The Unspeakable: A Novel [Hardcover]

Charles L. Calia (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 17, 1997

The Unspeakable tells the story of two men, both priests, whose strange and divergent paths collide. Peter Whitmore, an administrator for the Diocese of St. Paul, is asked to investigate and ultimately discredit a priest who, it is rumored, possesses a remarkable power -- the power to heal.

The priest in question, Jim Marbury, is no stranger to Whitmore. He is an old friend, a seminary roommate, and a spiritual mentor whom Whitmore has not seen in more than twenty years. But much has changed. Always somewhat unconventional, Marbury is now mute, speaking only in sign language, his voice reportedly stolen by God on a trip that he took through western Pennsylvania. On that same journey, in a snowstorm that nobody can verify, Marbury encountered a terrible car accident and a family who changed his life irrevocably.

Marbury gets drawn into a world he did not expect -- a world where the past repeats itself, where the mystical is not in a book but alive and breathing. And now Whitmore, his old friend, has to decide for himself which events are really the hand of God and which are the delusions of Marbury gone mad.

"Suspenseful... The characters, especially Whitmore, are originally vivid..." --Publishers Weekly.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

First novelist Calia has written an ambitious and superbly crafted novel about faith, miracles, and a 20-year friendship between two men who were once seminary roommates and are now Roman Catholic priests. Narrator Peter Whitmore is sent by the Diocese of St. Paul in Minnesota to investigate his old friend and spiritual mentor, Jim Marbury, who has become mute and is reported to be performing miracles by healing the sick. Although the two men haven't seen each other in many years, they have an easy rapport and still obviously respect each other immensely. Nonetheless, Whitmore struggles to believe and understand the story Marbury conveys in sign language about his life and work, for it is full of improbabilities, inconsistencies, and what appear to be genuine miracles. Part detective novel, part novel of ideas (most of which involve intriguing questions about God and faith), this is a fine and rigorously intelligent book. Recommended for all public libraries.?Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community-Technical Coll., Canterbury, Ct.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Father Peter Whitmore is investigating, for the Bishop of St. Paul, his old seminary friend Jim Marbury. Since losing his voice, Father Marbury has been pastor of a hearing-impaired congregation among whom unusual healings have occurred. It seems the silent priest is performing miracles, and that the modern church won't countenance. During Holy Week, the men talk daily in sign, which Peter learned when a child to communicate with a profoundly deaf sister. They discuss what happened in the western Pennsylvania hospital Marbury says he was trapped at during a blizzard and before being found wandering, half-clothed and mute, days later. They bring up old times, too, at the seminary and in their separate lives. Marbury insists that he does not heal, God does. At the end, another healing has occurred. Although the surprise ending really isn't, this low-key novel sustains interest all the way, for Calia gives each man a fascinating past: Marbury's appropriately unusual and painful; Peter's more conventional but with its own hidden, deep wound. Ray Olson

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1st edition (December 17, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688151191
• ISBN-13: 978-0688151195
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,750,830 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Only OK, September 2, 2002

By 

James Carragher (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Unspeakable: A Novel (Hardcover)

This is a novel about faith, friendship and forgiveness, compelling subjects all. I thought Calia was on to something in the early set up of The Unspeakable, for the first 50 pages or so make very taut reading. Pretty quickly, however, the two protagonists grow wearisome in their cat and mouse dialogue about their shared histories and the healings taking place in a parish that ministers largely to the deaf. Also, Calia cheats too often by withholding key bits of information, trying to make them more significant or surprising than they are. Sub-plots -- both in the present and the past -- abound, way too many for a novel barely 200 pages long, and many of them play out too patly and abruptly. Not sure I'd want either one of these guys for my priest. And why, I wondered throughout, is the Church's hierarchy so determined to discredit the faith-based healings that the mute Father Maybury seems to inspire?

For a much better rendering of the mysteries of faith and its effect on those who witness its workings, check out Mariette in Ecstasy by Ron Hanson.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intricate....., May 5, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Unspeakable: A Novel (Hardcover)

Calia is a masterful wordsmith. Admittedly, however, this work is not meant for all (therefore may not become overly popular) Its profundity may not be picked up by readers who have not witnessed or experienced some of the internal conflicts and reconciliations presented through the characters of Marbury and Whitmore. Like Wagner's "Ring", I predict we'll find many subtle and interlacing themes, barely connectable by readers who look only for the obvious in writing, but there for those that don't, in future works by this writer.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Unfulfilled potential. Disappointing., January 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Unspeakable: A Novel (Paperback)

The book deals with two priests, one (Marbury) who has become mute after an experience in a Pennsylvania snow storm, the other (Peter) sent to investigate reports of healing in Marbury's congregation.

I found the concept interesting and thought this could have been a great story, but was very disappointed. The possibility of doing something very interesting with signing and deaf culture was lost. Calia constantly allowed to us forget that Marbury was mute, or reminded us in clumsy fashion ('His voice trailed off, or rather his signs'). All the conversations were stilted and obvious. I wonder if Calia really has any experience with deafness.

The depictions of poverty were shallow. The writing was often self-conscious. But what I most found disappointing was that I felt no faith from either man. I have read books where the faith of the characters was evident. This was not one of them. If I am to believe that Marbury's experience in Pennsylvania changed him, Calia needed to make me believe that Marbury had a deep faith. I didn't.