Customer Reviews

Glamorous Powers

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3 star:		(1)
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When Susan Howatch's Church of England Series was recommended to me, the first book to fall into my hands was Glamorous Powers. I read it three times; once just for the captivating story she wove; a second time with the dictionary; and a third time to meditate on the psychology and theology. Few books have made such a profound impression, reaching beyond entertaining to mentally challenging and spiritually inspiring. This book and the rest in the Church of England series (I have read all seven) are unique in modern literature, grappling boldly and convincingly with the deepest concepts of faith through the most entertaining medium of master storytelling told by one of the best. I highly recommend every book in this series. Each is entertaining. Each is a study of hope in the face of despair. Each is a mystery skillfully unraveled. Most I have read more than once, but Glamorous Powers, by a narrow margin, continues to be my favorite. This book is a bargain at any price; this author, a treasure.

"Glamorous Powers" is the second of the "Church of England" Series and centers around the character of Jon Darrow whom, if you have been reading the six books in this series in chronological order, you would have already met in the opening work: "Glittering Images." The "glamorous powers" of the title are Darrow's intuitive and Holy Spirit- inspired gifts of prophetic insight, counseling, teaching and healing. But Darrow is not just gifted, he is also suseptable to all the human weaknesses and psychological convolutions we all must face. How can he understand God's will for his life, reenter the world after years of monastic life, make peace with his family, face his own past faults and ultimately find his new calling? And how objective will his spiritual director be when he and Darrow have long shared a history of interpersonal conflict? As a Christian pastor who knows a bit about "glamorous" spiritual powers, I particularly related to Howatch's insights regarding the need for spiritual leaders to work out their personal "kinks" in order to properly platform God's power. Darrow shows us how vital, yet difficult this task is, especially since it almost inevitably means we must share our deepest weaknesses with another. As usual, Howatch's text reads briksly and is packed with story twists, insights and characters that leave you crying for more. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Bill Faris

Susan Howatch may be a woman with training in the law, but she gets inside the mindset of male priests in the Anglican Church (Episcopal Church in the U.S.) better than anyone else. This is a mystery, a suspense novel, a love story and a deeply psychological look at spiritual direction all rolled into one. The book begins with a man having a vision of a small country chantry (chapel). Outside the chapel is a unique suitcase. Is this god telling him to pack his bags and leave the monastary he has known for so many years? After intense spiritual direction, that I found riveting, he decides to leave. He goes on holiday, and while walking down the hall of the inn he is at, he see the suitcase of his vision! He has to meet the owner of the valise. She turns out to be a beautiful woman (much younger than himself). Will love ensue? What is god's will? This book will encourage you to consider the power of prayer and god's direction for your life. It will call you to wrestle with the possibility of healing and evil. This book began my love affair with each of the books in the "Starbridge" series. It could be the start of something special for you, too.

The second in the series of Starbridge books - Glamorous Powers - is the one I liked the best. IN this book we get to know Jon Darrow, who figured in the first volume Glittering Images as Charles Ashworth's spiritual director, more intimately. Whereas in Glamorous powers, seen through Charles Ashworth's eyes, he was the perfect super priest who knew everything, here we actually get under Jon's skin and see him as he sees himself: as a flawed, confused man with many problems, in particular concerning his relationship with women. Jon had spent several years in a monastery as a monk, but now, in his sixties, he receives a calling from God to leave the monastery and fulfil a mission in the world - but he doesn't know what. Nor is he certain if that mission includes marriage.
For anyone with an interest in Gnosticism and mysticism, this is a particularly interesting book - but such an interest is definitely not a pre-condition for reading and enjoying it! I'm not the only Howatch reader to have this as their favourite in the series. (...)

One only gets small hints in 'Glittering Images' that there is a lot more to Jon Darrow than meets the eye, 'Glamourous Powers' is his story. After leaving his order after seeing a vision, Darrow tries to work out his vocation and in his attempt lets his ego and spiritual arrogance get the better of him which leads to tragedy, but also the offer of spiritual renewal afterwards. An excellent look at how spiritual leaders and mentors have their own failings and the fact that they also need to be helped and disiplined. It is an excellent argument against those who are completeley against charismatic renewal, but also against those who are totally for it without seeing the warning signs and the need to be answerable to someone who you trust but who who you also don't have a cosy relationship with.

Having read all six books in Ms. Howatch's Church of England Series, I find deciding which is best difficult. Each book, especially the first three, introduce new characters and examine them in extreme depth. Ms. Howatch pulls no punches on human fraility. But, at the same time she holds out Hope for those who choose to strive for their ideals. I highly recommend these books.

This review is for the first Ballantine Books paperback edition, November 1989, a volume of unknown origin found while cleaning out the bookcase. I decided to read it only because Amazon.com customers rated it five stars. Although I was raised as a Roman Catholic, and at age thirteen spent a year in the seminary, I soon became disenchanted with, and largely disinterested in, organized religion. Notwithstanding this bias, I'm glad that I read GLAMOROUS POWERS.

The plot opens in Grand Chester England at a quarter to six on Friday morning, May 17, 1940 in the cell of Jon Darrow, who for the past seventeen years has been a monk in the (fictional) Anglican Fordite Order of Saint Benedict and Saint Bernard. Jon is having a vision. He interprets this vision as God's instruction to leave the order and embark on a new, unspecified calling. Before Jon can leave, however, he must convince the Abbot General, Francis Ingram that his vision was a communication from the Holy Spirit and not an aberration of a disturbed psyche. There follows a fascinating mental dual between Jon and Francis.

This deep and literary exploration of psyches pervades the story. Before each chapter and section, the author liberally quotes from the works of W. R. Inge, particularly MYSTICISM IN RELIGION. Jon has mystical (glamorous) powers, healing powers, which Francis thinks are often nothing more than "parlour tricks." I thought of "Anglo-shamanism."

Although the story evolves within the institutions of religion, it does not tamper with faith or belief, so the reader need not worry about being upset by heresy or theological debate. The author confines polemic disputes between Anglo-Catholics and Roman Catholics, Low Church and High Church, to ritual, and treats these as external conflict rather than internal struggle. This story is not about religion, but about the psyche, with pervasive emphasis on the guilt and anger emanating from parental failures.

Jon Darrow has problems, "dis-ease" he would say. The larger than life character is Francis Ingram who unravels Jon's troubled psyche without revealing his own disturbances. At one point Jon shuns Francis and mires himself into a muck of troubles, and at page 296 I made a note that the story was getting a bit tedious. It revived, I thought, around page 339 with the return of my hero Francis. Indeed, the acerbic and witty letters written by Francis to Jon are splendid examples of writing at its very best.

Whether or not "Glamorous Powers," the second of the six Church-of-England novels by Susan Howatch, appeals to you, will depend on your attraction to or disgust with the protagonist. In this book, as in no other of the series, the first-person narrator, ordained priest Jonathan Darrow, sets the mood and the tone, and dominates the proceedings from beginning to end. The reason my review has only three stars, is because the character of Jonathan Darrow is, for me, a three-star narrator and not a five-star narrator! Why not admit to my own bias? Especially when father Darrow is one of the most disruptive and polarizing of all the clergymen populating Howatch's fictitious Starbridge diocese, and that is indeed saying something. His character -- and, as I think of it, his novel, his story -- are guaranteed to divide and polarize readers of the Starbridge series into pro-Darrow and con-Darrow factions.

With the 2nd book in Howatch's Anglican trilogy, we explore the story of the monk who was the therapist in book #1. He is also 60 years old, a psychic and a vision from God sends him back into the world and out of the monastery. There is a great deal of counselling and angst in this novel as well. There isn't enough different about this novel to make it the same fascinating read as book #1 though. I've already bought book #3 and I hope we follow a different pattern with that one. He does find a new woman as part of his vision from God as her bag and her estate were specifically seen in it. The Anglicans must spend more time in analysis than Freud himself ever dreamed possible!

I love these books.

I even occasionally re-read them. Who wouldn't love a spiritual adviser like Jon in there lives?

Each book stands alone, and yet, when you are done? There is the added treat of being able to read 'the other side of the story' or to continue on to the lives of other characters.

When I first read them, I thought some of the theological debates were tedious, because the author really has the ability to write a page turner as well. However, in re-reading, since I already know what will happen, I relax and completely enjoy the entire book.

She writes compelling characters, and their justifications, extremely well. I have loaned this, and others from the series, to skeptical friends, and every single one wanted one thing. MORE. How happy were they when I showed them the other books!

Anyway, it doesn't really matter which one you start with. Glamorous Powers is the first one I read, and it completely hooked me.

Curl up in your favorite chair with this book, you are in for a treat.