Meridian

ISBN: 1467926205

Author: Temmer, L S

Condition: New

Product Description A former WWI nurse married to a wealthy and dangerous man embarks on a reckless love affair with a social outcast. During their time together she reveals the truth about herself as she never has before. A beautifully written meditation on sexual obsession, religious mania, power and betrayal, Meridian follows one woman as she overcomes her blighted family history to experience spiritual redemption and ultimate forgiveness. From the Author Meridian was the first novel I wrote and is very dear to my heart. It embodies my life philosophy, and I wanted to tell the story through the vehicle of the body. In this case, a woman's body, which I had some qualms about, since the male element in our dualistic cultures is all too often identified with the mind and the female with the body, which I think is absurd.What interested me primarily were the elements which would cause a spiritual breakthrough such as the  protagonist of Meridian, Mairin, experiences. The story itself  is about a sensitive woman who experiences many betrayals that cause her to see through the institutions of our civilization: family life, conventional religion, bogus spirituality, materialism, social movements, war, nationalism, and finally even human relationships. Her trajectory through life is manifested through the vehicle of her body-- it is her greatest torment and ultimately the source of her healing and transformation.Another thing that interested me is the adulteress who is punished by her creator, however empathetic, for her sexuality. We've seen it time and time again, in great literature such as Madame Bovary or Anna Karenina; in victims high and low like Blanche DuBois, Maria Vargas, Carmen etc., and in books written by women, like the Brontes, oddly enough. What does a woman who goes through all of that and yet can still find her salvation look like, I wondered. Some would categorize this type of novel as an example of  post-modern optimism, and maybe it's true, perhaps we are at a time in history when we have entered a more meaningful chapter in human existence. About the Author L.S. Temmer was born in the former Yugoslavia and now lives in Evanston, Illinois. She is the author of Meridian, Children of the Sun & Other Stories, Mr. Heathcliff's Fortune & Other Short Stories, Throw Granny off the Balcony, The God of Rock and Other Stories, and of the Robideaux series: Death of an Activist and End Game.Website: lstemmerbooks.comBlog: proselesstraveled.wordpress.com