Real News Network

Song of Cecilia is a literary journey of love and a lyrical joyride into the triumphs and depths of marriage and divorce through these ever-shifting sands of economic, moral and social turmoil -- a novel about the mythic and mystical music two lovers create when they begin to believe and then shatter the myths they adopt for their lives.

The contemporary mystery-romance storyline of 112,000 words unwinds as a modern twist on "The Divine Comedy" with obvious similarities to "The Great Gatsby" -- told through the eyes of a writer in the maze of a major life transformation; the spiraling economy has put an end to his newspaper, sparking a renewed search for personal redemption and reconnection with the lost love and the lost music of his life. His lost love has taken on the myth of St. Cecilia, martyred for the love of God, sacrificed for the music of angels.

The central theme is the universality of love, the endurance of the love of friends and family, even the love of God, through the love of writing or rediscovering the love songs within us all: That joyful noise of life.

The story is highlighted by the "language of love" crafted by the central characters, Mario Angelo and Cecilia Angelique, in letters, songs, poetry, factual experience and fictional expression, assuming and then consuming their namesakes in the myth of an angel and the myth of the patron saint of music as their motivations for living together -- or for tearing love apart from each other -- evolve and unravel through friends, other lovers, family, and literature itself over 20 years spanned in the novel.

The 22 chapters are crafted around literary works central to the lives of Mario and Cecilia, with the personification of God as a deity of women in dreams, visions, and in reality. The book progresses in real time through the letters, but ventures back through the couple's own tumultuous history to encompass mythology, drama, biblical stories, poetry, art history, philosophy, pop spirituality, rock music, sonnets and hymns to St. Cecilia, as well as uncovered works written by ancestors of the central characters.

The story begins with Cecilia marrying for a fifth time after recovering from a second bout with breast cancer and moving "East of Eden" to flee Mario -- and with Mario, Cecilia's ill-fated fourth ex-husband, writing unwanted and unsolicited letters and songs as a prelude to completing the unfinished book of their unique love story, once posted all over the Internet to disastrous results. He starts out to write an independent online news column to make ends meet, but is captivated by writing that becomes more lyrical and natural with his new life view. Both characters reluctantly begin to revisit their interwoven book of love letters that bring them to back to real-time questions they must finally answer from the echoes of Mario's lingering songs and Cecilia's poetic notes from the past. It becomes Mario's naked to-the-world quest to write a new beginning and build a new home from the rubble of his divorce, and Cecilia's last silent stand as the martyr to the Siren-like music of her five marriages.

The essential story of sensual love, lyrical love, naked love, martyred love, family love, and finally resurrected love is revealed through the songs and the letters, building to a crescendo of tragic circumstance and leading to a naturally flowing ending, much like an opera; or maybe a novel-rock-opera. In fact, much of the music already has been recorded with the help of a band of Seattle-based musicians, in a form that has spawned an online listening audience aside from the novel, propelling Song of Cecilia with another wing of creativity that underscores the writing at hand. (See recordings at Reverbnation.com or CDBaby.com by Real News Network)

As a writer/editor who experienced the very real death of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer this past year, I have written Song of Cecilia to examine the end of a marriage in a similar vein, or from that personal perspective. However, it is not a book about divorce or endings, or even a book of tragedy, even if the love story that is examined in full flesh and detail has tragic repercussions from beginning to end. I told a writer-friend that the book is a "Woody Allen-like parody of my own love life; an existential romance novel that proves the existence of God through the enduring love of my grandmother and my ex-wife." I also think of the book as an ode to my favorite writers and writing, sort of a Gatsbyesque cross between Steinbeck's "East of Eden" and his parable, "The Pearl."

Like the ending -- a message in a bottle hurled into the sea of possibility and improbability -- Song of Cecilia always seems to float effortlessly onward to new destinations once freed from the beach of my own life experience, the joyful noise!!! of writing and making music. Feel free to fish the bottle of love from the sea of life and pop the cork on all the joy inside.

Angelo Bruscas

Amb3music@yahoo.com; 206-718-0360