The Sublime Transformation of Vera Wright by Rea Nolan Martin – A Visionary Fiction Alliance Book Review by Ellis Nelson

What if your neighbor was a saint? This was the question Rea Nolan Martin asked herself in creating this masterpiece of visionary fiction. Her main character, Vera Wright, qualifies for the senior discount but is still working as a beautician. She has a grown daughter and a teddy bear of a husband, living a normal life. Then one day, her parish priest asks the congregation to invite God into their lives. Vera does and that’s when everything starts to change.

I was fully caught up in Vera’s reluctant spiritual journey. More than once I wondered how I’d react if some of the things that Vera experienced happened to me. Remember in the stories of saints, the path to enlightenment is not an easy one. Vera is continuously challenged on her road to God. Unexpected twists and turns occur. Vera navigates some of them beautifully and some not. She is after all, human. Vera’s job is to awaken to her inner divinity and that awakening has her question the role of the feminine in Catholicism.

With the interjection of copious amounts of humor, Vera’s transformation flows smoothly and believably. Vera is the saint next door and we are no longer free to relegate holiness to something from the past. Might we not come across a saint in our own lives? Who is that waiting on us at the Post Office? What about the old man feeding ducks at the pond? The child reaching for a cookie? This book is a mind-opening adventure. Don’t miss it!

About the Author

Rea Nolan Martin is an award-winning author of visionary fiction novels. She has also written numerous short stories and poetry published in national literary magazines and anthologies. Her inspirational blogs have been published in HUFFPOST and SIVANA EAST. It is my pleasure to introduce you to two of Ms. Martin’s novels.

One of the things I love most about this author’s works is that they are fully grounded in our everyday reality. In the first book I’ll talk about, the protagonist is an average housewife living a typically modern-day American life until it all starts to change. In the second book, we encounter four women facing illness and the turmoil and hard questions posed whenever we face a crisis. Both are simple premises for a deep dive into the evolution of consciousness – the world of visionary fiction.