Although myths and novels belong to different categories, they are alike in being the venues of human figures who are not presented as images of actually existent, “real-world” people. They have their being in a specific work of art, a drama or a narrative, such as the “Oresteia,” or a novel, such as Edith Wharton’s [...]
In Evelyn Waugh’s "Sword of Honor" trilogy, the character Guy Crouchback has married a glamorous, but promiscuous woman. In doing so, he echoes the heroism of Hosea, who pictures God’s own faithfulness to his promiscuous people. The true sword of honor is not military glory, but Guy’s noble action of forgiveness. To illuminate and inspire [...]
In Samuel Johnson’s novel “Rasselas,” the eponymous character discovers that happiness does not derive from a beautiful place, luxurious palace, or constant entertainment, but depends upon a composed state of mind in possession of truth. Throughout the eighteenth century, novel theories of happiness and utopian ideas of perfect societies gained respectability and popularity. The exploration [...]
At the same time that writers were bringing depth of character to the gothic setting in the 19th century, Edgar Allan Poe revitalized the genre in mid-century America. Suddenly Tales of Horror had a distinctly American flair and a surprising psychological depth. This nuance captivated readers then and still does today. Two hundred and fifty [...]
Sally Thomas' "Works of Mercy" is a lovely, quiet novel, in which the style, tone, and content fit together like hand in glove. The author’s understated, personal, poetic style reminded me of the novels of Susan Hill or Barbara Pym—both novelists who dwell within the world of feminine emotions without being indulgent, sentimental, or quaint. [...]
Flannery O’Connor clearly has a soft spot for her Southern religious freaks. She sees in their insanity the germ of genuine belief, and recognizes in them an antidote to the bland, uniform indoctrination into a culture where materialistic atheism is the assumed worldview. In her short stories, and culminating in The Violent Bear It Away—her [...]
In Flannery O’Connor’s "Wise Blood," the Church of preacher Hazel Motes is a Church of Moralistic, Therapeutic Deism. It is a Church Without Christ because no redeemer is needed. Is this not what the majority of twenty-first century Christianity has become? In re-reading Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood I’m struck by the prophetic precision with which [...]
From police procedurals to fantasy extravaganzas, genre fiction often struggles to balance the appeal of its subject matter with the demands of storytelling. Smaller, self-contained novels that artfully suggest a world beyond their pages are usually more successful than broad, sweeping epics that try to cram in every single thing. According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Rings [...]
In our protean age of artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and virtual reality, Ernst Jünger’s uncanny vision of a dystopian world dominated by the machinations of high tech seems strikingly prescient. “The secret force behind technology appears to be the intention to make things insipid. The flower without fragrance is its emblem.” ~Nicolás Gómez Dávila When Ernst [...]
That more faith-based fiction is being published is encouraging. It means the imagination among the faithful is not dying, but thriving, and those of us who are readers should risk the time to read new authors, like the three whose work I review here. Perhaps it is because I am turning my time and talents [...]
It is only by freeing ourselves from our possessiveness of others that we can avoid being possessed by the false “loves” that keep us from True Love. In his adult fiction, as in his children’s fiction and his non-fiction, C.S. Lewis teaches this priceless lesson, the learning of which is necessary if adults want to [...]
In the realm of Catholic fiction, there is a great divide between popular fiction and that which attempts to be timeless literature. The former is good entertainment that takes place in a Catholic universe and incarnates Catholic themes; the second is at times overly didactic and even clumsily allegorical. The great literature successfully melds the [...]
A good story is worth revisiting. Such beauty requires multiple attempts at comprehension. One must keep coming back, keep expecting more, keep hoping for one more prolonged moment of imagination. And “The Great Gatsby” certainly deserves a re-read. F. Scott Fitzgerald Rosaria Butterfield once said, “Christians aren’t just readers. Christians are re-readers.”[1] This [...]
In the course of telling the story of a people and a country in “The Grapes of Wrath,” John Steinbeck offers an unforgettable evaluation of the American desire to enter the Promised Land. But Steinbeck’s garden is Eden after the fall dominated by the expectation of hardship, suffering, and death. In such a world, men [...]