Customer Reviews

The Wonder Worker (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Nick Darrow, the psychic Anglican priest, was one of my favorite characters in the 6 novel Starbridge series so I was very glad to see Susan Howatch reprise him in his 40s in this novel. He was much younger in "Mystical Paths," which took place before his ordination. Howatch told the Starbridge stories with one narrator in first person for each of the Starbridge novels. With this one, she returns to a device she used in her "Cashelmara" and "Penmarric" days of having alternating characters tell the story in first person. Nick has a ministry of healing and deliverance using his psychic powers. Lewis Hall, his former spiritual director, now lives and works with him. The danger for Nick is in the temptation to become a Wonder Worker. This is where he becomes a charismatic Christian healer who works in pursuit of his own fame and glory rather than God's. This book also has more of a love story develop within it than some of the other Starbridge novels did and you see it develop from the main characters' points of view. Venetia reappears from the Starbridge series also and takes up with Lewis Hall. These characters all reappear in the novel which came after this one, "The High Flier," but they are no longer the leads in that novel.

I can't believe anyone below gave this book a negative review! It is quite simply the best thing Howatch has ever written and quite likely the best thing I have EVER read. Although some people may be erroneously put off by the Church of England theme that runs though her Starbridge books, they are quite simply the best psychological thrillers on the market.

The book is broken into several parts and told from several people's point of view. It describes the escalating chrisis surrounding Nicholas Darrow as his life spirals out of control on a collision course for disaster of nuclear proportions. Although the first few pages (lets say, 10, maximum) are a wee bit slow and one doesn't quite identify with Alice right away, by the 11th page, the pace begins to pick up (well, early in the book anyway!). From there, it was one headlong race until the unbelievable climax where I audibly gasped and realised that I had been holding my breath for the last 3 pages. It was that gripping and suspenseful! It's a fact, NO book has EVER gripped me that much to the point where the surrounding world completely ceased to exist for me.

As far as I am concerned, everyone who fails to read this book has missed out on one of the finest examples of literature ever written. If you never read another book again, do read this one!

The Wonder Worker, by Susan Howatch, is another in her series about spiritual struggles within the Anglican clergy. It is not technically a "Starbridge" novel, because it takes place in London, but it does include many of the same group of characters, with a few additions. Nicholas Darrow, a psychic priest, faces a moral dilemma involving pride and the misuse of his gifts. Caught up in his healing ministry, he flounders, blunders, then regains his spiritual equilibrium with the help of an irascible colleague and a formidable Roman Catholic nun. The plot is similar, in respect to the spiritual path of the protagonist, to the others in the Starbridge series. The reader need not have read the others in the Starbridge series to enjoy the latest work. However, readers will want to explore the previous Starbridge novels after reading The Wonder Worker. Spiced with intrigue and a particularly nasty bout with demons, the novel entertains and engages as it leads to the surprising denouement.

The Wonder Worker was a disappointment. Although it contained all the elements I love about Susan Howatch -- her knowledge of the Church of England, her deft use of multiple narrators, and her ability to capture the spiritual dimension of human endeavor -- this work did not meet the standards of her previous Starbridge novels. The characters and improbable plotting were the problems. Besides Alice in the first section of the novel and a surprisingly deep Rosalind, the characters were unpleasantly self-indulgent and self-absorbed. It was impossible to find much redeeming about the misogynistic and homophobic Lewis, who was much more finely nuanced in Howatch's earlier Absolute Truths. Even worse, it was difficult to muster up many positive thoughts about Nicholas, the wonder worker himself.

An especially unpleasant aspect of the novel was its "MacGuffin," that is, the device or event that precipitates the crisis at the center of the novel. In this case, it was a tragic death. The other characters, Christian healers all, are so absorbed with saving their own skins and Nick's ministry that, with the exception of Alice, don't even bother to pray for their lost colleague. It makes one wonder why Nicholas' ministry was so worth saving.

The story and characters hooked me immediately. I began to fear that all would not be resolved within the last ten pages. I couldn't bring myself to read any faster. The twists were great and kept you guessing. The introduction into the Anglican Catholic Church was reminiscent of Father Andrew Greely's books. I found it very informative as well as entertaining. I would greatly hope that Ms. Howatch will find a few more stories to tell.

I wanted to like this book. I'm an Anglican and an anglophile. It was my first Susan Howatch novel. I knew people who liked it. It was imaginative of the author to write in the voices of four different characters. But! The plot was illogical at times. Most of the characters acted as if they needed emergency psychotherapy a lot more than they needed spiritual direction. The psychological lingo was anachronistic (what professional could diagnose "an acute psychotic episode resulting from a nervous breakdown" with a straight face any more?). The only character who made consistent sense was Sister Clare Veronica, Nicholas's spiritual director. Even in the face of all that, though, the book had its strange appeal. After finishing it, I immediately tacked two of the Starbridge novels to see what they were like.

I have read all of the "Starbridge" novels and like other reviewers, found this one slightly less compelling. Why is it that I just want to shake Nicholas Darrow's wife, Rosalind and tell here to get the hell out of there? There is not enough interplay of the old families from the previous novels. Only brief encounters with Aysgarths and Ashfords, even Venetia fades in and out of the sub plot without much impact. This is still a good novel, but with the others I carried them round the house reading at every opportunity, this one has stayed firmly beside my bed - not a good sign!

On the back of this wonderful book there is a picture of Susan Howatch, smiling. Having just finished the last page, I now know she's smiling at the reader, absolutely delighted with the act she's just pulled off. Howatch's series on the English clergy has been excellent from the start, but this book is what my wife and I call a "gripper." It is more riveting than the best thriller I've read in a long time. Into the Healing Centre comes Alice, who looks like the back end of a bus, but cooks cordon bleu. Her self-esteem is zilch, a word she uses often to describe what she's gotten out of life. When she stumbles into a service conducted by the gorgeous, charismatic Father Nicholas Darrow, she's bowled over. When he gets her a job in the rectory of the Healing Centre, we're off to the races, because everybody is in love with Nick--especially Nick. Like Howatch's other books, this one is a study of clerical life, its joys and its very considerable hazards. Nick really is a psychic healer. Unfortunately, he's hard put to keep himself from using his special grace for his own quite unconscious purposes. When he slips, his analyses of other people's problems are so far wrong that they would be ludicrous if the people themselves weren't at horrible risk. The story is about the ways in which the main characters--Alice, Nick, Nick's wife Rosalind, his partner Father Lewis Hall, his unfortunate curate Stacy and the chief of the Centre's "befrienders," Francie--cope with their own problems when they are being helped and/or driven out of their minds by Nick. It's not pretty, but sometimes it's hilarious. If you think religion is for sissies, this book might change your mind. I have a feeling that some slightly stuffy critics might call it melodrama, but then that's what they said about the works of Dickens and Trollope, too. In fact, this is a very serious novel about very serious matters, but don't worry, it's also a moving and fascinating story. You might as well block out a few hours and plan to stay glued to your chair when you tackle this one.

Other reviewers mention other books by this author and compare. Since I have never read her books and have nothing to compare this one to, I found the book most compelling. I couldn't put it down. I had to find out what happened to Francie and Stacy, and how Rosalind resolved her problems. I will read other books by this author

For all the repetitive elements in the other books of the C of E series, the others contained gripping spiritual and psychological insight. These elements, though not completely absent from the Wonder Worker, drown in a sea of stereotypes. Insightful Alice's character is diminished by ridiculous but boring stereotypes of the heavy woman drowning her sorrows in ice cream, for example. Jonathan's psychic and healing gifts take second place to his confusing marital problems. The plot twists keep one reading - but, unlike the others in the series, do not lead one to further insight into life and spirituality.