From Publishers Weekly
A nonbelieving clergyman sees his life fall apart after the death of his mother, whom he learns had been keeping a lover, and after his own affair with a young woman.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
From Library Journal
In his 1992 biography, Wilson made clear his acceptance of the human, but rejection of the divine, Jesus ( Jesus, LJ 9/15/92). This theme carries over into his latest and, to date, best novel, in which he takes on the Anglican church and middle-class sanctimony. Francis Kreer, the vicar of sorrows, is a clergyman who has lost his belief in God and is trapped in a loveless marriage. He remains a faithful shepherd to his flock until a chain of events, triggered by his mother's death and the discovery that she once had an illicit love affair, propels him into madness and despair. Job-like, he loses all he holds dear and is "compelled to confront the terrible truth about life on this planet," truth that the biblical writers understood but that the bland bishops do not: "the fact of death, the fact of evil, the difficulty of virtue, the fickleness of one's own heart." God may not exist, but the human heart still needs to find him. It is this fact, Wilson suggests, that makes us "beautiful beings." Wilson's send-up of the Anglican clergy and the all-too-typical "parishoner" frequently lighten the otherwise serious tone of this Waugh-like work. Highly recommended for serious collections of British fiction.
- David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
