Skirting Heresy: The Life and Times of Margery Kempe

A good look at a time in Europe when Church leaders held great power and trips to the Holy Land were taking your life into your own hands. The story of Margery Kemp is most odd and filled with Religious and spiritual adventure and personal danger as she leaves husband and family life to chase her faith adventures. Twenty first century women will have a difficult time trying to relate to this independent soul.

Quick read, entertaining and informative. If you enjoy reading about medieval history, you'll enjoy this.When is the last time you read of anyone being put on trial for heresy and walking away free and not just once!Margery Kempe is a hero not only to women, but common men of her day and age. Is she a saint? I'll let you decide, but she has my vote.

I haven't read a popular book in a long time. As a professor, I spend most of my time reading technical books and journals. But when I heard that one of my favorite business journalists had written a book, I just had to check it out.Of course, I thought it would be a business book, but to my surprise it was a non-fiction piece about the life and times of a saint of the Anglican church -- Margery Kempe.I won't spoil it for you, I'll just say it was fantastic. Emac is a great writer and her descriptions transport you back in time to old English towns and to the landscapes of the Holy Land and Rome. You really feel bad not only for poor Margery but for her husband and the townspeople who had to put up with her eccentric behavior--the constant weeping and preaching.I'll close by saying this. We live in a world where people entertain themselves by playing video games and watching visual fx-laden movies. Elizabeth MacDonald's writing reminds us that a well-written story can entertain us in our imagination, far better than visual eye candy.Highly recommended.

I commend the author for all her historical research but, the book was difficult to follow and sometimes boring.This book would appeal to a limited audience.

This book was a delightful surprise and a page-turning read. Having watched Liz on Fox Business for years, and following her career previously at Forbes and the Wall Street Journal, I knew she was intelligent but I was still blown away by this detailed description of this historical figure, an undertaking which could not be further removed from her "day job". This book is fascinating from start to finish. Not only was it a fun book to read but would be great to discuss in any book club. I not only learned a tremendous amount about Margery Kempe and her trials and tribulations but also what life was like in the late 1300-s and early 1400s in England. I can't wait for her next book.

This book is written in a delightful style. It is interesting to learn that nothing has changed since Margery's time. Well, I guess there are no actual burnings, except in Iraq and Syria where everyone is a target. But priests and other clergy don't like to be called on their bad behavior and retaliate against those who do in the most despicable ways. As a man I can voice my opinion with little reprisal but a woman gets tormented and cast out. This is woman who knew herself and followed her call despite the trouble it caused her. I recommend this to my friends who are gossiped about and generally maligned. I did buy the hard copy for one of them.

I was very disappointed with this book. I guess I was hoping it was more historical--but relating things Margery Kempe "thought" is impossible to prove. Since she didn't read and write, I'm trying to figure out where the information for this book came from. It might have been a much better novel--except the character development was pretty thin, and names were dropped like crazy and often, without any explanation as to who they were and how they really fit into the narrative. I really wanted to like this book, because I really like E-Mac on TV. Oh well.

MARGERY KEMPE IS AN OBSCURE HISTORICAL FIGURE WHO HAS COME TO LIFE AT THE HAND OF TALENTED WRITER AND STORY TELLER, ELIZABETH MACDONALD.HOW DID MARGERY CONTINUE HER MOST UNUSUAL JOURNEY, PRACTICALLY UNSCATHED? WAS IT DEVINE PROVIDENCE AS SHE CLAIMED? THERE ARE MANY MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS. THIS READER WAS DRAWN TO THE POSSIBILITIES.IN "SKIRTING HERESY", MACDONALD RELATES THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF MARGERY IN SUCH A WAY THAT YOU FEEL THE WRATH AND PASSION OF HER CALLING. MARGERYS' COURAGE AND HER ABILITY TO ACT ON HER FAITH IN THE FACE OF THE POWERFUL CATHOLIC CHURCH, CRYS OUT.THE REFORMATION STARTS HERE. J HAMERA GREAT READ, I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN.

I'm so glad someone wrote this book. Margery Kempe is such a fascinating woman. Honestly, though, I wish a better writer had written it. It's not bad, it's pretty good, but this woman deserves the very best. Her story is so interesting and thought-provoking, I feel more could have been done, more layers of complexity could have been added. Having said that, I have little writing skill and this author has done far more than I could have. I'm very grateful to her for writing this book.

A a medieval historical interpreter I read a lot of material about the medieval world. Most of it is dry academic stuff and I have to admit to having failed to read even the modern translation of Kempe's autobiography. But Elizabeth Macdonald has taken this extraordinary - and I mean extraordinary - story and re-written it in an entirely accessable factionalised version.It is faction because she writes what people were thinking, what their intent and inflection was when they said things and what, for instance, the weather was like on a given occasion, when she cannot possibly know from what Margery actually describes in her own text. But it takes the archaic and dry Middle English prose and lifts it into something readable in the early 21st C. I couldn't work out whether at times Macdonald's English usage and grammar sometimes echoed the original text or if it was her American idiom. I felt there were times when a good Oxbridge editor would have knocked this brilliant book into even better shape, but then the quirkiness of the language was not onerous and certainly did not detract from the overall enjoyment of the book.As I said, I read a lot of books about the period but I would go so far as to say that if you only read one book about the Middle Ages this year - make it Skirting Heresy by Elizabeth Macdonald. Brilliantly done!

I thought this book would make an interesting read - it didn't and is simply not worth reading.