better than Suspension Bridge.

Books mentioned in this review:

   

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:39 AM
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