Customer Reviews

The Enemy of the Good

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I have now read this book three times: once because I have read the author's other stuff and then as a convenor of two different book groups.
I wonder whether the bishop is partly modelled on Walter Hussey, who commissioned outstanding modern art and music for St. Matthew's Northampton and later, when he was dean, at Chichester Cathedral.
There are some interesting theological issues, made simply by being part of a narrative rather than in a text book, for people to get their heads around: is art sacramental? Do Christians take seriously `the word made flesh?' (This has all been fought out, literally, in the past, between the iconoclasts and the iconodules.) Who created Hell - God, or a god made in humanity's own image? How can people have already been in Hell? Does Hell diminish God's love? Liberals don't like the idea of God being vengeful but should there be some final justice? As myth, is Genesis harmful in placing humanity at the pinnacle of creation? Whatever happens is God's will?

There is good food for thought about the presenting issue that is rending the Anglican Communion asunder: the `issue' of human sexuality, which is a phrase of obscure the fact that the only issue is homosexuality and that this is about people, not merely an `issue'. The novel earths this issue in flesh and blood people whose lives are deeply affected by such a debate. Does God punish people by AIDS? Should gays seek to change their orientation? Should gay marriage be allowed or is marriage `a reactionary and oppressive institution?' Was Jesus less than fully human if he didn't have a sex life?

For those unaccustomed to inter faith dialogue, there are some thought-provoking insights into Islam and Judaism: Is the Qur'an better, with Adam made from the dust of many lands? Is Judaism, as seen by the popular mind, an `escape into a world of "thou shalt nots"'? Or is the Jewish attitude towards the Torah one in which people can find' freedom in a world of constraints? Does the Hebrew alphabet have a radiance? Does the study of `comparative religion' lead to the loss of conviction? Do Eastern religions involve more spirituality than `Western' religions? Are the Bible and Qur'an man-made rules? Regardless of the official teaching of religious leaders, what do adherents realty believe? How widespread among Jews (and Christians) is belief in reincarnation? What is the right attitude towards Holy Writ, given that both Jews and Christians have always held that there are different levels of interpretation? `We debate laws rather than them falling out of the sky. The law is an absolute good?
Some people come to God through the heads, others through the heart. What implications does this have for religion?

Fundamentalism is portrayed well, though I think the author overdoes it in the case of the Church of England. As one of the characters says, the job of the C. of E. is `to constrain emotion not to ferment it' (Alpha Course take note). After all, how common are `6 dayers'? (This is not America, yet.) Is fundamentalism increasing? What is the difference between `taking faith seriously' and `not taking it simplistically?'

The implications for belief as played out in ethical decision-making are displayed with emotion and intellect: What sort of God would be offended at Edwin's wish to be smothered with pillow? Might not the commandment to honour father and mother be fulfilled by honouring a father's wishes for euthanasia? The faith of some people leads them to serve in the armed forces. The faith of others leads them to oppose war. Is one more true to faith than the other? Are newspapers a modern form of Inquisition/Confessional and public penance?

One gripe: I wonder whether the author was trying to tick boxes regarding topics likely to interest readers: the role of women, fundamentalism, pro-life/pro-choice, sexual orientation, asylum seekers.

Each section of this novel concentrates on a different member of the Granville family.

The first is about Clement: son of Edwin, a retired Anglican bishop and of Marta, a secular and humanist Jewish mother and a survivor of the Warsaw ghetto. Clement is a believing Christian, though critical of much traditional Christian teaching; he is in a loving gay relationship and HIV positive; he is an artist and is designing a controversial stained glass window for a church; and his model for Jesus in that window is an illegal Algerian Muslim immigrant seeking asylum because he, too, is gay. The themes of theology, art, homosexuality and the problems of asylum seekers are all interwoven in this section.

The second one is about Clement's sister Susannah. Unfulfilled by her job as a public relations operative for some tacky entertainment outfits, she longs for something spiritual and ends up on a course in Kabbalah. At her very first session she is gripped by what she hears, and is instantly sensually attracted to Zvi, one of its followers. She quickly falls in love with him. One of the women instructs her in the beliefs and practices of the Lubavitchers, and Susannah fervently embraces them - difficult enough in itself, and doubly so when she introduces Zvi to her family. As the book progresses, her new faith certainly does not make her a better person.

Marta is the central figure in the next section, and the most attractive of the characters. She is wonderfully controlled and loving when up against the tensions engendered by Clement and Susannah. We learn about her experiences in and escape from Nazi-occupied Poland, about the terminal illness of her husband, the Bishop, and about the reactions of the family to it. As Edwin pleads for euthanasia, this becomes an important theme in this section. For good measure, another event in the family sets off a debate about abortion. - Marta is an anthropologist, and another theme of this chapter is her admiration for an until very recently unspoilt and idyllic tribe in Tanzania, now endangered by "civilization" - just another ingredient tossed into the hotchpotch of topics in this novel, without any clear relevance that I can see to the religious issues that dominate it.

We return to Clement for the last section of the book, about which all I can say without giving away the plot is that he has acquired from his secular mother, but also from his very personal take on Christianity, a spirit of creative acceptance.

I didn't care very much for the first half of the book. It seems to me a rather schematic treatment of various religious and non-religious beliefs, with the members of the extended family becoming mouthpieces of them, and the arguments between them predictable for anyone who has taken an interest in such matters: Zvi representing Chassidic Judaism; Marta secular humanism; Clement having an idiosyncratic belief in Christianity; Edwin a doubting Christian; Carla a Buddhist; the youngsters Karen and Bill embracing paganism; and Curtis, a weirdo who is burdened by the belief that he has had many earlier human lives of both sexes. Throw in a bit of Marxism, a bit of Zionism, and more than a bit of homosexuality for good measure. It is only about half way through the novel that my emotions became involved, with the reactions to and consequences of Edwin's terminal illness and death, and with the episode leading to the debate about abortion (leaving aside my negative emotions about the obsessional aspects of Chasidism). It was only then that the narrative, previously flat, characterless and in a few places even obscure, rises to the challenge and that the various characters became truly alive for me.