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2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Blood and Silk: The Hidden Love Story of Mary of Magdala and Jesus of Nazereth Jan 02, 2011
By Erin Nass
In the first century, a social and political movement caught the hearts of many in the Roman Empire, defining Western Civilization for centuries to come. This movement started with one man; a rabbi, the son of a carpenter who was of the Royal line of David. Through his words and deeds, this rabbi taught the world to love themselves, each other, and their creator. What's more, the rabbi's message was carried by his friends, family, and by the wife and children he kept in secret for their own protection.
Mary of Magdala was betrothed to the oldest son of Joseph of Nazareth at a very young age. Despite the pre-arrangement of their marriage, Mary was honored and besotted and her fiancé was completely smitten. Because of Roman persecution of the movement their families played a part in, the rabbi and his fiancé joined an educational commune where Mary learned about her people and herself. It was in this commune that she and her beloved married in secret, producing several children before the rabbi's social conscious called him to leave the security of the commune and fulfill his destiny to mankind.
Upon his death, Mary and her children went into hiding, mingling the family of Zion with many over the years.
Blood and Silk is a beautiful mosaic told by a young woman of the two greatest love stories mankind has ever known. Carol McKay captures the reader's imagination and, through careful research, presents the story of Jesus of Nazareth's marriage to Mary Magdalene in artistic, yet historically accurate, detail. Readers can be assured that McKay does not defile their beloved Savior nor present a story that would run contrary to their most deeply held beliefs. Blood and Silk shows that a man could be the Messiah as well as a loving husband and father.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Bridget's Review Nov 05, 2010
By bridget3420
"Bridget Hopper"
I really enjoyed this book. I was blown away by the author's writing ability and how everything came together. Blood and Silk is a must read for those who are interested in this subject. It's the type of book that leaves you with a new outlook on what it means to be human.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
A Captivating Exploration of One of History's Unknowns Aug 29, 2010
By Timothy Cushing
Carol McKay's Blood and Silk is much more than its title suggests. It transcends a love story and emerges as an incredibly detailed cultural restoration. With an artist's eye, McKay has taken painstaking effort to recreate a cultural window that has been lost for millennia. As if refurbishing a lost and treasured painting, McKay applies her poetic gift for description to a vast body of research in order to transport readers to a tumultuous time of economic, religious and social upheaval.
Instead of focusing on Jesus' well-documented life, the novel strives to peel back the shroud of mystery from the much more mysterious and often overlooked Mary of Magdala. Told from her perspective, the historical novel begins with Mary traveling discreetly in her later years with a small group of trusted friends and her daughter Sarah. They travel to the Lughnasa Summer celebration in Arelate where she disrupts a lewd and mocking recreation of Jesus' crucifixion thus betraying her cover. After this she is forced to go into hiding in a cave in the woods of Southern Gaul. This is where the story begins to drift into a remembrance of her life.
Using nostalgia as a filter, the novel drifts from lush descriptions of rooms, landscapes, and cities to scenes of brutality. It follows the major events of Mary's life, from her birth in Magdala to her time at the Villa of the Twin Fish in the Decapolis to her education at the prestigious Cleopatra Lyceum in Gadara to her time at the Essene fortress monastery Khirbet Qumran to her secret wedding ceremony with Jesus at Carmel Mountain to Jesus' miracles and crucifixion. Although at some parts the novel becomes bogged down by names of places and people, reading like a stern history lesson, McKay generally does a seamless job of integrating history into the narrative.
Interspersed with the events of Mary's life are smaller chapters about various cultural phenomena such as a description of catoptrics and health care. Anecdotes about the Boar's Head Legion give a sense of the era's brutality, and provide the reader with cultural perspective.
The narrative is tempered by McKay's unique artistic vision. For instance, recurring episodes of nightmarish visions plague Mary's young life. This imbues the novel with a shroud of mystery and mysticism that evokes curiosity. At some points, however, dream-like descriptions become muddled and interfere with a clear understanding of plot. Certain wistful passages create a disjointedness that can detach instead of connect the reader from the flow of the plot and its characters.
Above all, Blood and Silk is a story told with reverence. McKay's pensive style combines with her strong and extensive research to immerse the reader in a completely unique take on a much-studied era. McKay's lofty endeavor pays off in a novel both incredibly personal and enormous in scope.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
A fascinating and riveting read, recommended Aug 07, 2010
By Midwest Book Review
Jesus may have been divine, but he was also a man. "Blood and Silk: The Hidden Love Story of Mary of Magdala and Jesus of Nazareth" looks at the human side of Christ, who embraced Mary Magdalene as more than a simple following of his preachings. Reflecting on the times of their lives and drawing much upon research of the era, "Blood and Silk" is a fascinating and riveting read, recommended.
3 of 4 found the following review helpful:
FASCINATING HISTORICAL NOVEL Jan 25, 2010
By Alden Veneklasen
From the opening sentence to the very last word, this is a totally compelling book. Mary Magdalene's first-person account of her tumultuous life and her soulful, heartrending love affair with Jesus of Nazareth keeps the reader on the edge of the seat, and combined with a richly written narrative and deeply researched cultural details, McKay really hits a home run. The political climate with all its characters, the savory descriptions of the foods they ate, the clothing they wore, the loves and affiliations they feared and celebrated come together to create a fascinating, delicious reading experience. I'm really thrilled about this book!
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