Arise Beloved

By Glynn Compton Harper

As reviewed by New York Times best selling author Ellen Tanner Marsh

Author and Episcopal priest Glynn Compton Harper has taken the World War II story
and transformed it into something startling new and downright revolutionary. Arise
Beloved tells the controversial story of beautiful feminist aviatrix Becky Bright and her
thwarted love for handsome sailor Troy McNutt. But this isn’t just the story of two war-
separated lovers who find their way back to each other. It’s also an astute social and
historical commentary on the times.

In rich, luminous prose, Harper brilliantly explores the beginnings of feminism as Becky
becomes a pilot for the WASPs. The issue of gays in the military is sensitively explored
in the character of German P.O.W. Gunther Bauer, the man Becky exchanges for the
freedom of her faithless husband. Earthy and erotic, Arise Beloved is also a deeply
spiritual tale that explores how human love can be seen as an allegory of God’s love for
humankind. Faith, religion and love are all interconnected, Harper suggests, and not even
the hypocrisy and ignorance of the conservative church can quash this idea.

Panoramic in scope, Arise Beloved journeys from England to Germany, North Africa,
Hawaii and the South Pacific, setting forth a fascinating history and backdrop of war.
Harper’s characters struggle for connection and survival and it is to Harper’s credit as a
novelist that he makes us feel for each and every one of them, even as he shows us how
in the worst of times, the best of all things—that is, love—can still be possible. Moving
and heartbreaking, Arise Beloved is literature at its best.