|
Arise Beloved is now
available at Amazon.com! Click here to order the book.
Arise
Beloved by Glynn Compton Harper
Arise Beloved tells
the story of Becky Bright and her lover, Troy "Wingnut" McNutt a
young sailor who is a pilot. Becky is afraid to go up on a
flight with Troy but to her surprise falls in love with flying. Troy
falls in love with Becky, but flying becomes her real love. She
quickly earns fame competing in races for women aviators during a time when women were not
thought fit to fly except as a novelty–"like monkeys playing the
piano," as Becky describes it.
Their love is complicated
because Becky was raised as an orphan and she wants to marry a man
with the sort of family she has always dreamed about but which she
has never known. In part, because Troy is alienated from his own
family, and also because Becky wants to be a pilot more than a wife,
she rejects him. They separate soon after the Japanese attack Pearl
Harbor.
Both are involved in
exciting and daring actions during the war: Becky becomes a pilot
for the Women's Air Force Service Pilots, the renowned WASPs of WWII
and marries Jerry Crawford, a B-17 navigator, hoping for the family
connection she longs for, but when Jerry deploys to England he falls
for a woman there, gets her pregnant, and writes asking for a
divorce, but on his second bombing mission he is shot down and
captured by the Germans. Frustrated and angry, Becky makes an
illegal flight into a war zone and is expelled from the WASPs. She
subsequently makes a daring flight to exchange her faithless husband
for a German P.O.W., Gunther Bauer, the young gay lover of a German
aristocrat. Gunther is taken prisoner by the Americans in North
Africa and is imprisoned in East Texas where he is savagely beaten
and maimed by nazis imprisoned with him.
Troy becomes a navy
pilot. He is shot down by the Japanese and is presumed dead, but
instead he is marooned on a remote Pacific island where he fathers a
daughter by a native woman, who later abandons him and their
half-breed child.
After the war, Troy makes
a dramatic return with his daughter on Easter Sunday and he and
Becky are reunited to become the family she has always
wanted.
Arise Beloved is Harper's
second novel. He is also the author of A Perfect
Peace.
General Adult fiction for
both men and women. Interests: feminist issues, 2nd world war buffs,
aviation buffs, romance, gay issues, intrigue, and (implicitly)
religion
The theme was inspired by
a passage from the "Song of Songs" in the Bible as interpreted by
the words of an anonymous hymn: "Come away to the skies, my beloved
arise, and rejoice in the day thou wast born. On this festival day,
exulting away, with singing, to Zion return." The book is in three
parts: "Away to the Skies," "Exulting Away," and "To Zion
Return."
Although the book is
often "earthy" in language and contains erotic passages, it is
nonetheless a religious story that explores the way human love can
be seen (as in the Song of Songs in the Bible) as an allegory of
God's love for creation and Christ's love for His church.
While not explicitly
"religious" , Arise Beloved is very much a religious book. It
employs erotic situations and earthy language (as does the Song of
Songs in the Bible) to convey and affirm the eternal truth and the
relatedness of faith, religion and love. It is contemporary in
addressing women's issues, gay issues in general and, in particular,
gays in the military. It also illuminates much of the hypocrisy and
falseness of contemporary pseudo-Christian posturing. It will "kick
the hive" of conservative Christians (both Catholic and
Evangelical)--hopefully to create some angry "buzz.
Arise Beloved was more
than 20 years in the writing. At 1000 manuscript pages, it is a big
read with a fast-paced, intricate plot. It is similar to Herman
Wouk's books "Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance" in exploring
the history of WW2 through the lives of those who fought (and died)
during the conflict. It is a far-ranging jouney through many parts
of the world where WW2 was fought: England, Germany, North Africa,
Hawaii, and the South Pacific. It also spends some time on the
"homefront" in California, and East Texas. It is too long and
complex for a movie, but it will make a block buster TV series.
As reviewed by New York Times best
selling author Ellen Tanner Marsh
"Author and Episcopal priest Glynn Compton Harper has taken
the World War II story and transformed it into something startling new and downright
revolutionary. Arise Beloved tells the controversial story of
beautiful feminist aviatrix Becky Bright and her thwarted love for
sailor Troy McNutt. But this isn't just the story of two
war-separated lovers who find their way back to each other. It's
also an astute social and historical commentary on the
times.
In
rich, luminous prose, Harper brilliantly explores the beginnings of
feminism as Becky becomes a pilot in the WASPs. The issue of gays in
the military is sensitively explored in the character of German POW
Gunther Hammer, the man Becky exchanges fotr the freedom of ther
faithless husband. Earth and erotic, Arise Beloved is also a deeply
spiritual tale that explores how human love can be seen as an
allegory of God's love for humankind. Faith, religion and love are
all interconnected, Harper suggests, and not even the hypocrisy and
ignorance of the conservative church can quash this idea.
Panoramic in scope, Arise Beloved journeys from England to
Germany, North Africa, Hawaii and the South Pacific, setting forth a
fascinating history and backdrop of war. .
Harper’s characters struggle for connection and
survival and it is to Harper’s credit as a novelist that he
makes us feel each and every one of them, even as he shows us
how in the worst of times, the best of all things—that is,
love—can still be possible. Moving and sometimes heartbreaking,
Arise Beloved is literature at its best."
| 
