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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
46 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful,
By Diana F. Von Behren "reneofc" (Kenner, LA USA) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
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This review is from: The Seville Communion (Paperback)
When an ingenious hacker infiltrates the Vatican's computer system and leaves a message on the Pope's desktop imploring the Vatican to save the soon-to-be demolished Our Lady of the Tears church in Seville, the Vatican deploys its version of a special operations expert in the formidable personage of Fr. Lorenzo Quart. Quart is handsome, rugged and epitomizes the business end of the Vatican while promoting a no-nonsense vision of the Church in Rome that exactly opposes the cozy sanctuary feel of Our Lady of the Tears. The congregation of the old and crumbling church believe that the building itself has an uncanny sense of survival; two murders or accidents have already taken place; the victims, people involved in the church's scheduled demolition. World-toughened Quart believes no such thing, he attributes the church's strange staying power to its motley crew of supporters: an old renegade pastor, his young computer-savy associate, a art-restoring nun from California, a willful yet beautiful aristocrat and her old-fashioned mother with a fetish for Coca Cola. The opposition is just as real--a jilted banker amd his hilarious stoogelike henchmen who envision a more self-serving and lucrative edifice on the Our Lady of Tears property.The plot however is secondary in this most wonderful of character studies. As Quart discovers the different truths that center around the old church, he ekes out the meaning that the Church has not only for its individual protectors, but also for himself. Like any truely good piece of literature the main character undergoes some metamorphosis; Quart's is profound and well worth the read through the stirring backdrop of beautiful Seville. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I find the "Seville Communion" incompariable when looked at in the same context as "The Flanders Panel" and "Club Dumas". While I liked these other novels, I was moved by the Seville Communion and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys their characters made of flesh and blood, not just stereotypical ideals.
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Even his worst works are better that others bests,
By McMurdock "colmcmurdock" (East Timor) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Seville Communion (Paperback)
In my opinion The Seville Communion (La piel del tambor) is the worst of Perez-Reverte novels. Nevertheless it deserves 4 stars because Mr. Arturo is playing in a different league and even his failures contain countless moments of magic.The main handicap of the novel is his main character, Father Quart. The super-attactive, strong, charming priest working for a kind of Vatican Secret Service lacks credibility and his romance with the aristocratic lady is somehow predictable (remember the atractive symbology professor of The Da Vinci Code? It is the same kind of dull character). So, how can a novel stand the weakness of the main character? Response: thanks to a fantastic pleiade of secondary characters: The three villians are simply wonderful, the old priest is touching, the banker is charming. And then you have some pearls of Reverte's mythology, this peculiar mixture of History and adventure (better, this underlining of the adventures that History hides): pirates in the Cuban War, haunted barroque churches... this is the Perez-Reverte we love and this is what he is good at: treasures, war, puzzles and riddles. Reverte, leave the religious-love stories for those that lack your talent to tell a tale. The descriptions of Seville, its magic and charm, are also a good element of the book In any case, it would be worth to read this novel if only for two magic moments: the conversation of the two priests about Astronomy and the hilarious moment were the vilians are "set on fire".
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The mystery is secondary,
By
This review is from: The Seville Communion (Paperback)
Ostensibly, this is the story of a hacker breaking into the Vatican computer system and appealing to the Pope to save a small, neighbourhood church in Seville from being shut down. Father Lorenzo Quart is sent by the Vatican to Seville to uncover just who this hacker, who goes by the code name Vespers, really is.But really, the mystery is incidental. For me, the book's raison d'etre wasn't really to discover who Vespers was, but to present the reader with vividly drawn characters and situations. The scenes that portrayed the slowly unfolding relationship between Quart and Maccarena, or the funny-sad trio of would-be criminals, or Don Priamo, the aged priest who would sacrifice all for his simple faith were what kept me reading. I will definitely read more by Perez-Reverte.
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