Rare Atmosphere

In this memoir, the author has a love affair—with a man she’s never met.

Rogers (A Love Apart, 2005), a thrice-divorced woman approaching 60, receives an unusual message. A friend has channeled spirits—Rogers calls them “The Dead Guys”—who tell the author that she will meet a French pianist who “sings the song of [her] soul.” Unfortunately, the author lives in Asheville, N.C., while the pianist is a successful, globe-trotting artist. (Rogers calls him “Stéphane.”) Their spheres don’t intersect, but she believes that they will eventually meet—on both a spiritual and physical plane. As she attempts to “maintain the centered space necessary to meet Stéphane’s vibration,” the author discovers she must look inside herself to find the love she craves. Skeptical readers may have difficulty accepting Rogers’ tales of communication with spirits, past lives and other paranormal phenomena; much of what she takes as “signs” pointing her toward Stéphane may be easily dismissed as mere coincidence. The author, however, is sincere in her beliefs, and her honest portrayal of her struggle to come to terms with her own life will likely resonate with readers who’ve ever wondered if the universe has a cosmic plan for them. Ultimately, underneath this memoir’s New-Age exterior, there’s a story of a woman working to accept and love herself, eventually realizing: “I was the beloved I’d been looking for.” As she shares her 6-year journey, she doesn’t hesitate to expose her own foibles and mistakes and her attempts to overcome them: “Despite the tantrums of the mind…I wanted to break out of old, limiting patterns and become more of the self I dreamed of being.” The chapters on her trips to Saint Martin and France are especially enjoyable, merging the memoir with travelogue, and the poems embedded in the text offer a respite from  some of the less interesting chronicles of everyday events. In the end, while Rogers may not find exactly what she’s searching for, open-minded readers will enjoy sharing her journey.

An unusual, touching account of a woman’s search for self-acceptance.