Clean by Ken Sweet Search Amazon for other books by or about Ken Sweet. Rating: Reviewed by: Marie Jones

Imagine being washed clean, of all negative energy, of all the dirt that life tends to cover us with in the course of a human lifetime. For Benjamin Whyte the journey to find such a state of complete and utter inner cleanliness becomes a spiritual quest filled with romance, danger, and adventure.

Clean follows the fictional quest of Ben Whyte as he seeks the truth about a vision he had as a child, of a healing light that washed away his inner and outer brokenness. But there was another vision, this of a dark stanger that blocked his way towards finding Clean. Over his lifetime, Ben has visions of both Clean and the stranger Ben senses is evil.

As an adult, Ben watches his marriage collapse around him, and a chance encounter with an unusual young man named Lazarus propells him to go to England and begin a quest to find this Clean, who appears in his dreams and urges him towards new soul discoveries that will be frought with pain, even danger. Ben soon realizes he is in love with an old friend, Aimee, and the three of them set out for a land of ancient spiritual power and symbolism. Will Ben find the place where his soul can be washed clean? Does such a place even exist? And will the evil dark stranger stop him once he finds it?

Author Ken Sweet, a writer and journalist (kensweet.blogspot.com), wrote Clean while on his own three-month trek across Britain, and he fills his novel with descriptive passages that bring to life the many intriguing locales (and locals!) Ben Whyte visits on his tranformational journey. This is an inspiring book, yet it also reads like an adventure story, with a very personal touch. The romance between Ben and Aimee is passionate and vibrant, and Ben's own angst and yearnings leap off the page.

Novels of spiritual quests are not easy to pull off, many often sounding too intimate for others to relate to, too preach for others to stomach, or too boring for anyone to care about, but Clean is a solidly told story that just happens to be about an everyman on an amazing search for his own soul, and it works well, holding our captive attention as we feel the emotions driving Ben Whyte to seek what his soul craves, even if it costs him his life. Wholeness.