Father Patrick Bryce, a Catholic priest tormented by his pedophile past and a tormented present, continually finds himself living the life of a thirteenth-century bishop in whose person he confronts scandal, corruption, and horrors in the Church. 15,000 first printing.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
While Disch (The M.D.) adroitly lampoons the loonier aspects of Catholicism and the religious right, the scattershot story line and glut of secondary characters defuse the effect of his latest effort. Minneapolis priest Pat Bryce is plagued by a host of distinctly unholy problems, including a fondness for altar boys, the blackmail efforts of underworld types (who know of the good father's indiscretions) and involvement in a plot by a fellow priest and an anti-abortion group called Birth-Right to ensure that pregnant girls come to term by holding them hostage in a pseudo-medieval fortress. Bryce's severest affliction, however, is a tendency to assume the identity of a 13th-century bishop in the Inquisition. Disch is at his best in a series of morbidly comic?and strangely plausible?scenes which capture Bryce's assorted addictions and inability to control his downward spiral. But the story's momentum is deflected by minor characters who, despite their brief moment in the comic limelight, have little overall impact: only a concluding summation ties together the loose threads. While much of the humor here will appeal to Disch's fans, readers looking for a more balanced narrative may wish to turn to his earlier titles. Author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
If the Roman Catholic Church still issued its Index of banned books, this one would certainly find its way onto it. It is a wickedly funny, often scathing attack on an institution seen as too often more concerned about avoiding scandal than truly serving the needs of its constituents. Father Patrick Bryce is a pedophile unable, even after a stint at the famous Arizona "treatment" facility, to control his urges?a fact that draws him inexorably into a world defined chiefly by physical and psychological torment. A mysterious young man blackmails the priest into submitting to the tattoo artist's needle. As an image of Satan takes shape on his chest, he begins to experience strange and very realistic nightmares in which he adopts the persona of a 13th-century French bishop who was a victim of the Inquisition. All the while he is supposed to be supervising, as part of his penance, a detention facility in which reluctant teenage mothers are forced to come to term by a pair of overeager right-to-lifers not averse to using violence to achieve their ends. As this black and biting fantasy careens toward its macabre denouement, it gives one pause to think?especially in light of the recent shootings at abortion clinics. Recommended for collections of popular fiction.?David Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
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
By Baranabus
Format:Paperback
Disch is one of the best writers I've ever read, period. He's witty, sharp and vivid, and has a flow that never feels monotonous. He also manages to weave a fairly complex structure in a way that hangs together well and keeps a sustained narrative that doesn't feel patched together- the transitions work well where I feel they might not in the hands of a lesser writer.
Also, I think his humor balances the horror well, and being both raised Catholic and a native Minnesotan, I really appreciated all the references. And I do think it's fair to paint the Catholic Church darkly; the Inquisition/hallucination scenes are especially pointed. They may be surreal but they do have a sort of truth to them, when one considers the history of torture there. And I did really enjoy the revenge angle quite a bit!
There are a few creepy passages that may not be for squeamish folks (I'm pretty squeamish) but it doesn't feel like mindless, violent backbrain stimulus. I think he's trying to trace the history of a pathology, in a sense.
Anyhow, I think this is the best I've read from him (although I haven't read his very earlier work)-- such as The MD & The Businessman.
Also, I think his humor balances the horror well, and being both raised Catholic and a native Minnesotan, I really appreciated all the references. And I do think it's fair to paint the Catholic Church darkly; the Inquisition/hallucination scenes are especially pointed. They may be surreal but they do have a sort of truth to them, when one considers the history of torture there. And I did really enjoy the revenge angle quite a bit!
There are a few creepy passages that may not be for squeamish folks (I'm pretty squeamish) but it doesn't feel like mindless, violent backbrain stimulus. I think he's trying to trace the history of a pathology, in a sense.
Anyhow, I think this is the best I've read from him (although I haven't read his very earlier work)-- such as The MD & The Businessman.
4 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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.
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.
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