Book review: Romance Eternelle

★★★

A brief story-in-a-story of a prostitute who feels drawn to church, and meets up with a Catholic priest who is going through his own crisis. More inspirational than instructional, the “romance” of the book is not between the characters, but in their new-found intimacy with God. It’s about being in love with God. The priest’s brush with divine Love so shakes him that he loses his interest in rote church ritual. His informal love story and wholehearted acceptance of a sinner among his friends is perceived by the Deacon and congregation as disrespect rather than Godliness.

After a bit of a sleepy start, I did settle in and enjoy the story. For me, the problem was that it’s written in the present tense, a play converted into a novel but still reading a bit too much like a script, which limits the creative possibilities of the writer. One does best to appreciate the story by imagining actors on a stage. Still, the plot line held my attention well.

Miquelon indicates on the back cover that the spiritual encounters contained in the story are based on actual experiences, and are inspired by the book of Hosea (plus, I sense, the Song of Songs).