Customer Reviews

Easter

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Arditti has skillfully woven together the many lives that make up the parish of St Mary-in-the-Vale as it prepares for Easter. The Passion of Christ is relived in the experiences of the clergy, parishioners, and the greater diocese. A questioning Vicar, his wife, Jessica (whose character is particularly well drawn), a gay Curate...haughty matrons, young lovers, men with AIDS, and (wittily) Queen Elizabeth provide the central cast, with a cartoonish (then tragic) bishop and twisted archdeacon, and various congregants adding color. The contrast between Evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics is black and white -- true to reality in the Church of England or not? Christ, salvation, liberation, the meaning of the Cross are all explored. Warning to the cautious: graphic homosexual scenes -- not titillating, but very honest. Top notch. Many (but not all!) seminarians loved it.

'Easter' is not an easy read, some of the passages would make many people (including myself) uncomfortable, but it is a compelling one.

The parish of St Mary-in-the-Vale is preparing for Easter. In his Palm Sunday sermon, the Vicar explains that Christ's crucifixion and redemption are taking place every day. He little suspects that, before the week is out, he and his entire congregation will be caught up in a latter-day Passion story which will tear apart their lives.

This is not a 'christian fiction' book - most christian bookstores would refuse to stock it because of its rather graphic homosexual scenes. The clash of Evangelicals, Anglo-Catholics and Liberals is played out against a backdrop of contemporary Parish Life that may seem unrealistic to anyone who has not witnessed the incredible variety that is London culture.

The book presents the challenge of living a Contemporary Faith. The hymnal may have us sing of the 'Faith of our Fathers', but faith itself needs to be crucified and reborn for every generation. We do not live in the world of 'our fathers' and the manifestations of their faith leaves us ill equipped to deal with today. It is devastating to watch the faith of central characters get torn apart and killed, leaving you to wonder who will come forth from the grave.

It's not an easy read, not just because of the content.

The book has many characters, and I found myself referring to the list of them frequently. The book is written in triptych form. The first third presents the calendar of events during Holy week. It then switches to follow just one character in the drama. The final third of the book rewinds to Palm Sunday and replays the events from a different angle and fills in other details that the first section only hints at.

Moving. Thought Provoking. Engaging. Shocking.

Although this comment would at first glance appear to be contradictory, this book is both profoundly spiritual and profoundly humanistic. Spiritual in that it deals quite successfully with spiritual issues; belief, disbelief, faith, and skepticism. Humanistic in that it deals with the human situation with a compassionate view of humankind and the struggles to find meaning and peace in today's world.

The book starts out in the first third as a fairly simple and straight forward narrative about an Anglican parrish church, told through the eyes of its many church officials, parrisioners, and visitors. The second third shifts gears completely into the spiritual and emotional struggles of one specific character during the same period of time, showing the true issues within the parrish, only hinted at in the first third. The final third takes up the narrative of the various characters of the first third, retelling the same events through different eyes, and continuing on to a conclusion. A type of catharsis is achieved, at least for some of the characters.

The numerous characters are wonderfully drawn. The prose is at times pure poetry. The story moved me immensely; to tears at times. The story is at times quite humourous and at other times tragic. One passage in the book contains one of the most moving descriptions of a person's death, which is actually one of the most hopeful and spiritual parts of the book.

A slower than normal reading of this book will reward you. Re-reading certain portions as you go along and reviewing the list of the many characters at the front of the book, all add to a better understanding of the story and themes within the book. This book has been added to my list of the best books I have ever read.

I highly recommend this book. As mentioned earlier, the prose itself is beautifully poetic at times. If one is homophobic or disturbed by issues dealing with homosexuality however, they might be troubled by the book.

If nothing else this book reminds you of why you can't take blurbs seriously.As the excerpts fromthe review would have it this is a masterpiece.Not!The author throws too many chararacters at you too soon and you can't remeber whothey are or figure out why you should care.You quickly learn to distinguish goodies from badies.Good-Athieists,Gays,Progressives.Bad-everyone else.Wer'e in a shallow PC world here.Still the author can be pretty funny.I suspect this would be a much better book if it didn't try so hard.He is a good observer and clever but he is not a thinker.