The Secret Magdalene

November 13, 2006
Vermont novelist Longfellow (China Blues
; Chasing Women
) places Mary Magdalene at the center of the origin of Christian thought. As this vividly imagined novel opens, "Mariamne," the daughter of a wealthy Jewish aristocrat, is a gifted child with a love of learning who hears prophetic voices. Because privileged girls in Jerusalem are not raised to be scholars, Mariamne must indulge her passion in secret, accompanied by her slave, Tata, and her father's ward, Salome. Mariamne and Salome eventually run away to Alexandria, where they study in the great library, and into the wilderness, where Salome devotes herself to John the Baptizer. Meanwhile, Mariamne is drawn to Yeshu (Jesus), with whom she shares a brief earthly love and prolonged discussions of gnosis—the experience of direct personal insight into the divine. Together, they envision the events that lead to the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Reimagining such famous episodes as the healing of Lazarus, the wedding at Cana and Judas's betrayal, Longfellow sees Yeshu and his apostles from a feminist perspective. Longfellow (who first published this novel in 2005 at a small startup press named for Mariamne's donkey, Eio) is more passionate about research and philosophy than plot or character. Readers looking for a fast-paced thriller will be disappointed.

December 1, 2006
For a novel so meticulously researched for over seven years, this work doesn't quite live up to its potential. Longfellow ("China Blues") gives us a portrait of the Magdalene drawn from the Nag Hammadi library, a collection of 13 codices containing Gnostic scriptures discovered in Egypt in 1945. Thus, at the book's start, we learn that Mary is a gnosisthat is, she has the gift of divine vision. It is this vision that finds her removed from the home of her father and settled in with a crowd known to John the Baptizer. Eventually, she comes to know his cousin Yeshua. She does not meet him as Mary but as the disciple John. This dramatic retelling of the Jesus story provides a fresh look at what other books (Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code", Kathleen McGowan's "The Expected One", Tucker Malarky's "Resurrection") have only hinted atthe idea of Mary Magdalene as disciple. Unfortunately, the first half of the novel is so slow moving that readers may lose interest before getting into the meat of the story. Recommended for larger public and academic libraries. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 11/15/06.]Nanci Milone Hill, Nevins Memorial Lib., Metheun, MA

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