Synopsis
Based on fragments from the Christian mystic's autobiography written in the 1430s and the author's tale of unrequited gay love, offers a story of Margery's sexual obsession with visits from Jesus
Reviews
Margery Kempe lives up to neither its potential nor its premise. Gluck (Jack the Modernist) attempts to juxtapose his obsession for a young man called "L." with the grotesque lust of a 15th-century mystic for Jesus. The historical Kempe followed her prolific marriage (14 children) with a round of pilgrimages, which she recorded in The Book of Margery Kempe, one of the earliest autobiographies. Gluck's character is rendered as an offensive creature who seeks sainthood through a sexual alliance with Jesus. In sections devoted to the author's affair with "L.," the prose is lyrical and elegant, heavy with Gluck's growing dependency and despondency: "My last word when I die will be his name-to say it in the grandest setting." Conversely, those with Kempe are filled with graphic, disparaging remarks about women (including descriptions of the genitalia of every female character, no matter how minor). It's not the idea of Jesus having a sex life that is so repellent but the strident explicitness-a marked contrast from Gluck and L.'s lovemaking, which comes as a natural part of their story and depicts the author's all-consuming passion. Lastly, Gluck's Margery is so ugly and coarse she doesn't come across as a woman at all-just a man's skewed rendering of one. Whatever Gluck's intention, he has failed. Perhaps Margery knew better than he "that failure was intrinsic, success merely an exception."
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Glck pushes the envelope way too far as he attempts to use the history of a failed, would-be saint from the 15th century to explore his own romantic obsession in the 1990s. Glck (Jack the Modernist, not reviewed) admittedly embellishes the autobiography that Margery Kempe wrote during the 1430s to reveal the unhealthy psychology of this Jesus-crazed heretic. Margery is an upstanding woman, daughter of the mayor, wife of John, and mother of 14 children, who loses it when devils begin taunting her. But later, as she lies in the bed to which John has tied her because he's tired of her insane roaring, Jesus pays a visit, loosens her ropes, and inspires a passion that makes Margery swoon just looking at ``the semi-circles of his ass'' and the ``splayed tips of his long toes.'' Margery pretends to go on with her life, but all the while she's really waiting for Jesus in a heightened state of arousal. When he does show up ten years later, it's obvious there's going to be a whole lot of bumping and grinding going on. Unfortunately for Margery, Jesus is distant and cold (he absentmindedly counts his muscle twitchings during sex: `` `I spasmed eleven times,' he mused''), but this only makes Margery want him more. Classic victim mentality? Maybe. But Glck likes to think of it as Margery's modus operandi--she wants power, money, sex, prestige, and fame--and she needs Jesus to make the necessary connections to priests, vicars...even to God. If this isn't enough, the author sprinkles in his own unrequited-love story with a pretty little rich boy who refuses to make a commitment. Of course, Glck only gathers the strength to present his lover with a live-with-me-or-leave-me ultimatum when he sees how far Margery falls in her desire for the unattainable. Numbingly frenzied, frustrated, and futile. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
G., the fictive author of this short, steamy novel, surrealistically juxtaposes his obsession with his young male lover, L., and the equally romantic obsession of the fifteenth-century would-be saint Margery Kempe, who took a vow of chastity after enjoying years of carnal love with her husband John and bearing him 14 children. The book swirls with lust as Margery envisions her sexual bliss with a well-endowed Jesus and, just as ecstatically, her spiritual union with him as a ticket to sainthood. There is something peculiarly appealing about this ambitious, upstaging woman who perseveres even when her fellow religious enthusiasts shun her and her sexual rantings. Although many may find a Jesus who tongue-kisses and says, "I'm horny," dismaying, and Gl{}uck's intercutting of fifteenth-century visions and twentieth-century gay eroticism disorienting, the book's sheer audacity may help it find an avid niche audience. Whitney Scott
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
