I was drawn by the beautiful titles gracing the pairing of biblical allegory novellas in The Divine Symphony: A Requiem for Love and A Symphony in Sand by author Calvin Miller.

I enjoyed the lyrical flow in this mix of biblical fiction, fantasy, and poetry that tells of Regis and Regina, a man and woman at the heart of creation, as well as their Maker's plan for their descendants' redemption.

Granted, it bothered me to see how much time the first allegory spends on Regina's downward spiral and not on Regis's. If he were so strong in the Earthmaker's love and truth and wasn't dealing with his own hard struggle, wouldn't Regis have been strong enough in his convictions not to give up all that was sacred and eat the forbidden fruit when Regina asked him to? Might he have thought there could be another way?

Also, there were times I got lost in the second allegory and couldn't see the point behind certain developments.

Nevertheless, haunting passages would grab me and resonate, like:

Hate is bread—baked slowly
In the oven of our narcissism
And eaten with such haste
That we devour our hands,
And never notice till
We reach to touch what we adore
And find our fingers gone.

My goodness. Think about it.

And of course, given the core of the second allegory, the characters sometimes break into ebullient song about the incomparable Child soon to come to earth:

"The vast Earthmaker, cosmic in His Grace,
Has locked Himself within a little space."

"Let every mountain range declare with joy
The lion roars and God is born a Boy."

Indeed, this author's work sings of tragedy and triumph in a literary symphony that resounds with hope. ( )