The reviews are in.
James T. Frazier is a former English Literature professor, and former lead editor at a publishing house.
Intellectual Big Bang:
I have struggled with how to review this book because it doesn’t fit neatly into my preconceived notions of genre. It is indeed narrative — tells stories, has classic story structures, beginning, middle, end, thesis, climax, characters in conflict, all the elements required by Aristotle — but it isn’t narrative for narrative’s sake, such as with James Patterson or my favorite storyteller Jane Austen. Golden uses narrative to explore ideas. The stories showed me that I am in a rut, in a mental rut, in an intellectual rut, in an existential rut! And not just me, but you, too, and the rest of the world! For tens of thousands of years, our thinking was tribal. Tribal got replaced gradually by religion, which last a few thousand years and is largely being replaced by science. But science is its own rut and we need to pull ourselves up out of its limitations. Golden doesn’t talk through these ideas like a philosopher or like someone on acid, he uses stories to suggest the ideas, to hint at possibilities we have the opportunity to explore, if we can open our minds to it. We need to continuously challenge our current thinking. For me, the most mind-bending story is “The Mineral Kingdom Messenger,” which challenges our thinking about consciousness itself. That and other stories explore the significance of scale, of physical dimension, and the myriad possibilities created when we think outside our narrowly defined time scale. Golden also gives us new ways to think about familiar subjects such as Adam & Eve and Cain, Abel, Seth, and Eden in “Eve’s Wisdom and Truth.” Refreshingly original interpretation of that Biblical tale. I started this review by noting that I didn’t know how to write a review of this brilliant book. I do believe that this is my first review focusing less on the book than on its effect on me — an affective review. BAN THE TABOO has my highest recommendation.
James purchased dozens of copies to give away, mostly to wounded warriors he volunteers with.
Micheal Romasanta reads for a living. He ghostwrites many books per year, and critically reviews top sellers. His enthusiasm for Ban The Taboo is overwhelming.
“Create characters you love, then put them in horrible situations.”
