Splendored Thing: Love, Roses & Other Thorny Treasures

ISBN: 1-58005-074-3
U.S. $19.95
Canada $32.95
Hardcover
233 pages
Wherever books are sold
Distributed by Publishers Group West

"The I and the Thou," writes Bia Lowe, "appear at the moment our yap engulfs a nipple, at the cleaving of this mouth to that breast." … So begins the love story that is Splendored Thing, a journey driven by ancient hungers, and steered by starlight.

From that first gulp of milk to the first smooch to our last gasp for air, love's sharp flavors infuse us, call us into being. Splendored Thing not only celebrates each morsel, it also galvanizes us with what is less digestible, the bitter challenges that love serves up on our plates.

Within these pages poisoning is commonplace, monsters prowl and war is imminent. Be it the story of making a home in a three hundred-year-old Irish cottage, or her account of venturing into Afghanistan after September 11th, fear percolates below the surface of these tales.

Lowe maps the perilous journey that love demands, traces constellations between elements as different as sea stars and super novas, and peoples her firmament with characters as various as Helen Keller, James Baldwin, Rod Sterling and Sara Lee.

"' To constellate' is what we do," Lowe writes. "It is the course and purpose of our flinting synapses…."

A genre-breaching memoir that blends pungent storytelling with delicious language, Splendored Thing is a feast.

Home | Bio | Book Jacket | Scheduled Readings
Splendored Thing Reviews | Wild Ride Reviews