The Spirit of Want by William H. Coles is the story of a woman who is successful yet, when a man comes into her life, she loses it all. This is the story of Lucy MacMeil, the daughter of a successful doctor and the wife of an equally successful surgeon. Lucy is a defense lawyer by profession and she really enjoys her job. However, her life is changed completely and for the worse when she takes up the case of a TV evangelist who is accused of raping a girl. When she takes up his case, she had no idea that she would fall in love with this man.
She tries her best at saving him, but the case against him is too strong and he loses. Seeing that he has no way out, the evangelist runs away to Africa and Lucy leaves everything behind, including her husband and a very young infant, and goes after him. She left everything for him, but when Lucy reaches him, he tells her to go back. Shocked, dismayed and terrified, Lucy has no idea what she will do. Can she go back and try to salvage her marriage? Or will she stay back in Africa and hope that the man she loves will accept her?
This novel was hard to read, not because it was written badly, but because of how real it felt. Lucy’s emotions were raw and real and you could feel them in your heart and in your soul. William H. Coles described emotions so well and that gave depth to the characters. Sometimes this novel was so heart wrenching that I had to stop for a few moments. The Spirit of Want is definitely a novel I really appreciated because it made my inner literature lover very happy! Fantastic, simply fantastic! I am lost for words.