★★★★★ Ancient Egypt love story

The Eye of Horus

Carol Thurston

An old friend of mine gave me The Eye of Horus on my retirement in 2015. She knows me well and this was an on-target gift. I loved it. But that is odd, because if I described to you what I like and dislike in books, then told you what this book is about, you would conclude that I ought to hate it.

I was biased to like it from the start by this quote

‘At my death let the bubbles of blood on my lips taste as sweet as berries. Give me not words of consolation. Give me magic, the fire of one beyond the borders of enchantment. Give me the spell of living well.’

I had not and have not read more powerful words. To be fair, Carol Thurston did not write them. They are from the Book of the Dead, which the Egyptians called the Book of Coming Forth by Day, and she credits Normandi Ellis's Awakening Osiris: A New Translation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

Now, I of course realize that my reaction to that quote will not be universal. I can hear you squealing, "'Bubbles of blood' -- Gross!"

There follow two stories. The first takes place in modern times and concerns an unusual mummy in a museum. The second is the story of the person who became that mummy. It's a love story that took place in ancient (ca. 1359 BCE) Egypt. And it is glorious.

Normally I will tell you that I don't like love stories. And normally it is true. Romance is, as I think everyone in publishing knows, by far the best-selling category of novels. But they bore me to tears. Yet The Eye of Horus contains a love story that I found entirely enchanting. As it happens, just a few days ago I finished another novel, Margaret Owen's Little Thieves, which also contained a love story that I entirely enjoyed.

So, what's going on here? Here is my hypothesis: I was mistaken in my belief that I don't like love stories. What I dislike are predictable, formulaic love stories. And that is almost the entirety of the Romance genre currently being published. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the Romance genre is based on the same five plots, repeated again and again, with some occasional mixing and matching.

Now, I won't tell you that you are going to enjoy the Ancient Egyptian love story of in The Eye of Horus. In fact, if you love recently published romance novels, I would venture to guess that you're likely to hate the one in The Eye of Horus. It's like that quote from The Book of the Dead. To some people -- Thurston and me, for instance -- it is beautiful and powerful. To others it is not, perhaps because it is too far outside the boundaries of what they are ready to accept as poetry.

If you're a big reader of Romance novels, you may well find that the story of Aset and Tenre is too far outside the boundaries of the acceptable for you. It is situated in a time and place where all the rules were different, and you have to accept the way things worked in Egypt, at least provisionally, while you read. I cannot speak to the authenticity of Thurston's portrayal of Egypt or its archeology, but it FELT authentic.

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