Customer Reviews

Nicaea: A Book of Correspondences

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When have you read a book that is 'brand new'? Martin Rowe used the late antiguity famed city of Nicaea for the center of historically modified characters like Eusebius, Arius, Athanatius and put them in conversation with each other and mixed in another ten corrrespondents both antient and contemporary to delve into mystery of relationships, all out lusting for truth and wisdom, ways of living for meaning that is somehting for which to die. Each correspondent is textured with layers of meaning and fit together as a satifying whole if the reader only take in the whole book and let it work as an entity...like the place Nicaea itself..there's something in this book that will endure beyond the writer.

For me, a Benedictine Nun, I especially identified with the two woman deaconesses as they were surrendering, "Give us your love so it might be returned, given to us so we might know the belovedness of being loved." (256)
This book is the best read of 2003 for me. I recomened it for those who read widely, but want specific entries of hope in this troubled world.

A wonderful, personal story that tells of our Western cultural roots through the eyes of those who have lived and nurtured them. Rowe is a wonderful storyteller whose language is reminiscent of Rushdie's best (without the tiresome irony), and whose insights and mythic tales delight with a too-often forgotten sense of wonder. Nicaea is highly recommended for those who require intelligent writing.

Martin Rowe's writing is simply beautiful - like poetry - lush, vivid, imaginative and evocative. Reading Nicaea was delicious, like savoring a gourmet meal with so many courses.

Over and over I was reminded of Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children. Rowe weaves together so many stories, tales and events. Sort of breathtaking how he manages to pull so much together. A pleasure to read.

Nicaea rocks. It rocks you gently between past and present, Nicaea and Izmik (modern day Turkey). It is a meditation on lots of events - set, re-set and re-created in a beloved place, a place that is itself an event. I enjoyed the layering of story upon story, the wonderful characters (including a very funny puppet). The chapters are distinct each from the other, and Rowe is able to create a sort of momentum or weaving that satisfies the curious and completes the book in a state that is part relection, part meditation and part of an ever expanding story that is lived in all places. I look forward to re-reading this book with my book club. It will point readers to their own locations of growth, reflection, participation, inquiry and desire the way that only good fiction can.

Religious history, like art history, seems almost an oxymoron, insofar as the ancient we find compelling, fascinating, awesome, often through the same quality of line, color and form. This is the sense that Martin Rowe captures in Nicaea; truth is elusive in life and language, religion and art. Through the narrative and the letters, Rowe explores how people still come closer. It's an astonishing achievement.