A deceptively simple and moving novel about a pastor juggling professional responsibilities and a personal awakening.
A debut novel about a good-hearted pastor in a small Midwestern town.
“Our God is full of surprises,” says Father Del Carnation in Hanway’s straightforward, affecting debut novel, “and people are the most surprising creatures of all.” But as this novel opens, Father Del, an Episcopal pastor in the small, idyllic, but cloistered town of Exeter, is leading an unsurprising life. He has a settled parish and a contented routine, but he’s been a widower for three years, and his grown daughter seldom visits. Aside from the many challenges and satisfactions of his pastoral calling, he feels lonely. As he tells his grief counselor, “I live in three worlds, and I often wonder which one is the most real.” There’s the day-to-day world, in which his parishioners and a constantly shifting cast of strangers are forever asking him for favors or guidance; the spiritual world, in which he owes his primary duty to God; and the world of “unfulfilled longings.” Hanway does a low-key but very skillful job of bringing all three of these worlds to life. He dramatizes the day-to-day aspect with a detailed look at Father Del’s life as a community leader, and these passages have a warmth that’s similar to that found in J.F. Powers’ novels; he illustrates the spiritual with several of Father Del’s excellent Sunday sermons. But the pastor’s longings are most involving, as Father Del finds himself falling in love with Rachel, a single mother who’s just recently moved to town to live with her aunt. Hanway confidently plays out the unfolding relationship against the backdrop of Father Del’s professional duties; one subplot, for example, involving a gay teenager afraid of small-town intolerance, is particularly well-handled. The author also draws many other secondary characters with economic skill. From these fairly simple ingredients he crafts a story that’s heartwarming without being saccharine. It also avoids dealing with current religious controversies (“a kindness sparing both the reader and the writer,” Hanway wryly notes) in order to focus on the universal dynamics of human relationships.
A deceptively simple and moving novel about a pastor juggling professional responsibilities and a personal awakening.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2008
ISBN: 978-0595525072
Page Count: 232
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
Hoffman (The Red Garden, 2011, etc.) births literature from tragedy: the destruction of Jerusalem's Temple, the siege of Masada and the loss of Zion.
This is a feminist tale, a story of strong, intelligent women wedded to destiny by love and sacrifice. Told in four parts, the first comes from Yael, daughter of Yosef bar Elhanan, a Sicarii Zealot assassin, rejected by her father because of her mother's death in childbirth. It is 70 CE, and the Temple is destroyed. Yael, her father, and another Sicarii assassin, Jachim ben Simon, and his family flee Jerusalem. Hoffman's research renders the ancient world real as the group treks into Judea's desert, where they encounter Essenes, search for sustenance and burn under the sun. There too Jachim and Yael begin a tragic love affair. At Masada, Yael is sent to work in the dovecote, gathering eggs and fertilizer. She meets Shirah, her daughters, and Revka, who narrates part two. Revka's husband was killed when Romans sacked their village. Later, her daughter was murdered. At Masada, caring for grandsons turned mute by tragedy, Revka worries over her scholarly son-in-law, Yoav, now consumed by vengeance. Aziza, daughter of Shirah, carries the story onward. Born out of wedlock, Aziza grew up in Moab, among the people of the blue tunic. Her passion and curse is that she was raised as a warrior by her foster father. In part four, Shirah tells of her Alexandrian youth, the cherished daughter of a consort of the high priests. Shirah is a keshaphim, a woman of amulets, spells and medicine, and a woman connected to Shechinah, the feminine aspect of God. The women are irretrievably bound to Eleazar ben Ya'ir, Masada's charismatic leader; Amram, Yael's brother; and Yoav, Aziza's companion and protector in battle. The plot is intriguingly complex, with only a single element unresolved. An enthralling tale rendered with consummate literary skill.
Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4516-1747-4
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
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