Customer Reviews

The Priest: A Gothic Romance

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I have been a fan of Thomas Disch for some time, and with this book I got exactly what I wanted. The horror element was not what caught me, nor was the humor. It was Disch's tight, tight, tight storytelling that made this book so amazing to me.Disch has a way of spinning so many different threads out, and then reeling them in to a finely resolution. If you like horror, humor, social farce and a really well woven story, this is for you

Hard to believe that this man wrote the little toaster books. But if you've read some of his other works, like THE M.D. and THE BUSINESSMAN, then THE PRIEST won't surprise you.
The novel focuses on one Father Pat Bryce, a pedophile, who even after completing a rehab program, still has the desires he was trying to come to terms with. Only now, Father Pat has more problems: a former victim is blackmailing him, wanting him to confront all of his victims and apologize; another former tryst makes him read the ramblings of an off the wall author and get a strange tattoo; and his own bishop is blackmailing him to become the advocate for a Birth-Right program which imprisons unwed mothers and prevent them from aborting their child. Add to this, a strange dream (?) in which Father Pat is a thirteenth century bishop during the period of the Inquisition.
Credit Disch for some unusual dialogue and situations, but overall the novel spirals into some kind of psychobabblish nonsense, and Disch ties everything up without a clear explanation for what we've read. Disch paints a pretty dismal picture of the Catholic Church; and it's all black and white, the only grey coming in the form of one priest, Father Mab, who seems to be okay, but even he leaves the priesthood by the end of the novel. The turnaround of Greg Romero, one of the young girl's boyfriends, also seems out of context with what we've learned previously about him.
Although imaginative and ultimately an entertaining read, one has to accept Disch's rantings about the Catholic faith and view this "Gothic romance" for what it is --- a horror novel.