Barbara
Briggs' Pilgrimage on the Path of Love, a spiritual odyssey,
delivers the richness and complexity of life in India, and brims over
with convincing, memorable characters, not the least of which is
Shantila, a seeker after something we too seldom see in literary
fiction - spiritual awakening and liberation. Through many
suspenseful twists and turns of fortune, a reader follows Shantila's
journey with the certainty that the outcome of her story will enrich
his or her own meditations on the timeless questions of why we are
here, and how we can follow a spiritual path in a world so stained by
suffering. This is a book I would recommend for everyone who loves
wisdom and wishes to lead an examined life.
Dr
Charles Johnson, Professor Emeritus, University of Washington,
MacArthur Fellow, Recipient of an American Academy of Arts and
Letters Award for Literature, and National Book Award for his novel
Middle Passage, author of 21 books
Reading
through Pilgrimage on the Path of Love by
Barbara Ann Briggs gave me the feeling of moving gently on a canoe in
a beautiful lake on a bright sunny evening when the approaching
twilight leaves you nostalgic to see the day coming to an end. Making
lucid use of the confessional mode of expression, her debut novel
remarkably captures the spirit of the times. The quest that Shantila,
the chief protagonist, undertakes on the path of love unveils to her
not only the agony of pain and suffering implicit in meetings and
partings but also the ecstasy of understanding and appreciating the
intrinsic beauty of the landscape of the soul, the true nature of
life as we live it. Her rumination at the end of her journey --"The
pilgrimage I sought to complete has been completed, not to the
temples of Rishikesh, Haridwar, Badrinath or Gangotri, but to the
omnipresent God, to the temple hidden within every human heart"
-- comes as a potent antidote to growing intolerance bordering on
clash of cultures and civilizations that characterizes a world in
individual as well as collective distress. The charm of the novel
lies in its ability to capture the attention of the reader from the
beginning to the end as it takes us over picturesque rivers, dales
and hills to experience a kind of peace that defies understanding. I
wish her maiden venture all success!
Nibir K. Ghosh, UGC Emeritus Professor, Department of English Studies
and Research, Agra College, Agra (India); Senior Fulbright Fellow,
University of Washington, Seattle, USA & Chief Editor,
Re-Markings (www.re-markings.com).
Pilgrimage
on the Path of Love by Barbara
Ann Briggs is a loving account of a woman's quest for spiritual
fulfillment. At heart is a palpable undeniable love for the country
of her adoption; its multitudinous life, its minor duplicities and
wider generosities are so fondly captured, with a liveliness, both
authentic and amusing that I felt fresh love gushing for this crazy
country of mine. In the book, we travel from Dubai to Delhi to Manali
and Leh with its far flung monasteries and brooding temples, and with
each ascent, the protagonist is symbolically nearing that state which
neither gains nor wanes, where plenitude and beatitude are suffused.
These visitations are presented with gossamer delicacy; the author's
luminous prose spreading its lacy veil over creation till creation
becomes a salutation and a benediction. The inherent discipline
encourages emulation; the devotion which the author brings to her
enterprise, and the serenity that follows are an inspiration.
Shernavaz Buhariwalla, Retired
Professor of English Literature, Nagpur University, Maharashtra
Reminiscent
of Irina Tweedie's Daughter of Fire, Herman Hesse's Siddhartha and
Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle, Pilgrimage on the Path
of Love is a tale of human love
transformed into divine love,
of desperation into exaltation, of darkness into enlightenment.
Barbara Ann Briggs writes with a poignant, transcendent grace that
enables us to experience the story, not merely read it. And this is
an experience to treasure.
William
T. Hathaway, author of Wellsprings: A Fable of Consciousness, Cosmic
Egg Books
