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The Expected One
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| List Price: | $9.99 |
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Product Description
"THE GREATEST STORY NEVER TOLD! A POLITICAL RIVALRY THAT ENDED IN TWO EXECUTIONS AN INTRICATE LOVE TRIANGLE THAT ALTERED THE COURSE OF HISTORY A RELIGIOUS REVOLUTION THAT CHANGED THE WORLD Two thousand years ago, Mary Magdalene hid a set of scrolls in the rocky foothills of the French Pyrenees, a gospel that contained her own version of the events and characters of the New Testament. Protected by supernatural forces, these sacred scrolls could be uncovered only by a special seeker, one who fulfills the ancient prophecy of l'attendue -- The Expected One. When journalist Maureen Pascal begins the research for a new book, she has no idea that she is stepping into an ancient mystery so secret, so revolutionary, that thousands of people have killed and died for it. She becomes deeply immersed in the mystical cultures of southwest France as the eerie prophecy of The Expected One casts a shadow over her life and work and a long-buried family secret comes to light. Maureen's extraordinary journey takes her from the dusty streets of Jerusalem to the cathedrals of Paris . . . and ultimately to search for the scrolls themselves. She must unravel clues that link history's great artistic masters, including Sandro Botticelli, Nicolas Poussin, and Jean Cocteau; the Medici, Bourbon, and Borgia dynasties; and great scientific minds like Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton. Ultimately, she, and the reader, come face-to-face with Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene, John the Baptist, Judas, and Salome in the pages of a deeply moving and powerful new gospel, the life of Jesus as told by Mary Magdalene. "
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #4241 in eBooks
- Published on: 2006-08-08
- Released on: 2006-08-08
- Format: Kindle Book
- Number of items: 1
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The standard religious-thriller architecture is evident in McGowan's much-heralded debut, which coincidentally shares similarities with The Da Vinci Code (e.g., murders, Vatican interference, nefarious secret societies), but mostly the characters sit and talk about biblical history and the search for Magdalene-connected treasure. Biblical dreams and visions plague American Maureen Paschal, author of the bestselling HERstory—a Defense of History's Most HatedHeroines. When she travels to France's mysterious Languedoc region at the urging of Magdalene scholar Lord Berenger Sinclair, Maureen finds what has eluded centuries of treasure hunters—the original Magdalene scrolls that detail her love affair with Jesus, their marriage and the crucifixion. Though the author makes no effort to render these gospel excerpts in period prose, they're the most compelling part of a novel otherwise freighted with romance-fiction stylings and unadorned facts numbingly narrated. Originally self-published, this first of a trilogy has already sold foreign rights in 22 countries.
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Review
"It took a tremendous amount of courage to write this book. . . . Its portrayal of biblical characters is hauntingly, disturbingly real. I will be forever grateful to Kathleen McGowan for giving me a huge push forward on my spiritual journey by opening me up to a deeper vision of the Divine."-- Reverend Jeffrey J. Butz, author of "The Brother of Jesus and The Lost Teachings of Christianity"
Review
"Captivating . . . controversial . . . enchanting . . . courageous . . . Kathleen McGowan delivers the truth against the world!"-- Betsy Chasse, producer, What The Bleep Do We Know?
"It took a tremendous amount of courage to write this book. . . . Its portrayal of biblical characters is hauntingly, disturbingly real. I will be forever grateful to Kathleen McGowan for giving me a huge push forward on my spiritual journey by opening me up to a deeper vision of the Divine."-- Reverend Jeffrey J. Bütz, author of The Brother of Jesus and The Lost Teachings of Christianity
Customer Reviews
Not what it's hyped up to be....
I found this book to be somewhat mediocre.. I almost felt as if it was a "Da Vinci Code" wannabe. It was good at some parts, very interesting and does make you wonder, but just wasn't convincing enough. After Da Vinci Code, I found myself actually thinking about things I would read, or looking closely at pictures of the Last Supper and reflecting back on what I read in the book.. This book did not enthrall or bind me in the same way. It's worth the read if you would like to expand your ideas about religion, but if you loved Da Vinci code, you might be disappointed as it is far from being as captivating as that.
An Ego Trip to Rennes-le-Chateau
An early, yet seminal moment in Kathleen McGowan's "The Expected One" is depicted as the protagonist, Maureen Paschal, leads her class of university students, hands raised solemnly, in an oath "to remember at all times that all words committed to paper have been written by human beings. And, as all human beings are ruled by their emotions, opinions, and political and religious affiliations, subsequently all history is comprised of as much opinion as fact and, in many cases, has been entirely fabricated for the furthering of the author's personal ambitions or secret agenda."
To the degree that this may or may not be an entirely accurate or fair assessment of all recorded history, by this statement McGowan ably demonstrates that the same maxim may be applied to the historical novel.
From her literary agency's website, we learn that McGowan's first novel (though not her first published book) "is the result of the author's twenty years of research on four continents and her privileged access to secret societies. Filled with previously unreleased information concerning the lives of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene, McGowan's first book of The Magdalene Line Trilogy reveals secrets kept in blood and faith for 2000 years, startling information that has been closely guarded since the time of the Crucifixion."
Yet there does not appear to be a single "historical" detail revealed in this work that had not been published previously in the last two decades by diverse authors such as Laurence Gardner, Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln, Lynn Picknett, Clive Prince, Margaret Starbird, and most recently, Dan Brown. Only the self-aggrandizing embellishments appear to be unique to this author. From the novel's afterword, McGowan states, "In my need to protect the sacred nature of this information and those who hold it, I had no choice but to write this, and the subsequent books in the series, as fiction. However, many of my protagonist's adventures and virtually all of her supernatural encounters are based on my own life experiences." Experiences, it would appear, that included carefully selective culling of theoretical and hypothetical details from previously published mass market titles, presented for her self-serving purposes as proven fact. The protagonist Maureen Paschal, we are told by McGowan, is the author herself - "The Expected One", the direct bloodline descendant of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, chosen to reveal their hitherto unknown "true" story to the world in fictional form. The problem for McGowan is that the "truth" onto which she clumsily grafts herself has been told countless times by more credible authors who have resisted the temptation to cast themselves as children of the Holy Grail.
A colleague of mine recently summed up the current craze for revisionist history masquerading as fiction (and vice-versa) in a succinct way that, though not addressing this work specifically, I find entirely applicable to McGowan's debut novel: "Where we stand now is there is a popular and highly deceptive genre that caters to the undiscerning. Every speculation can be spun into a series of books. One can call such speculations fiction, and promulgate even more bizarre notions. A large percentage seem to believe the fiction, and there is a lively market of sub genre books and media that debunk the more idiotic ideas, or even worse, try to implant some theological substitute <....> Take speculation, add inspiration, promulgate revelation. The revisionists <....> formulate their mindwarp on an endlessly renewing audience of the naive."
I couldn't have said it better myself.
Readers are advised to raise their hands and recite the solemn oath to remember that novels, like historical accounts, can be entirely fabricated to further an author's personal ambitions.
Disappointing
After readfing the Da Vinci Code, I was a little diappointed that the story "ended early." I saw this book as a continuation of the Jesus/Mary story, but it really ruined the moment for me. I wish I hadn't read it.
The book's mean spirited treatment of biblical characters I found appalling. John the Baptist and Mary as a couple, could be plausible, but she has John smacking her around.
On the whole I found this book trivial and lacking any of the spiritual wonder of the DVC. This reads like a harlequin romance novel with an agenda, and one writen by a highschooler at that.
This book is not about Mary or jesus, it's about the writer and what appears to be "channeled," newagey fantasies and bad poems that are supposedly ancient scriptures.
I didn't read the bits until after where she claims this her own, real life experience, and that she wrote it as fiction because it's so dangerous for her to tell it as real life, yet there she goes telling everyone who will listen apparently that it's all really true. The whole business is preposterous and it really seems like she read Holy Blood and recast herself as Pierre Plantard in some attempt to make herself special. What's worse is that she demeans Jesus and Mary and a host of biblical characters by using them as foils for her alter ego "maureen." Not so much blasphemous as insulting my intelligence.
