Ultimate Intimacy Book

I was genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed this book, particularly because it was required reading for an anthropology class on sexuality. It's the story of a Czech minister who has an adulterous affair with a woman who visits his church. There were two things that I really thought were done well in this book. One of them is point of view. The story is told through the first person point of view of several characters, the letters sent between these characters, and the personal journals of the minister, Daniel. I thought this gave the reader a reliable and complete depiction of the characters. The other thing that I enjoyed in this book is being able to trace Daniel's spiritual descent from the beginning of the novel. Often it seems that people caught up in these situations feel that they don't know how they ended up there. However, in this novel, the reader can see all the small, seemingly innocuous decisions that led to his downfall. In any case, it was a great encouragement to me to practice the spiritual disciplines of fasting, prayer, and confession! By the way, don't let the scandalous cover keep you from reading this book; there's little that would offend most people's sensibilities in it. One last comment, the author is Czech and apparently writes frequently about issues of faith. Don't you at least want to know what "the ultimate intimacy" actually is??!