The Sign of the Cross: Travels in Catholic Europe (Vintage Departures) [Paperback]

Colm Toibin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 3, 1996

Colm Toibin is one of Ireland's most distinguished young writers; he is also a lapsed Catholic. Yet over a succession of Holy Weeks, Toibin found himself traveling to places where Catholicism still possesses mystery and power, from Poland to Lithuania, from Lourdes to Santiago, and from Croatia to Ireland. And in seeing how the faith persisted in other people's lives, he discovered how it still resonated in his own. In this beautifully observed work of travel writing and spiritual reportage, Toibin turns his eye on Catholicism's rituals and processions, its high-minded fanatics and humble communicants. He shows how it ripples outward into the history and politics of homelands. Yet Toibin also encounters the cross-shaped wound that lies at his own center--and it is his unflinching examination of that wound that makes The Sign of the Cross as moving as it is perceptive and urbane.



"A writer of considerable poetic gifts. Toibin's descriptions are enlivening."--Los Angeles Times Book Review


"An extraordinary document."--Entertainment Weekly

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Novelist and "collapsed Catholic" Toibin looks at Catholic rituals as practiced throughout Europe.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Like a majority of Irishmen, this celebrated novelist was raised in the Catholic Church. Although he is no longer a practicing Catholic, his latest book is a meditation on his own boyhood beliefs and on the ways in which the church influences the lives of Catholics in Europe today. Toibin traveled extensively--from Lourdes to Barcelona and on to Prague, Warsaw, the Baltic coast, Berlin, Sweden, Estonia, and points further--all the while partaking in pilgrimages, papal masses, and religious festivals. At the book's midpoint he writes incisively about a personal epiphany experienced in a psychotherapy session he attended. And from his numerous conversations with politicians and priests, literary figures, and ordinary men and women encountered as he journeyed, Toibin's remarkably articulate voice reveals a startling range of perceptions, even as it conveys the intricate couplings between politics and Catholicism. Alice Joyce --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Vintage (September 3, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679758550
• ISBN-13: 978-0679758556
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,825,801 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Colm Toibin is the author of four previous novels, The South, The Heather Blazing, The Story of the Night, and The Blackwater Lightship, which was shortlisted for the 1999 Booker Prize. He lives in Dublin.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good read, and thought-provoking too, January 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Sign of the Cross: Travels in Catholic Europe (Vintage Departures) (Paperback)

This is a great book to read while traveling (it just got me through a trip home on a weekend when winter storms had disrupted airline schedules throughout the entire U.S.!). The chapters are short and fairly self-contained, but each is well-written and engrossing. There's a lot of variety -- from fairly straightforward travelogues such as the accounts of the author's visits to Rome, to highly personal essays on his family and his belated coming to grips with his father's early death. And he's the only ex-Catholic author I've read who's accurately described that odd, characteristic combination of lack of belief in the Church's tenets with lingering reverence for all things Catholic: I'm a 'collapsed Catholic' myself, and I think he got it down exactly right. (Nostalgia for one's childhood is part of it, but it's certainly not ALL of it!) His discussions of Catholicism and the English are telling, and he makes some points about the Irish Catholic treatment of Protestants that most of us, raised as we are with a black-and-white (or, in this instance, orange-and-green!) view of the issue, have never considered. There's a lot here to think about as well as be entertained by, and I recommend the book without reservation.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Uninsightful and Mocking of Spirituality, July 25, 2004

By 

Petronius (Washington DC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sign of the Cross: Travels in Catholic Europe (Vintage Departures) (Paperback)

I wonder what possessed the author to bother at all with this subject? The writer scorns believers and practices at every shrine he visits - never attempting to understand the significance of the spirituality at each distinctive site. For him, its all the same, whether Spain or France or Poland. Each time the faintest hint of an insightful question, a yearn to probe deeper starts to appear, he dismisses it and announces that he is off to a pub for yet more beer. We must witness him downing caseloads of suds in this short book. Maybe this is the real problem here. Regretfully, he fits the Irish stereotype with his booze a little too much. For him, the answer to every question is yet more booze.
I was hoping to learn whether he found differences among believers or types of spirituality among the countries and peoples he visited. He labels himself as an outsider and detached, and rudely mocks superficial details at each sacred site. He never gets beyond the surface in noticing details or in understanding what drives people to perform these pilgrimages, what significance the site holds in a culture or political situation, what meaning do the individuals find or hope to find at each place. Also, there is no examination of the communal aspect of the pilgrimages occurring en masse, with many thousands of people engaged in these practices at the same time.
Do not be fooled. I am a left leaning liberal, and thought that this book would contain at least a bit a substance. In the end, I felt ripped off as a consumer for its lack of serious examination or discussion of the subject. I can imagine those prone to more religiosity being seriously offended by this tome.
The writing itself is trite, the commentary sophmoric. Author, get thee to an AA meeting, then take up your pen !!!!!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, March 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Sign of the Cross: Travels in Catholic Europe (Vintage Departures) (Paperback)

This was an amazing book. Full of interesting facts and details. It made me want to visit...well nearly all of the places described by the author. If you are interested in Catholicism or European culture and politics, I would strongly urge you to read this book.