This book is a great gift. It is the most personal book about menswork I have read, which is, I think, very valuable. Other books about men are more general, with short accounts of crucial passages in the author's life. Shadow of the Stone Heart takes you through years of personal discovery, with more general passages adding flavour to what is essentially an intimate and moving autobiography of a short period of Olivier's life.
The book is very much a journey. I think the way I felt reading it mirrored where Olivier was at in his life at each point in the book. I felt frustrated at the beginning, after the moving account of his father's death and funeral. Work, work, work, theatre, famous people... more work. Then came the first evening with Robert Bly, and a ray of hope. But more frustration as Olivier turned away from the work which was to come. Then the first men's conference in the States, setting up a men's group in London, and starting therapy. From this point on the book becomes more and more emotional, more and more personal, as Olivier describes the unearthing of his wounds and their healing.
The book contains short versions of some of the fairy tales used in the mythopoetic work, such as Iron John and the Firebird, and a number of poems, including some by Olivier himself. This will be familiar territory for some, but it provides a good introduction to mythopoetic work. The multicultural conference in the US makes gripping reading, full of frightening situations, strong emotions, and spiritual crises.
The poem towards the end which describes Richard's feelings towards his partner as she came to join him swimming in the sea is absolutely beautiful, and had a transcendental quality that sent shivers through my body. A clear thought came to me as I finished the book: that the wounding, and the search for the gold in the wound is common to both men and women, and to men and women of all cultures. There are gender- and culture-specific elements, but it is fundamentally something we all share as human beings. Although this book is about men and masculinity, by being so personal Olivier, in my view, transcends gender and culture.
Steve Banks
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