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 This exposure to alternative lifestyles shouldn't be a deterrent, though, for anyone looking to read a good, easy read, especially since sex and relationships aren't the only elements prominent in the book.
Reviewed by Robin M. Buehler
Beyond All Desiring, A Novel
by Judith Laura
Llumina Press
ISBN: 159526017X, $15.95
There's an old adage: never judge a book by its cover. Even though the saying is often used toward describing first impressions of people, the same could be said of Judith Laura's recent novel, Beyond All Desiring.
As one would surmise from the title, sexual desire does play a significant role in the 190-page novel, Ms. Laura's fourth book. The novel divulges into -- some only in passing -- the relationships one of the key characters in the book had. Regarding one, Ms. Laura writes: "And so they became lovers, though they at first couldn't put a word to what they were. Of course they told no one. They would have lost their jobs..." Then later, in the same passage, "They would double date to the movies with the boys, let them stroke and pet them, and when they got home they would rush to one of their beds and complete what the boys had started."
There was also the following about another relationship Sara had in the book: "...like Tantra, Kabbalah had a tradition of sacred sex. So, now, on the rare occasion they had sex, in addition to using the Tantric techniques, Harry would tell her that she was the Shekhinah, God's wife," and "She could not see Tantra as Harry did, as a way to rise above sex by becoming so fully satiated that you no longer desired it..."
This exposure to alternative lifestyles shouldn't be a deterrent, though, for anyone looking to read a good, easy read, especially since sex and relationships aren't the only elements prominent in the book. Also a common thread throughout the book was perception and the need to achieve fulfilment "beyond all desiring" for some of the characters in the book, including Sara.
In the book, Sara was told at one point that "the bodhisattiva offered the bliss that was possible only when one did not grasp, when one moved beyond desiring." Yet, Sara acknowledges later that "sometimes it all seemed so impossible to her. No matter how hard she tried, she could not stop grasping and she wondered if trying not to grasp was itself a form of grasping."
Then, there was the matter of perception. It has already been stated about lesbian and gay relationships. Even though the time period in which Sara had her first tryst was before the second world war, some of those perceptions about gay relationships are still present today, and would be related to by readers, whether supportive of the gay community or not. However, this perception is not the only perception matter present within Beyond All Desiring.
Sara's family, for one, all thought they knew their aunt. Living alone after her husband's death several years earlier, she had no phone or television set. She rarely travelled to visit family members at their respective homes and, when they did come to see her, Sara was often perceived as being a bit eccentric and emotionless. She didn't, for one, relate well with her niece Janice's children; she didn't know how to act, not having raised a child herself: "She was leading against him. And letting go. Letting go of Gregory. Detaching from him. Not grasping. Not owning. Beyond desiring..."
Little did they know about some of their aunt's past: her previous marriage to an abusive husband or her multiple love affairs with women, for example. And let's not forget those little bank books at the back of Sara's underwear drawer. "Only Aunt Sara would put her bank books in the bottom of her underwear drawer," niece Janice thinks when sorting through her aunt's belongings.
Yet, finding those little bank books did spark a mystery. In addition to unveiling a small fortunate that was to be inherited by Sara's three nieces, an unknown individual was also named a beneficiary; this knowledge spins speculation among the nieces as to whom this mystery man could be. "'A lover?' was what each person in the family -- except for some reason Gail -- had said when Janice had told them individually. And then they laughed at the absurdity."
Even though Beyond All Desiring is a sobering tale about relationships -- of how things, and even people, may not always be what they appear to be, even to one's own family, the book itself may not be appropriate for everyone. This is primarily due to the adult subject matter found within the book. Nonetheless, the book is a good read.
About the reviewer: Robin M. Buehler is a journalist from New Jersey. She's had reviews appear in Sabledrake, Gothic Revue, Poetic Voices and Tangent Online. She is also a poet and writer with work appearing in various print and online publications including but not limited to Sigla Magazine, ByLine Magazine, Taj Mahal Review, Sacred Twilight, Writers Post Journal and Poetic Hour. Her short stories have appeared in Wide Open Spaces, Fantasies: Collection of the World's Greatest Stories and Dark Walls. Her one story Weekend in Pocono Mountain will be in the anthology No Longer Dreams which will be released in April by Lite Circle Books.
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