Review by Booklist Review
It's obvious in all of hooks' forthright works, from her stunning memoirs to her seminal works on race, gender, art, and education, that for her writing is a moral act. Now, in this clarion treatise, she writes from a spiritual perspective to offer "new ways of thinking about love." Motivated both by her own struggles with heartache and by the despair she observes in society at large, hooks defines love as "an action rather than a feeling" in a gracefully flowing narrative that begins with family life, "the original school of love," and ultimately yields fresh insights into the nature of romance, the value of community, and the pitfalls of our consumer-oriented culture. Quoting spiritual leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., a "prophet of love," hooks explains that there can be no justice without love, and that our prevailing sense of spiritual emptiness can only be remedied by overcoming our fear and accepting love in its most spiritual aspects as our "true destiny." --Donna Seaman
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Taking on yet another popular topic in her role as cultural critic, hooks blends the personal and the psychological with the philosophical in her latest book--a thoughtful but frequently familiar examination of love American style. A distinguished professor of English at City College in New York City, she explains her sense of urgency about confronting a subject that countless writers have analyzed: "I feel our nation's turning away from love as intensely as I felt love's abandonment in my girlhood. Turning away, we risk moving in a wilderness of spirit so intense we may never find our way home again." With an engaging narrative style, hooks presents a series of possible ways to reverse what she sees as the emotional and cultural fallout caused by flawed visions of love largely defined by men who have been socialized to distrust its value and power. She proposes a transformative love based on affection, respect, recognition, commitment, trust and care, rather than the customary forms stemming from gender stereotypes, domination, control, ego and aggression. However, many of her insights about self-love, forgiveness, compassion and openness have been explored in greater depth by the legion of writers hooks quotes liberally throughout the book, such as John Bradshaw, Lucia Hodgson, Thich Nhat Hanh, Thomas Merton and M. Scott Peck, among others. Still, every page offers useful nuggets of wisdom to aid the reader in overcoming the fears of total intimacy and of loss. Although the chapter on angels comes across as filler, hooks's view of amour is ultimately a pleasing, upbeat alternative to the slew of books that proclaim the demise of love in our cynical time. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
English professor hooks (Remembered Rapture) has myriad views on the subject of love in this serious work; she touches on honesty in relationships, spirituality in our lives, greed as a destructive force, and the death of loved ones. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
