Customer Reviews

The Hawk and the Dove Trilogy (3-in-1 Volume)

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Penelope Wilcock uses an old English monastery as the setting for her book, "The Hawk and the Dove". Within the monastery are unforgettable characters whom she paints with a loving and compassionate hand, showing both their sins and their unbelievable acts of love and sacrifice for God and their fellow man. The main character is Father Peregrine for whom the book is named. Throughout his life as a monk, he develops from the shallow son of an overprivileged upbringing to a man of tremendous faith and compassion, and finally to a shell of a man wracked with physical problems and the aftereffects of an undeserved beating. His interaction with his brothers gives us an example of Christlike love and behavior and likewise his sufferings show us the physical tortures which Jesus endured. This is a moving and inspiring book.

The Hawk and the Dove: a Trilogy, with its beginning setting in a monastery in 1303, is timeless in its portrayal of the many nuances of human nature. Abbot Father Peregrine, continually humbled by his embarrassing physical handicaps, daily seeks to be a partaker of the sufferings of the Christ to whom he is deeply devoted. While portraying the disciplines and austerity of the pre-Reformation monastery, this book is yet warm and beautiful, lighted with an unforgettable ambience. With all their faults and frailties, the love of these humble brothers for their Lord and for each other makes a haunting and long-to-be-remembered story.

Penelope Wilcock seeks to highlight in this story the need to understand and embrace those who find themselves marginalized and relegated to loneliness in our church community -- a community that "organizes itself around meetings" -- the deaf, the mentally handicapped, and the incontinent, to name a few. I highly recommend this book to all who wish to be both entertained and challenged.

Refreshing because it takes a course that far too many Christian fiction writers never dare to take - Ms. Wilcock portrays a love story, but between God and man, between brothers through Christ rather than the usual man and woman love story...which helps a lonely person more than dreaming about being in love does. There is no let down because the love she speaks of in this book is there for ME. Deep and soul-searching because you end up feeling what the characters feel - fear, shame, emabarrasment, release, pure love, laughter, anger, etc. You end up seeing yourself mirrored in their struggles...her words give HOPE. In the love of Christ, which is not pretty and clean, but a filthy and bloodied man - Jesus - God the Son - who poured out his blood and gave up His spirit on the cross to God the Father because of His love for me.

"The Hawk and the Dove" is one of the best inspirational books that I have ever read. Ms. Wilcock did an outstanding job of characterization. I was touched by the infirmities of the monks and the depth of emotion that each portrayed. Father Peregrine, as abbot of the monastery, exemplified the true meaning of humility, grace and love. I would highly recommend this novel to anyone seeking to understand the grace of God.

Penelope Wilcock's The Hawk And The Dove is a trilogy of novels under one cover. Poignant, moving, rich with imagery and emotion, each of these engaging stories drawn from the brothers of St. Alcuin are presented as being told to a 15-year-old girl by her mother. Tom must decide between the beautiful girl he loves and the call of God upon his life. Francis finds that never again will he need to hide his personal paint beneath a jest. When James cannot escape the truth of who he is, he pours out his grief to God and rises a newborn child of grace. Although these stories are set in an earlier century, modern readers will easily identify with each charter in Wilcock's timeless human dramas of people learning to love and serve one another while growing in their understanding of a tender and compassionate God. Highly recommended reading.

Read as parables, these stories strike at the crux of Christianity--love and faith. Wilcock presents suffering in a way that is redemptive but never shallow, and her portrayals of characters who must live with the results of their own sins and the cruelty of others should touch readers struggling with their own pasts and sorrows.

Penelope Wilcox did a wonderful job of showing us how to love unconditionally. It's easy to say we love people but to read the book and the real examaples puts into perspective what true love is supposed to look like. This books is a fast and easy read, not preachy (as I was afraid it might be) and just a pure joy to read. This is one book that I will not give away but rather lend to friends and family so that I may have it to read again. Be prepared to become so engrossed in the story that you feel like you are in the monestary and be prepared to cry.

This book is beautiful in every respect. The stories are truly new -- by that I mean that there is absolutely nothing that is cliched or commonplace. The writing is crystalline and beautiful but also simple. But these are lesser things compared to the wonderful themes in this story.

* There is the theme of humility. Through the conflicts between the characters, we learn that repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation are excruciating and gut-wrenching processes, but also the most God-like deeds possible to mankind.

* We see that faith without sight is very difficult but that God is always, always faithful.

* We see love that sacrifices for the good of others. The characters have to learn to show God's love to each other even when the other is repulsive and unresponsive.

I treasure this book up with "The Wise Woman" by George MacDonald and "Perelandra" by C.S. Lewis for the lessons it taught me and the beauty it showed me. It is a truly redemptive story.

For several years a friend has been pushing this book at me: "You've really got to read this." I finally took her recommendation seriously, and now I pass along the enthusiasm for this hefty volume (560 pages), which is really three short novels bound as one.

One caveat: Right off the bat you have to stretch your imagination to allow for the intergenerational setup --- that a contemporary British woman would know detailed ancestral stories from the 14th century. Each chapter begins and ends in this modern, Anglican household, where Mother uses an heirloom story set in the great-great-great uncle's Benedictine abbey of St. Alcuin to teach a life lesson to her 15-year-old daughter. This format suited my pattern of reading one (self-contained) chapter each evening, savoring the insights drawn from the characterizations of the monks.

The principal monastic is the abbot. By birth his name was Peregrine, meaning "hawk" --- a word that well described his temperament as well as his craggy countenance. But as a Benedictine his name was Columba, meaning "dove." Early in the first book, Peregrine is savagely beaten by Easter guests seeking revenge against his father. They cripple Peregrine's hands and legs and leave him to die, but in God's mercy the path of suffering leads to humbling transformations, which are portrayed in his dealings with his monastic brothers.

You get to know these monks individually, especially several who are introduced as young novices and subsequently mature in their Christian faith and in their self-knowledge under Peregrine's tutelage. There's Francis, so cheerful and jesting that the novice master asks Peregrine to ferret out his insincerity. Or is it insecurity? There's angry Cormac, assigned to work under a critical supervisor, but within sight of a referee who doesn't let things get out of hand. There's impetuous Thomas, chosen as Peregrine's own personal assistant --- even helping him cut his food and don his clothes. They, and Peregrine, wind themselves around your heart.

One particularly strong story, early in book two ("The Wounds of God"), takes place outside the abbey, when Peregrine (with Thomas) travels to an Augustinian priory to participate in a theological debate "concerning the nature of God, whether his supreme manifestation be in justice or in mercy." Here, and later in book three, serious theological issues are discussed, not as sermons but rather within the context of a story.

In the third book of the trilogy ("The Long Fall"), the author wisely abandons the contemporary framework, which by now has outlived its usefulness. Here the full account focuses on the Benedictines. The spotlight is on Thomas and his devotion to Peregrine, who is further disabled by a stroke and aphasia and confined to the infirmary --- think nursing home, without any modern amenities. In an "author's note" at the end of the book, Wilcock acknowledges that she worked hard to present an "authentic" but not overly explicit portrayal of the realities of disabilities that too often curtail people's participation in Christian communities --- even the incapacitating fear of incontinence.

This is a wonderfully insightful volume, with a rich historical storyline. There's more substantial content here than in much Christian fiction --- about grace, about leadership and loyalty, about humility, about disability and suffering. About the hawk as well as the dove.

--- Reviewed by Evelyn Bence

This book is a real surprise and treat for anyone on the journey to live the life of the Gospels. Having been a Benedictine myself, this wonderful little book radiates the true beauty and wonder of the Benedictine life and tradition. Benedictinism is built on the back of the human conditions. Monks are seldom pius and what we imagine as saintly. They are rugged souls with real feet of clay who have the courage to hubly present themselves before their God and each other in service and imperfection. This wonderful book lets both the majesty of these monks and their all too human folly's resided side by side while never diminishing God's continued role in their lives. A real work of faith and hope.