Review
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Title: “The Love Map”
Author: Carol Lynn Pearson
Publisher: Carol Lynn Pearson
Genre: Fiction-Fantasy/Novella
Year Published: 2022
Number of Pages: 144
Binding: Paper, Kindle, Audible
ISBN: Paper, 978-0997458213;
Price: Paper, 12.99; Kindle, 8.99; Audible, 10.46
Reviewed by Andrew Hamilton for the Association of Mormon Letters
“The day will come when, after harnessing the ether, the winds, the tides, gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And, on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.” – Monsieur de Chardin (Qtd. in The Love Map p. 106)
Near the end of my mission, I came into possession of a beat-up old copy of Carol Lynn Pearson’s Daughters of Light[i]. It was a first-edition copy from 1973. It was as old as I was! To this day, I cherish that old book which made me an instant fan of Pearson’s works. It became the first of many volumes in my Carol Lynn Pearson library. Now, thirty years after I acquired that copy of Daughter’s of Light, I am very happy to add Pearson’s newest book, The Love Map: Saving Your Love Relationship and Incidentally Saving the World, to my collection.
The Love Map tells the story of Joanna, a map maker for Google who is about to celebrate her third anniversary with her husband Daniel. Joanna and Daniel’s “love story is a once in the history of the world event…(it) is something so rare, something akin to a new galaxy.” When their love was new, Joanna believed that she and Daniel would still be deeply in love at 80, holding on to each other while whispering sweet things to one another. Then, reality set in. Joanna is into romantic gestures. She likes to make nice dinners and buys perfumed oils to make their home smell nice. Daniel is an accountant. He is practical and worries about finances. He also occasionally leaves his dirty socks out, leaves the toilet seat up, and forgets to clean his whiskers out of the sink after he shaves. As The Love Map opens, Joanna is glad that Google is sending her on a trip to Jerusalem because “I didn’t want to spend my third wedding anniversary with my husband Daniel due to the fact that I did not have much love left.”
During her plane ride to the Middle East, Joanna, in her frustrations, catches herself praying “DearGodhelpme” as she thinks of how her love with Daniel has fallen apart. In Israel, she is mildly injured in a terrorist bombing. She is recovering in her hotel room when God sends the angel Sylvia in answer to her prayer uttered on the plane. Sylvia explains to Joanna that it is her job, and indeed it is everyone’s job, to save the world. So that Joanna can fulfill this mission, Sylvia walks her through the four kingdoms of the Love Map and prepares her for a showdown with her greatest enemy.
I’m reluctant to say too much about this amazing little book because I do not want to give any spoilers. You need to read this book and go on a journey of discovery with Joanna. At 126 pages, The Love Map is brief; you will probably finish it in an hour or two. But, in those short hours, you will accompany Joanna on an amazing and important quest. You will learn about the Love Map. You will learn about saving the world.
If you are looking for your next book, if you want to find a holiday gift for a loved one who enjoys reading, or if your book group is looking for its next read, look no further, read The Love Map. It even conveniently includes several pages of discussion questions at the end of the narrative!
There are many fun little moments throughout The Love Map that build the delightful character of Joanna. Pearson has spent decades perfecting her craft, and her skill as a master writer is very apparent in the prose of this book as she weaves in subtle, clever passages about her subjects. Early on, you learn Joanna is a bit of a talker whose attention is constantly shifting. As she is recalling her job interview at Google, she relates the following:
I kept talking fast. “I thought that maybe every inch of the planet was mapped, but I know the job is never done because I read that your top map guy said the very moment you build a perfect map of the world is the moment it goes out of date. I’ll start at the bottom. Of course.” I paused. “Or I’ll just shut up and do what I’m told’” (p. 3)
Joanna’s enjoyable; yet distractable nature is on display again a few pages later in this amusing passage:
I guess it would be good if you could visualize this person who’s speaking to you, as I remember learning in Freshman English that description is essential, which is why I can still see Huckleberry Finn in my mind’s eye, that juvenile pariah of the village who was “fluttering with rags” and had trousers supported with only one suspender. (p. 7)
While fun passages abound, and Joanna is occasionally distracted, your attention is never too far from her essential quest and message.
Daughters of Light and I will soon be turning Fifty. As I enter my fifth decade on this tiny, troubled orb, I, like Joanna, believe that “there is too much pain and too much loss” in the world. As I wait for mankind to “harness for God the energies of love,” a Love Map is just what I need. At the beginning of their journey together, Sylvia observes to Joanna that she has chosen to embark on a most vital and challenging quest to find and keep real love. After explaining that God and Love are huge, Sylvia tells Joanna:
Listen carefully. The most important of all maps is already made, the map to the Promised Land of Love. It is your calling to find it, to follow it and to share it.
She further tells Joanna that one person can be the tipping point and that we are all called on a mission to be THAT person. The one who finds that map, saves their own love and in so doing, saves the world. I encourage you to read or listen to The Love Map (it’s on Audible, you can listen to Carol Lynn read it to you!) and let its soothing pages start you on your own journey to discover your part in saving the world.
[i] Daughters of Light is a collection of journal entries and other first-hand accounts of early Mormon women exercising spiritual gifts.