Morte D'Urban [Paperback]

J. F. Powers (Author), Mary Gordon (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1990

Winner of The 1963 National Book Award for Fiction.

The hero of J.F. Powers's comic masterpiece is Father Urban, a man of the cloth who is also a man of the world. Charming, with an expansive vision of the spiritual life and a high tolerance for moral ambiguity, Urban enjoys a national reputation as a speaker on the religious circuit and has big plans for the future. But then the provincial head of his dowdy religious order banishes him to a retreat house in the Minnesota hinterlands. Father Urban soon bounces back, carrying God's word with undaunted enthusiasm through the golf courses, fishing lodges, and backyard barbecues of his new turf. Yet even as he triumphs his tribulations mount, and in the end his greatest success proves a setback from which he cannot recover.

First published in 1962, Morte D'Urban has been praised by writers as various as Gore Vidal, William Gass, Mary Gordon, and Philip Roth. This beautifully observed, often hilarious tale of a most unlikely Knight of Faith is among the finest achievements of an author whose singular vision assures him a permanent place in American literature.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A comic masterpiece by a criminally neglected writer, J.F. Powers's Morte D'Urban has had a checkered commercial history from the very start. The original publisher failed to reprint the novel after it won the 1963 National Book Award, and although it's had various paperback reincarnations since then, these too have tended to disappear from the shelves. Perhaps any novel about Catholic priests in the Protestant Midwest would be in for some tough sledding. Still, it's hard to think of a funnier piece of writing, or one more accurately attuned to the deadpan rhythms of American speech. Doubters need only consult Father Urban's sermons, which mix pure banality and theological hairsplitting in such exact proportions as to suggest Babbitt in a clerical collar. Yet Powers also manages a kind of last-minute legerdemain, transforming his satiric romp into a deadly serious, and deeply moving, exploration of faith.

The satire, of course, is itself worth the price of admission. Poor Father Urban, mired in a 10th-rate religious order!

It seemed to him that the Order of St. Clement labored under the curse of mediocrity, and had done so almost from the beginning. In Europe, the Clementines hadn't (it was always said) recovered from the French Revolution. It was certain that they hadn't ever really got going in the New World. Their history revealed little to brag about--one saint (the Holy Founder) and a few bishops of missionary sees, no theologians worthy of the name, no original thinkers, not even a scientist. The Clementines were unique in that they were noted for nothing at all.

The clash between this ecclesiastical overachiever and his underachieving brethren never loses its comedic charge. It also occasions plenty of politicking and ex cathedra combat, involving not only the Clementines but various diocesan heavyweights. Who will win this holy war? When Father Urban lures unbelievers to the order's Minnesota property with a world-class golf course--complete with a "shrine of Our Lady below No. 5 green"--his triumph seems assured. Yet his ability to balance between the secular and the sacred is what ultimately collapses, along with his "secret ascendancy over the life around him." In an age when fiction seems to have lost some of its power to instruct and amuse (and not necessarily in that order), Morte D'Urban is brilliant enough to make believers of us all. --James Marcus --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From Library Journal

This duo constitutes the author's full career: 1962's Morte D'Urban was the author's first novel (and a National Book Award winner), 1988's Wheat his second and last book. Both of these comic novels spoof religious life and feature clerical protagonists who though none too saintly ultimately do the right thing.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 326 pages
• Publisher: Washington Square Press: NY (February 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671683918
• ISBN-13: 978-0671683917
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,727,252 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Coming back into fashion subject matter, July 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Morte d'Urban (Paperback)

I discovered this book after reading the recent obituary on J.F. Powers. Now I'm recommending it to everyone. Father Urban is a priest who sounds more like a rotary member, a fund-raiser, a PR man. When the powers that be send him to the hinterlands, he bows to the inevitable. Other victories seem to turn on him at the same time. Hob-knobbing with the weathly, which at first seemed to benefit his order, turns into a nightmare in which he remembers his duty at just the last minute. This prose is so dryly humorous you must read it carefully to catch it all. You will become enchanted with Father Urban and sorry to leave him at the story's end. I wanted this story to go on and on.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars READER BEWARE! Don't read introduction first!, April 18, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Morte D'Urban (New York Review Books Classics) (Paperback)

I was stunned (and then just plain angry) when I discovered (too late) that Hardwick's "introduction" was little more than a synopisis of the novel's plot. Why do publishers insist on including these dopey intros anyway? By unveiling all the susrprises contained in the novel's plot before the novel begins, the publisher ruins an otherwise fine book for a generation of readers yet to discover it. And it is a great book, though I would have enjoyed it far more had I not, thanks to Ms. Hardwick, seen every plot twist coming from a mile away.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bless me, father, January 2, 2001

By 

Richard LeComte "richlec" (Tuscaloosa, AL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Morte D'Urban (New York Review Books Classics) (Paperback)

One of the best books I read in 2000. "Morte" takes apart the pre-Vatican II Catholic church and puts it back together, complete with a compelling hero. Father Urban, exiled to Garrison Keillor's prairie,takes his lumps and does the best with what he's dealt. And in two courageous acts late in the novel, he discovers, almost by accident, the meaning of Christianity and of his priesthood. It's hard to figure out quite where Powers stood on the Roman church, but he certainly creates a world where any believer can find delight and meaning. It's a great dynamic read.