Book review:
The Sacred Female
by Art Noble

Art Noble's debut novel, The Sacred Female, is a "sonata of sexual love and spirituality." Noble boldly attempts to draw a conclusion between physical love and spiritual love, and how one affects the other. In the prologue, the author explains that this particular novella "takes the act of lovemaking from the commonplace, through the three levels of female orgasm, to a land of spiritual unity and life awareness not generally found." He admits to having fallen prey to his own ego in terms of relationships - a human flaw that often eclipses what we refer to as 'love.' Our insecurity lies within the reassurance of self-privation, and therefore we bury our adversities with a false sense of safety. Art Noble urges, perhaps forces, his reader to "[let] go of the comfortability of our limitations" in order to experience the real rewards of love and the bonding of the human spirit.

Rich Andrews is a recovering addict of "cheerleaders," who now "read[s] poetry....[and] notices [his] choice of words and finds they are pretty important." While shopping for a book, he bumps into -literally- Jeanne Simmons; Jeanne (before her divorce) had aspirations of being the next Mrs. June Cleaver. Rich describes her as "taller than he liked...perhaps once model thin, but age put an extra pound or two on her...her waist only thickened to maybe twenty-five or twenty-six inches." She isn't the type of girl that Rich would generally date, but he keeps seeing her. They develop a relationship that both Rich and Jeanne are a bit sheepish about, but only because things begin to take place that are beyond coincidental.

Jeanne is a little mishandled, however, as far as a female character. But, one thing Art points out in the end is that not every female is a sacred female to everyone, but that any one woman can be sacred to any one man. However, as the sacred female of this novella, I would have liked to see Jeanne with a stronger voice; Rich knew everything, and explained everything to her. She is given no real depth. Even though the story is told from the 3rd person omniscient, Jeanne comes across as spiritually and emotionally silent. But, in the author's defense, she was sacred to Rich because she had given herself to him emotionally, completely, and trusted him with her emotions and her sexuality - even though she was overly modest about it. Even though she was silent, she was entirely believable and content in her role in the relationship.

The plot itself is engaging, imploring the reader further into pages. The overall theme Noble tries to convey is one that every person should try to understand: real, honest, true love has a core that envelops human sexuality and the human spirit, and that these two things are not necessarily separate. Sexuality isn't simply sexual character, but rather, self awareness and identity. As humans, we are more than body and heart; we create new gods within ourselves when we place our vulnerabilities into someone else's trust, and this is what Art Noble wants his readers to embrace.

Click here to buy a copy of Art Noble's, The Sacred Female, from Amazon.com!