I remember well the time when I first read "Son of a Morning Star" several years ago. I was about 10 and found it mesmerizing. You know the feeling when you absorb yourself into a book and suddenly find yourself in a daze, half in this world and half in that? I got that feeling reading "Son" and with only a few other books. I haven't felt that way about a book for many years now and had begun to think that it had something to do with youth, and I wouldn't experience that again. And for some reason I never bothered to read another book of Connell's.
Until yesterday, when I started reading "A Long Desire." And I got that same feeling reading it as I did years earlier with SOTMS. Connell is a fine stylist.
"A Long Desire" is about man's constant yearnings throughout legend and history to attain the unattainable. Always grasping at the stars just out of reach, chasing the rainbow for that pot of gold, looking for that lost city that must be just over the next hill.
Through several interconnected essays Connell writes about quests: the searches for Atlantis, Prester John, the Northwest Passage, El Dorado, Cibola; the Children's Crusade to liberate the Holy Land; Columbus's search for the Indies; the thirst for knowledge and experiments in alchemy.
Most of the things they were searching for had a actual basis in reality: the Seven Cities of Cibola really did exist, but they were just a group of seven Southwest Indian villages with very little gold. And the men who found it went looking elsewhere for the Seven Cities. It is the dream men strive for. "It may be that treasure exists for the purpose of tantalizing us," Connell writes. "If so, how strange. Why should something we passionately desire be subtly withheld?"
Strictly speaking, all the people described in Connell's book were failures. None of them really found what they were looking for, that long desire. However, dreams aren't entirely valueless, and history would be pretty dull reading if it was without the passion of "a long desire."
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Join or create book clubs
Choose books together
Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Popular titles by this author
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
About the author
Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
