Review: A brilliant, human book. Superb.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 27, 2013
I've just turned the last page on a wondrous book, titled "The Hiding Place Girl" by Robin (Billings) Martin. I'm just now getting my breath back. I've only experienced the feeling I got from Robin's book a couple of other times. One was when I finished Dr. Richard Selzer's "Letters to a Young Doctor." I was in one of my MFA residencies when I read Dr. Selzer's book and the next morning, I was privileged to eat breakfast with him. Later that day, he gave a talk to the student body and faculty and afterward, I was walking on the grounds in an absolute daze after the experience and a fellow classmate came running up to me, telling me he'd gotten stuck in town and hadn't been able to make it."How was his talk?" he said.I thought for a long moment. I didn't have the words to describe the experience. Finally (and weakly), I came up with my answer. "It was like being in a cathedral and hearing the voice of God," I said. And it was. Dr. Selzer had deeply touched every good emotion a human being is capable of feeling.I felt the same way upon finishing Martin's novel. I have never understood women as well as I do now after reading her work and have never loved women as much. What a marvelous creation they are! What wondrous brains and hearts and souls they have!Thank you, Robin. This is every bit as good as Dr. Selzer's book and it's every bit the revelation of the open, totally honest heart of a human being as anything Walt Whitman ever revealed. This is true and it is intelligent and it is the kind of thing I think of when I think of poetry and literature.I am in awe and I thank you.