Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Maria Isabel Pita has accomplished a true feat in her book TRUTH IS THE SOUL OF THE SUN (the name of the book is a translation of Hatshepsut-Maatkare's name) - a book of obviously demanding research coupled with a degree of fictionalized spaces where more is not known, 'more' in this case being the sensual side of the queen who history has proven to be the most powerful female ever known. Pita takes 550 pages to tell her story: reading this book takes a big commitment of time. Not that Pita does not write well (she in fact writes with a fine sense of flow of thoughts along with her careful documentation of facts), but the story is about Egypt and requires so many names of persons and gods and ideas that keeping the story straight is, at times, problematic.
But for those who love Egyptian history this biographical novel is a treasure trove. Not only does Pita give us the strangely startling emergence of Hatshepsut to the place of royalty and eventually the role of the Female Falcon who ruled Egypt as one as closely tied to divinity as any of her predecessors or subsequent rulers, but she also is able to fashion a rather incredible picture of a woman who was adored on many levels - including the compete allegiance of the men of Egypt. There are sufficient forays into her sensual side to satisfy the reader who prefers 'doctored historical fiction', but the achievement here is a work that pulls together the fragments of knowledge about a phenomenal queen into one significant survey. The book many be a bit too long and demanding for the casual reader, but for those who relish a good story about an important historical figure from ancient Egypt, this is a good read. Grady Harp, November 09
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