Search - Evensong

rom Publishers Weekly
Godwin's latest novel is as comforting and evocative as its title. It's striking, at a time when so many books on spirituality are flooding the market, that so few novelists of skill and perceptiveness seem drawn to religion as a subject. Susan Howatch is one, of course, but Godwin has surely scored some kind of first in making her heroine here a female Anglican minister. Margaret Bonner, whom Godwin admirers will remember as the subject of Father Melancholy's Daughter, is now the pastor at All Saints High Balsam, a parish set in a conservative little resort community high in the Smokies in Western North Carolina. She married the much older Adrian Bonner, who is struggling as headmaster of a local boys' school, and who is apparently still daunted by thoughts of Margaret's youthful fling with Ben MacGruder, now a noted pop singer. Into their lives, as they approach the millennium (the book is set a year from now, at Advent 1999) comes Tony, a strange old man with dyed hair who represents himself as a monk on the move; Grace Munger, a local woman with a grim past who has set up as an evangelical revivalist and seeks Margaret's participation in an end-time parade to bring salvation and healing to the mountains; and Chase Zorn, a bright but self-destructive orphaned youngster who is a student at Adrian's school. Among a welter of conflicting emotions and loyalties, Margaret somehow keeps her sanity, even her serenity, intact, and learns to put together a long and loving life with a daughter born out of the sorrows of that strange and dramatic time. The carefully researched details of a woman minister's daily rituals are fascinating, and Godwin offers her usual insights into her characters' shifting feelings, compounded of psychological astuteness and keen empathy. Gracefully written and embracing a worldly but genuine sense of goodness and human possibility, this kind of book is rare these days. 75,000 first printing; BOMC and QPB selections.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A Book-of-the-Month Club selection.

New York Times: "A rich new novel . . . with the narrative verve and moral gravity that made earlier novels of hers so appealing."

Boston Sunday Globe: "A deeply considered, even dignified novel. One stays engaged with the story for sheer narrative hook. As with story lines from Dickens . . . you simply want to find out who does what to whom."

This was a tough read due to all the jargon related to the Episcopal faith with which I'm not familiar. It was well worth the struggle, however, and the surprising story really had redeeming value. It's a story of faith and forgiveness.

Thanks to writers like Godwin, there's hope yet for modern American fiction. Although the story is a first-person narrative told from the point of view of a female priest and definitely touches on issues of faith & God, it's not a "religious" book as such. It kind of draws you in and suddenly you realize, you can't wait to find out what happens next. One critic described it as "that old-fashioned concept: a good read" which I think is right on target. If you're a fan of elegant writers like Anita Brookner, you'll surely enjoy this one as much as I did.

Liked this book - good, easy read!

great read!!