The Girl in the White Cape: A Novel by Barbara Sapienza
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
From the review published 16 November, 2023 in The Berkeley Times, Knox Book Beat as "Grief & Gratitude" covering the “Mystery, Magic and Meaning of Transformation” She Writes Press’ group reading at Book Passage in June of 2023.
Barbara Sapienza’s The Girl in the White Cape: A Novel, is a present-day step into a Bay Area “mythic fairy tale” full of mystery and transformation; full of loss, death, birth, nature, spirit and love.
Steeped in Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ stories and archetypes of Women Who Run With the Wolves like Vasilisa the Wise and “wild” and Dangerous Old Women like Baba Yaga, Sapienza does very well weaving unique male, female, Q, intergenerational and other characters into real/not real familiar places and situations. So close and yet not really our world, Girl absolutely reeks of what she called at Book Passage “different ways of knowing” like “Surrender, Feminine Mystery, Sacred, Deep Feminine” and “Intuition.”
I would be skeptical of moving in the direction of “willing suspension of disbelief” with Sapienza if I hadn’t been watching Dr. Dan Siegel’s YouTube video on the ancient, basically multisensory primality of "How Our (human) Relationships Shape Us" biologically, ancestrally and neurologically from womb to tomb (and possibly beyond) through mentors, self-discipline, practices and teachers. There ARE possibilities of building new responses out of primal reactions; of moving from loss, doubt, fear and silence to joy, trust, beauty and compassion as well as “awe, respect” and visioning thOur “life source.”
Sapienza’s story is enchanting, but not dopey – captivating in an encouraging, strengthening way. I hope to read more from her and the muses who whispered it to her.
() https://www.barbarasapienza.com/ ()
() https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwmtgrWKQrY ()
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