The Mastery of Love

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY APR 1, 2004

With more than 2.7 million copies of his The Four Agreements sold, Ruiz returns to readers with a new volume that presents his latest thoughts on the ways and means of inner knowledge and healing. Written in the first person with frequent apostrophic addresses ("You need to challenge every belief that you use to judge yourself, to reject yourself, to make yourself little"), the book moves gracefully and anecdotally from"Adam and Eve: The Story from a Different Point of View" to"The Tree of Life: The Story Comes Full Circle," with 10 chapters in between, including"The Lie of Our Imperfection," a chapter that covers"emotional pain as a symptom of abuse" and one on"Writing Our Story with Love," with frequent stops for"Points to Ponder." For Ruiz, life can be a matter of storytelling, to ourselves and to others. His reflections on the process of how people tell these stories, and how they can change their narratives, draw on the lore of his native Mexico and feel both centered and earned.