A Booke of Days: A Novel of the Crusades
This intriguing historical novel is a standout in the genre. Rivele (coauthor of the screenplay for Oliver Stone's Nixon) structures his fiction debut as a journal kept by Roger, Duke of Lunel, an 11th-century French nobleman who joins thousands of knights, soldiers and pilgrims on the First Crusade against Turkish forces occupying the Holy Land. Roger enlists in the pilgrimage to atone for guilt he feels over his illicit courtship of the "dark and handsome" Jehanne, whom he marries after the death of her first husband, Eustace of Valdevert. But he discovers that the price of remission of a sin may be far greater than the sin itself. As a chronicle of war, the journal works effectively, distilling the immense scope of the Crusade through the filter of Roger's perspective as knight and pilgrim. His recounting of battle scenes may not rise to the grandeur of traditional historical epics, but his record is all the more personal and moving since it contains the weary, often disillusioned thoughts of an officer at the end of a long day. The diary also describes the fierce rivalry, even treachery, among military and church leaders, as well as the obstacles of disease, starvation, desertion and alien landscape. Suffering is not the whole story, however, for Roger is a man of contemplation and reflection who continually questions the true motives of the pilgrimage. His European-bred prejudice against the Turks dissolves when he observes them, especially in light of the ever increasing barbarism of his fellow Christians. Then his views of religion, duty and love are altered forever by his relationship with Yasmin, an educated Turkish woman. Roger's honest, tenacious quest for redemption in the midst of the Crusade's inhumanity and ignorance makes this an absorbing and intelligent look at a remote period of history.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.