THE EMPTY SHRINE

by William E. Barrett ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

This is a ticklish subject -- the question of the authenticity of a vision experienced by a child, and the part played in exploiting it by avaricious adults who see their own gain. William Barrett, with extraordinary sensitivity and understanding, has told the story well, and, up to the very closing pages, holds the reader- be he Protestant or Catholic- with him in the perceptive unfolding of his tale. For this reader, the end struck a wrong note... The setting is an island in the St. Lawrence- Ile aux Erables, not far in miles from Quebec, but almost insulated from the outside world. The time spans 1945 to the present, in the lives of the people, and particularly of the principals in the miracle:- Valerie Rivard, a sensitive, lonely child, who at eight, saw the vision of a lady stepping forth from a rocky cave; Antoine, her playmate, a fearful child, who dared not look- but believed; Robert, slightly older and a bully, unbelieving, but willing to make use of what had happened; and Andre, Robert's quite different brother, who believed, because he saw Valerie's radiance, before the grasping adults had seized on her story, twisted it to their own ends- and destroyed for her its glory. It is this story- and its rejection, that an embittered newspaperman seeks as a springboard for a debunking book he plans to write about shrines, visions and miracles. Keller Barkley, twelve years later, has come to the island, and through his experiences there, the reader, too, learns what has happened, and the effect' on the island people. It is an unusual story -- and will, perhaps, be more acceptable to Protestant readers than to Catholics, except for the liberal ones-though the pervading Catholicism is reverently handled.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1958

Categories: FICTION