STATE OF GRACE

by Joseph Pintauro ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 16, 1983

Though Pintauro is himself an ex-priest, the central character's struggles with his vows of chastity are the most hackneyed element in this second novel--which, while a decided improvement over the garish sexual melodrama of Cold Hands (1979), is again earnest yet lurid, overwrought yet largely unaffecting. The opening chapters are strongly promising: Father Thomas Sheehan, 41, is followed through his parish visits (mostly very sad) in a vividly evoked Brooklyn neighborhood; he's seen in rough, effective conflict with his priestly superior (a nicely shaded monster). But then Tom, a truly chaste priest who feels guilty about wet dreams (and miserable about an idolized priest/friend who quit the priesthood), confesses the sin of ""despair"" to visiting Monsignor Kruug--and is promptly offered a recuperative assignment to Stella Maris, Kruug's pastoral parish in Montauk. Tom accepts (""He was Caleb, on the eve of a new nation, the first man of a new world""); on the bus to Montauk he meets beautiful Katelyn Snow. And once in Montauk he all too predictably goes through a series of opening-himself-up-to-feelings encounters. There's a flashback to Tom's friendship, while a missionary in Peru, with super-priest Philip; the betrayal of his defection. There's a hesitant, off-on closeness with the other priest at Stella Maris--troubled young Father Gene Buonocore, who's been suspended after striking a superior. Above all, there's the growing relationship with divorcee Katelyn: Tom helps her with car troubles, professing ""disinterested love""; they discuss agape vs. eros; there are sunset walks, mutual confidences, much over-stagey dialogue, and Katelyn's increasing impatience (""Who wants friendship from a forty-one-year-old man with eyes and hair like that?""); inevitably, after Gene urges Tom on to his first masturbation, there's the minutely detailed consummation. And finally--after Gene's death (a melodramatic contrivance), a coming-to-terms with childhood memories, and verbose introspection-Tom, a dreary character throughout, spits in the Monsignor's face and leaves the priesthood. Lots of heat but little warmth, despite some talented passages; and most readers will certainly prefer the less graphic, less pretentious treatment of priestly un-chastity in Andrew M. Greeley's Ascent into Hell (p. 324).

Pub Date: May 16, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Times Books

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1983

Categories: FICTION