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How Great is This Gatsby?

How Great is This Gatsby? | Thomas M. Doran | Catholic World Report

A review of Baz Luhrmann’s new film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

Ad Finem Fidelis…faithful to the end. Well, not exactly. These words are inscribed on Gatsby’s mansion gate and are laden with irony in relation to this film.

When a film is made of a great book, I am willing to tolerate a fair amount of artistic license, character elimination, and innovation, but messing with the principal themes of the book is verboten. To Kill a Mockingbird lost some characters and some scenes, and The Lord of the Rings took some liberties with the plot, but I consider these films to be faithful to the main themes of the Lee and Tolkien stories.

We have become so inured to action, glitz, and sensory assault that making a big budget film without a healthy dose of sensory stimuli is practically unthinkable. When such directorial innovations are confined to, say, a sledding Radagast the Brown in The Hobbit, I groan and move on, but I draw the line when stimulation defines the film, as it does with this new Gatsby, especially as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story has so much to offer.

Having said this, there are aspects of this film that are appealing and compelling, so stay tuned.

Everyone who has read The Great Gatsby, or who has seen earlier films, knows about the title character’s obsession with Daisy, and the way this obsession has changed, even defined, his life.

So far, so good. There’s a lot more to the story than this.

Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

The Greatest Love Story Ever Told?

Here is the Prologue to Joseph Pearce's new book, Shakespeare on Love: Seeing the Catholic Presence in Romeo and Juliet (Ignatius Press, 2013):

The Greatest Love Story Ever Told?

In the history of the world, and in the canon of world literature, there have been many great love affairs and many legendary lovers. We think perhaps of Helen and Paris, Odysseus and Penelope, Aeneas and Dido, Antony and Cleopatra, Dante and Beatrice, Paolo and Francesca, Petrarch and Laura. And, of course, whenever we think of the world’s greatest lovers we can scarcely avoid thinking of Romeo and Juliet. Yet when we step back from the list we notice something a little odd about the lovers and their love affairs. We are struck by how different one love affair is from another. On the one hand we have the adulterous passion of Helen and Paris, with its destructive consequences; on the other, we have the loyalty and chastity of the devoted wife Penelope, who serves as a beacon of light on her husband’s dark journey home. We have the disastrous love affairs of Aeneas and Dido, and Antony and Cleopatra, in which the lovers are so obsessed with each other that they forget and neglect their duties to their family, friends, and country. We have the adulterous love of Paolo and Francesca that leads to the murder of Francesca’s husband and the hurtling of the lovers into the hell of their infernal passion. At the other end of the lovers’ spectrum we have Petrarch’s idealized love for the unattainable Laura, and Dante’s idealized love for Beatrice, the latter of which, stripped of all selfishness, baptizes Dante’s imagination, enabling him to ascend to the mystic heights of beatitude. Thus we see that the right sort of love can lead us to heaven, whereas the wrong sort can condemn us to hell. If this is so, what sort of love do Romeo and Juliet have for each other? Is their love the right sort or the wrong sort? Is it heavenly or hellish? Is it fruitful or destructive?

Romeo and Juliet is perhaps the most famous love story ever written. Its cultural influence is so profound that Shakespeare’s “star cross’d” lovers have become synonymous with the very meaning of romantic love. But what exactly does the world’s greatest playwright have to say about the world’s greatest lovers? Does he sympathize with their plight? Does he consider them blameless, or are they at least partly responsible for the tragedy that awaits them? Is the love story about fatalistic forces beyond the control of the protagonists, or is it a cautionary tale warning of the dangers of unbridled erotic passion? And what does Shakespeare have to say about the relationship between romantic love, or eros, and the greatest love of all, the love which God has for man, which manifests itself in his giving his only Son as a willing sacrifice for man’s salvation? What relationship is there between eros and caritas, between the romantic love between a man and a woman and the love of Christ for humanity? What is the connection between the most famous love story ever written and the Greatest Love that there is? These questions are asked and answered in the following pages as we endeavor to see Romeo and Juliet through Shakespeare’s devoutly Catholic eyes.

More about the book:

Having given the evidence for William Shakespeare's Catholicism in two previous books, literary biographer Joseph Pearce turns his attention in this work to the Bard's most famous play, Romeo and Juliet.

"Star-crossed" Romeo and Juliet are Shakespeare's most famous lovers and perhaps the most well-known lovers in literary history. Though the young pair has been held up as a romantic ideal, the play is a tragedy, ending in death. What then, asks Pearce, is Shakespeare saying about his protagonists? Are they the hapless victims of fate, or are they partly to blame for their deaths? Is their love the "real thing", or is it self-indulgent passion? And what about the adults in their lives? Did they give the young people the example and guidance that they needed?

The Catholic understanding of sexual desire, and its need to be ruled by reason, is on display in Romeo and Juliet, argues Pearce. The play is not a paean to romance but a cautionary tale about the naïveté and folly of youthful infatuation and the disastrous consequences of poor parenting. The well-known characters and their oft-quoted lines are rich in symbolic meaning that points us in the direction of the age-old wisdom of the Church.

Although such a reading of Romeo and Juliet is countercultural in an age that glorifies the heedless and headless heart of young love, Pearce makes his case through a meticulous engagement with Shakespeare and his age and with the text of the play itself.

Joseph Pearce is writer in residence and Visiting Fellow at Thomas More College in New Hampshire. He is the author of The Quest for Shakespeare and Through Shakespeare's Eyes and editor of the Ignatius Critical Editions of Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear. His other books include literary biographies of Oscar Wilde, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton and Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

"Joseph Pearce's book on Romeo and Juliet stands like a lighthouse in the murk of modern literary criticism. His approach challenges the assumptions that govern popular 'scholarly' work on Shakespeare in our time. It is massively researched, convincing, intelligent, and (happily) interesting. I commend it highly to all possible readers."
- Thomas Howard, Author, Chance or the Dance? 

Gripping drama sets a fictional stage for real-life problems with assisted suicide

SAN FRANCISCO, April 11, 2013 – A riveting new novel by award winning author Fiorella de Maria, entitled Do No Harm (also available in electronic book format) tackles the controversial subject of assisted suicide. The story opens when a British emergency room doctor saves the life a woman who apparently attempted suicide. For saving her life, he is accused of committing a crime and stands trial. Not only is Dr. Matthew Kemble’s medical practice at risk, but also his liberty. If he is found guilty of trespassing on a woman’s right to die, he could go to jail.

The novel Do No Harm exposes the dangers faced by conscientious doctors in Britain. Dr. Kemble’s decision to treat a patient in defiance of her Living Will pits him against English Law, public opinion and his own profession. The legal and personal battles he faces raise many questions about the role of the physician in the modern world, contemporary beliefs about autonomy and human rights, and the increasingly bitter clash of values in twenty-first century Britain, as well as doctors in many countries in the Western world.

Set in and around London, the story explores the interrelated stories of a physician facing ruin and imprisonment at the height of his career, his old friend and doggedly determined lawyer, Jonathan Kirkpatrick, and Maria, a passionate, dedicated but intensely lonely young campaigner who while working for the defense proves incapable of staying out of trouble herself.

Michael D. O’Brien, author of Father Elijah, calls Do No Harm “a gripping drama of ordinary human beings caught in a web of ethical confusions and moral complexities. It presents to us the razor’s edge of conscience in an age dominated by relativism: What can people of good will do when faced with layers of evil in contemporary society, evils that present themselves as rational, legal, even ‘moral’? How do they save life and bring hope to the hopeless – to do no harm, according to the Hippocratic Oath? This novel is a biopsy of the sickness of late Western society, and more importantly a sign that we are not abandoned in the midst of it, and that good can triumph against all odds.”

Author Fiorella de Maria explains why she chose to write about this controversial topic, “I wanted to expose the vulnerability of medical professionals in Britain whose allegiance to the tenets of the Hippocratic Oath bring them into conflict with the law. The reluctantly heroic Matthew Kemble and the firebrand campaigner determined to defend him are in many ways prophets unwelcome in their own country who – in spite of their vastly different personalities – represent the conviction, decency and isolation of those determined to stand for the truth in modern Britain.”

About the Author:

Fiorella de Maria was born in Italy of Maltese parents. She grew up in Wiltshire, England, and attended Cambridge, where she received a BA in English Literature and a Masters in Renaissance Literature, specializing in the English verse of Robert Southwell, S.J. She lives in Surrey with her husband and her three children. She won the National Book Prize of Malta (foreign language fiction category) for her novel The Cassandra Curse. Her first novel with Ignatius Press, Poor Banished Children, was released in 2011.

To request a review copy or an interview about this book with author Fiorella de Maria, please contact: Rose Trabbic, Publicist, Ignatius Press, (239) 867-4180 or rose@ignatius.com

Product Facts

Title: DO NO HARM: A Novel
Author: Fiorella de Maria
Release Date: March 2013
Length: 233 pages
Price: $19.95
ISBN: 978-1-58617-724-9 • Sewn Hardcover                                                                                                                      

Order: 1-800-651-1531 • www.ignatius.com

New: "Shakespeare on Love" on Joseph Pearce

Now available from Ignatius Press:

Shakespeare on Love: Seeing the Catholic Presence in Romeo and Juliet

by Joseph Pearce

Having given the evidence for William Shakespeare's Catholicism in two previous books, literary biographer Joseph Pearce turns his attention in this work to the Bard's most famous play, Romeo and Juliet.

"Star-crossed" Romeo and Juliet are Shakespeare's most famous lovers and perhaps the most well-known lovers in literary history. Though the young pair has been held up as a romantic ideal, the play is a tragedy, ending in death. What then, asks Pearce, is Shakespeare saying about his protagonists? Are they the hapless victims of fate, or are they partly to blame for their deaths? Is their love the "real thing", or is it self-indulgent passion? And what about the adults in their lives? Did they give the young people the example and guidance that they needed?

The Catholic understanding of sexual desire, and its need to be ruled by reason, is on display inRomeo and Juliet, argues Pearce. The play is not a paean to romance but a cautionary tale about the naïveté and folly of youthful infatuation and the disastrous consequences of poor parenting. The well-known characters and their oft-quoted lines are rich in symbolic meaning that points us in the direction of the age-old wisdom of the Church.

Although such a reading of Romeo and Juliet is countercultural in an age that glorifies the heedless and headless heart of young love, Pearce makes his case through a meticulous engagement with Shakespeare and his age and with the text of the play itself.

Joseph Pearce is writer in residence and Visiting Fellow at Thomas More College in New Hampshire. He is the author of The Quest for Shakespeare and Through Shakespeare's Eyes and editor of the Ignatius Critical Editions of Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear. His other books include literary biographies of Oscar Wilde, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton and Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

"Joseph Pearce's book on Romeo and Juliet stands like a lighthouse in the murk of modern literary criticism. His approach challenges the assumptions that govern popular 'scholarly' work on Shakespeare in our time. It is massively researched, convincing, intelligent, and (happily)interesting. I commend it highly to all possible readers."
- Thomas Howard, Author, Chance or the Dance? 

New: "Do No Harm: A Novel" by Fiorella de Maria Nash

Now available from Ignatius Press:

Do No Harm: A Novel

by Fiorella de Maria Nash

• Also available in Electronic Book Format

When a British emergency room doctor saves the life a woman who apparently attempted suicide, he is accused of committing a crime and stands trial. Not only is Dr. Matthew Kemble's medical practice at risk, but also his liberty. If he is found guilty of trespassing on a woman's right to die, he could go to jail.

The novel Do No Harm exposes the dangers faced by conscientious doctors in Britain. Dr. Kemble's decision to treat a patient in defiance of her Living Will pits him against English Law, public opinion and his own profession. The legal and personal battles he faces raise many questions about the role of the physician in the modern world, contemporary beliefs about autonomy and human rights, and the increasingly bitter clash of values in twenty-first century Britain. 

Set in and around London, the story explores the interrelated stories of a physician facing ruin and imprisonment at the height of his career, his old friend and doggedly determined lawyer, Jonathan Kirkpatrick, and Maria, a passionate, dedicated but intensely lonely young campaigner who while working for the defense proves incapable of staying out of trouble herself.

Fiorella De Maria is an award-winning author. Born in Italy of Maltese parents, she lives in England, where she was educated at Cambridge. Her historical novel Poor Banished Children is about a Maltese woman kidnapped by slave traders in the era of the Barbary pirates.

"A gripping drama of ordinary human beings caught in a web of ethical confusions and moral complexities. It presents to us the razor's edge of conscience in an age dominated by relativism: What can people of good will do when faced with layers of evil in contemporary society, evils that present themselves as rational, legal, even ‘moral'? How do they save life and bring hope to the hopeless- to do no harm, according to the Hippocratic oath? This novel is a biopsy of the sickness of late Western society, and more importantly a sign that we are not abandoned in the midst of it, and that good can triumph against all odds."
- Michael D. O'Brien, author, Father Elijah

Praise for Fiorella de Maria's previous novel, Poor Banished Children

"A soulful, beautifully written, and haunting novel."
- Ron Hansen, New York Times best-selling author, Mariette in Ecstasy

"Catholic writer De Maria deserves a wide audience."
- Publishers Weekly

"A meditation on guilt, innocence, and transcendence that will haunt the reader long after the book is done."
- Mary Eberstadt, author, The Loser Letters: A Comic Tale of Life, Death, and Atheism

"This is serious fiction with prose that is clean, strong, and worthy."
- Thomas Howard, author, Narnia and Beyond

"It's not often that a historical novel comes along that is at once period-appropriate, psychologically plausible - and very, very difficult to put down."
- The Weekly Standard

Tolkien and Lewis at the Movies: An Interview with Dr. Richard Purtill

Dr. Richard Purtill is a former professor of philosophy at Western Washington University and an accomplished author of fantasy as well as textbooks on philosophy. His books include Lord of the Elves and Eldils: Fantasy and Philosophy in C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, Reason To Believe: Why Faith Makes Sense,  J.R.R. Tolkien: Myth, Morality, and Religion (e-book) and C.S. Lewis's Case for the Christian Faith, as well as several works of fiction. He recently was interviewed by a former student, Gord Wilson (www.alivingdog.com), who has an M.A. in English from Western Washington University and who has written for for Campus Life, His, CCM, New Oxford Review, HM, and various animation magazines and local publications.

Dr. Purtill shared his thoughts on the several recent movies based on the works of Tolkien and Lewis.

Q: Steve Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movies proved very popular, as has the first of the three Hobbit films. But aren’t they being released backwards? Wasn’t the Hobbit written first?

Purtill: There’s nothing wrong with writing a prequel to an existing book, or in this case, a movie. That’s the back story to something. There are various reasons for writing a prequel. Sometimes you write something interesting and you say, how did this situation evolve? Or it may be that your first book wasn’t successful, but your second was, so it’s released first. There’s nothing wrong with it in principle. It may be that you encounter the Hobbit first, as many of us did. Or, you may read The Lord of the Rings first, and then you want to read something about Bilbo Baggins, and read his story in The Hobbit.  

Q: Do you think seeing the movies will make people want to read the books. Do they have the same audience?

Purtill: Not necessarily. There are a lot of things in the movies that are expansions of things that aren’t all that important in the books. It’s hard to say. It’s probably an individual judgement. Some people might like the movies. Other people may say, oh this isn’t like the book, I don’t like it.

Q: If someone were new to reading Tolkien, would you suggest starting with The Hobbit?

Purtill:  I would think so. If you say, this is an example of the work of Tolkien, I think it would be a good idea. It’s a very good book and very interesting.


Q: How can The Hobbit be stretched out over three movies?

Purtill: That is a problem. I can see it doing two movies. You have the scene at the end of the first movie with the eye of the dragon. The Hobbit isn’t really a small book. It’s 317 pages in the old hardback edition I have. It’s quite an interesting book, with lots of things to discover.

Q: So we have two more Hobbit films over two more years. Is there any more of Tolkien that could be filmed?

Purtill: Actually, I think you could make a rather interesting story, which would be very unlike than The Lord of the Rings, out of “Leaf By Niggle”. That’s a story that I talk about in my book, Lord of the Elves and Eldils. It’s a story about a man who has to go on a journey, and could be interpreted in three different ways. It was published separately in a book called Tree and Leaf, but the most convenient way of getting it is in The Tolkien Reader, which contains that story and other works by Tolkien.

Q: What about C.S. Lewis‘ Narnian films?

Purtill:  I think the first Narnian movie, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, was rather unsuccessful. They tried to add too much of their own interpretation. The second one, Prince Caspian, was better, and the third one, despite my initial negative reaction to it, I’ve come to decide is a pretty good movie — The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. They’re going to find it very difficult to do the next one, The Horse and His Boy, because it takes place completely in Narnia. Except for the kings and queens, who are lightly mentioned, it’s really not a story about our world at all. But the BBC also filmed the first three Narnian books some time back. They did so on a somewhat lower budget. They’re sort of like filmed plays. But they stick close to the books, and are very good.

Q: Are there any other Lewis books one could film?

Purtill: I’d be interested in seeing somebody do Out of the Silent Planet, which has a lot of good scenes in it. You could make a very interesting movie out of it. The thing is, there are too many scientific facts we know now about Mars, which are wrong in the book. But you could get around that by saying that the eldils who rule Mars (Malacandra) have decided they don’t want any truck with human beings so they alter the instruments of our Mars probes to make Mars look like a desert planet. You had the same situation with Edgar Rice Burroughs‘ John Carter of Mars, which Disney just made into a successful movie.

Q: Out of the Silent Planet is the first book of a trilogy, isn’t it?

Purtill: Yes. Perelandra is the second book, and they’d have to do the same thing with that, because we know too much about Venus. That Hideous Strength, the third book, I think would make a very good movie. In fact, it might make two or three movies, as it’s a long and complex work.

Q: What do you think Tolkien would have thought of the films?

Purtill:  I think he would be against filming his books. I think he would say, “What I’ve written I’ve written”. He didn’t like any vulgarizations, as he called them. But he would probably also be delighted to see how popular his books have become, and surprised to see us analyzing them. I’m not sure what he’d think about my books.

• Visit the Ignatius Insight author page for Richard Purtill.

Beauty: A Necessity, Not a Luxury

Beauty: A Necessity, Not a Luxury | Fr. Charles Klamut | Homiletic & Pastoral Review

Just when I am about to succumb to the sadness and living death of nihilism, some piercing ray of beauty breaks open my heart, and the breath of possibility returns.

I recently visited the Botanical Garden in St Louis.  Amid the sights and smells, the colors and creatures, the sun, the architecture, and the sheer gratuity of so much botanical diversity, I felt happy to be alive.  Drinking it in, I turned to a friend and said, “How could we live without this?”  He replied, “We couldn’t.”

I’ve been thinking about this little exchange.  Upon reflection, I am becoming certain that they are not just sentimental words, but the truth.  And with this conviction, I’m not alone.

Luigi Giussani, the great 20^th century priest, educator, and writer (and whose cause for canonization has just begun), insisted throughout his great life on our need for beauty; for beautiful, real things which have the power to awaken our hearts. During Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s homily for Fr Giussani’s funeral in 2005, two months shy of his unsuspected elevation to the papacy, he said that Fr Giussani was “wounded by the desire for beauty.”  He noted how much Fr Giussani loved music, and said that, in looking for Beauty itself, he was looking for Christ.

In Giussani, we have an author whose books overflow with quotations from poets, novelists and philosophers; a priest whose ministry to students often took place on hikes through the Alps; a teacher who raised the eyebrows of colleagues by walking into the classroom at Berchet High School, back in his early days of teaching, carrying a phonograph with records of Chopin and Beethoven, in order to provoke his students with the wound of beauty.  Jesus said: “You will know them by their fruits.”  By sharing his own wound for beauty with his students, the fruit of Giussani has become a movement in the church called: Communion and Liberation, which has moved the hearts of its members in almost 100 countries now.

Giussani is not the only modern day Catholic luminary to champion the cause of beauty.

Continue reading at www.HPRweb.com.

The Joy of Painting the Pope and Saints

The Joy of Painting the Pope and Saints | Catholic World Report | Interview

Painter and illustrator Ann Kissane Engelhart uses an unforgiving medium to depict the call to holiness.

Ann Kissane Engelhart (www.annkissaneengelhart.com) is a watercolorist based in Long Island whose paintings have been featured in the Empire State Building, St. Francis Hospital, the DeMatties Center, Brooklyn College and Wagner College and in private collections. She has won numerous awards, she has exhibited in galleries on Long Island and New York, and her illustrations have been published in a variety of magazines and periodicals.

She illustrated the children's book, Friendship With Jesus: Pope Benedict XVI talks to Children on Their First Holy Communion, which featured Benedict XVI's answers to questions put to him by children in Rome; the book was edited by popular author and blogger Amy Welborn. Ann and Amy recently collaborated again recently in the creation of Be Saints! An Invitation from Pope Benedict XVI. She recently spoke with Catholic World Report about her artwork and illustrating two books about the Holy Father.

CWR: Your first book with Amy Welborn was Friendship With Jesus: Pope Benedict XVI talks to Children on Their First Holy Communion, which featured Benedict XVI's answers to questions put to him by children in Rome. How did you and Amy decide upon the focus of this second book? What was the creative process like for you and Amy Welborn, who edited the book?

Engelhart: In both instances we were inspired to create picture books after hearing the Pope speak to young people. We felt that it was important to find a way for more children to hear these wise words of the Holy Father.

When Pope Benedict visited England two years ago, he made a trip to St. Mary’s college in London where he met with young students. His beautiful and encouraging address was broadcast to every Catholic school throughout Great Britain. Of course when the pope speaks to the people of one country, the message is intended for the whole world. We were confident that his lesson, inviting them to be the saints of the 21st century, would resonate with all Catholic children.

The English publisher, The Catholic Truth Society, was happy to make the book available after the great success of the Pope’s visit. We are delighted that Ignatius Press/ Magnificat decided to collaborate with CTS once again, making the book available in the United States and Canada.

Amy and I have developed a friendship after working on the two books, so we informally send ideas back and forth, mostly through emails. We had a similar vision for how to communicate the Pope’s important message, so it was a joy to work together again.

CWR: You’ve produced many pieces of art for collections and public displays. What is different about creating artwork for a children’s book? Are there unique compositional challenges involved in illustrating a book?

Continue reading on the CWR site.

Also see the 2011 Ignatius Insight interview with Engelhart about the book, Friendship With Jesus: Pope Benedict XVI talks to Children on Their First Holy Communion.

Not Your Mother: An Autopsy on "The Testament of Mary

Not Your Mother: An Autopsy on The Testament of Mary | Mark P. Shea | Catholic World Report

Colm Tóibín’s book won’t tell you anything about Mary. It will tell you plenty about its very sad and very angry author.

With zombies all the rage (pardon the pun, 28 Days Later fans) there are all sorts of helpful instructions out there for dealing with them. One illustration of sundry methods for dispatching zombies pictures a man with a gun pointed at a drooling old woman shuffling toward him. His hand covers his face as he weeps in grief and hesitation. The caption reads, “Shoot, you fool! She’s not your mother anymore!”

I think of this as I contemplate the latest piece of Catholic-hating detritus to wash up on our shores from the Emerald Isle. The past 20 years have not been good to Irish Catholicism. The Isle of Saints and Scholars, having withstood Viking hordes and centuries of English oppression and sectarian strife, could not withstand the most insidious attack the devil has sent against the Irish: economic prosperity. Has corruption in the Church aided and abetted the vicious turn against the Faith there? Sure. Abusive and corrupt clerics bear very serious responsibility for the hostility to the Church in large measure.

But let’s not kid ourselves. Sin—very serious sin—has always been present in the Church, and Catholics who knew and understood their Faith did not therefore abandon it. Still less did they try to solve the problem of human corruption by telling lies about God, Jesus, and Mary. Time was when Irish Catholics knew that God, Jesus, and Mary were their best friends in a mad world.

That’s gone now. Ireland sold its soul for a brief period of Celtic Tiger prosperity and got two things in return: a media class that is now totally cloned from post-Christian England’s culture of casual anti-Catholic blasphemy, followed by a bursting economic bubble that has left it with neither man’s friendship nor God’s consolations. All it has left is spite, blasphemy—and profound sadness.

Into the midst of this devolution of the Country That Used to Be Ireland comes Colm Tóibín, the issues-filled author of (ahem) New Ways to Kill Your Mother, to deliver unto us what NPR breathlessly calls “A New ‘Testament’ Told From Mary’s Point of View”: his novella The Testament of Mary. It’s a book that fills a profound void—in the twice-annual need of God-haters in corporate publishing to find some sort of media phenomenon that will insult and blaspheme Christianity for Easter and Christmas.

Tóibín is the man of the hour, doing for Mary what Dan Brown did for Jesus: turning her into a blank screen upon which the author can project current cultural and personal obsessions for 30 pieces of silver. Tóibín, it will shock no one to know, is an ex-Catholic homosexual who “once contemplated the priesthood” (that clause is mandated in the standard corporate biosketch of every embittered ex-Catholic screed writer), but jettisoned his faith when he went to college and came out as gay.

In terms of content, the book is a by-the-numbers hatchet job written in sensitive, spare, and poetic diction for the delectation of UK and New York Chattering Classes and dipped in a bath of relentless, willful sadness and bitterness.

Read the entire review at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

Ignatius Press launches www.TolkienLewisBooks.com

 “In Tolkien’s view the important secret of the human heart is this longing for the real happy ending.  And the most important thing about this longing is that it can be satisfied.”
— Richard Purtill, from his book Lord of the Elves and Eldils: Fantasy and Philosophy in J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis

Millions of people the world over have read J.R.R. Tolkien’s books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and millions more have read C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia. And perhaps just as many have seen the films based on these works. But not too many realize the deep Christian underpinnings of the works of both men.
 
Ignatius Press has launched a new website, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis: Masters of Christian Storytelling (www.TolkienLewisBooks.com) which delves into the profound religious background of Tolkien and Lewis. Featuring books by best-selling authors such as Peter Kreeft, Joseph Pearce, Richard Purtill and others, video links featuring presentations by many of the same authors, and a plethora of articles on Lewis, Tolkien, and the Inklings, this site offers a goldmine of information for anyone wanting a closer look at the mythic worlds of Middle Earth and Narnia.
 
Some sample links:
 
Books exploring the life and writings of J.R.R. Tolkien.
http://www.ignatius.com/promotions/tolkien-and-lewis/tolkienbooks.html

Contemporary Christian fiction in the footsteps of Tolkien and Lewis.
http://www.ignatius.com/promotions/tolkien-and-lewis/novels.html

Articles on Tolkien and Lewis.
http://www.ignatius.com/promotions/tolkien-and-lewis/articles.html

A one-hour video of a talk by Catholic novelist Michael D. O’Brien on “Catholic Fiction and Restoring Culture”.
http://www.ignatius.com/promotions/tolkien-and-lewis/obrien.html

Ignatius Press author Joseph Pearce on EWTN Live discussing Tolkien, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings.
http://www.ignatius.com/promotions/tolkien-and-lewis/pearce.html

Paul Horgan’s Priests

Paul Horgan’s Priests | Daniel J. Heisey, O.S.B. | Homiletic & Pastoral Review

Rediscovering the acclaimed historian and novelist Paul Horgan (1903-1995)

Soon twenty years will have passed since the death of Paul Horgan.  In his heyday, Horgan (1903-1995) was an acclaimed historian and novelist, receiving the Bancroft and Pulitzer prizes (the latter twice), as well as several fellowships, medals, and honorary degrees.  In 1957, Pope Pius XII made him a Knight of Saint Gregory, acknowledging Horgan’s contributions to Catholic literature; and in 1960, Horgan served as president of the American Catholic Historical Association.  Now, however, Horgan seems to be known only to a few aficionados; most of his nearly forty books, once bestsellers, are out of print.  This essay seeks to dust off Horgan’s name by focusing on his depiction of Catholic priests, in particular in two short stories.  Since Horgan wrote history as well as fiction, this study will close by considering priests in some of his historical works.

Perhaps, Horgan’s disappearance from public, if not critical, appreciation derives from his identification as a regional, and a Catholic, author.  He disliked such categorization, but Paul George Vincent O’Shaughnessy Horgan was Catholic and wrote mainly about one geographical area.  As a regional writer, he ranks with his contemporaries Louis Auchincloss (1917-2010), Conrad Richter (1890-1968), and Eudora Welty (1909-2001).  As does any serious writer, each had a variety of interests, but these three authors are best known for writing about their home regions.  Auchincloss in his essays and stories brought to life the upper-crust society of New York City, and Richter and Welty conveyed the small-town and rural worlds of Pennsylvania and Mississippi, respectively. Just so, Horgan captured the stark lives of the settlers and natives of New Mexico. Nevertheless, despite their excellent prose and profound understanding of human nature, these authors all seem to fall into the second rank; somehow, Horgan has not survived in literary memory even to stand alongside another contemporary Catholic, regional author, Flannery O’Connor.  A British literary critic, Sir Frank Kermode, surmised that although Horgan “wrote with care and precision,” he “was not much interested in the kind of formal experiment that helped elevate [William] Faulkner from the category of regional novelist.” 1

So, just as one must haunt used bookshops for copies of books by once ubiquitous authors such as John O’Hara and John P. Marquand, so, too, must one mount a bibliophile’s safari and hunt high and low for editions of works by Paul Horgan.

Continue reading at www.HPRweb.com.

40% off Rose Trabbic's "Employee Pick of the Week"

40% off Rose Trabbic's Pick of the Week*

The book I recommend is A Postcard from the Volcano. This was one of the first books I worked on when I started to assist with publicity for Ignatius Press, and one of the first Catholic novels I ever read. I also have fond memories of the book because the author, Lucy Beckett, was such a pleasure to get to know!
 
A Postcard from the Volcano combines beautiful prose with moving insights into the powerful impact that the world wars had on the lives of individuals and on whole countries. Beginning in 1914 and ending on the eve of World War II, this epic story follows the coming of age and early manhood of the Prussian aristocrat, Max von Hofmannswaldau. From the idyllic surroundings of his ancestral home to the streets of cosmopolitan Breslau menaced by the Nazi SS, Hofmannswaldau uncovers the truth about his own identity and confronts the modern ideologies that threaten the annihilation of millions of people. A Postcard from the Volcano opens with the outbreak of World War I and the Prussian pride and patriotism that blind the noble von Hofmannswaldau family to the destruction that lies ahead for their country. The well-researched narrative follows the young count as he leaves home to finish his education and ends up a stranger in the land of his birth.
 
Not only did I enjoy reading this suspenseful novel (I could barely put it down and read it in a couple of days), I also learned a lot of fascinating history about the World Wars. It is also a novel that leaves the reader with soul-searching questions – what would I have done if I lived at that time in history? – and also inspires one to fight against evil situations in our own time.  A Postcard from the Volcano is also available as an e-book and audio download.


Rose Trabbic is the publicist for Ignatius Press. She works from home in Ave Maria, FL, where she lives with her husband Joseph, a philosophy professor at Ave Maria University, and two young daughters.

*Employee Pick of the Week program features savings of 40% off a book, movie, or compact disc personally chosen and recommended by an Ignatius Press employee.  Each week, an Ignatius Press employee will select a favorite book, movie, or other Ignatius Press product and write a few sentences about why he or she thinks customers will enjoy the particular selection. A short bio of the selecting employee will also be included, giving customers a chance to learn a bit more about the people who are Ignatius Press.

File under: Oh, now you tell us!

The New York Times reviews the new book, Leonardo and The Last Supper, authored by Ross King, and alerts the world to this little news flash:

Mr. King deftly situates the painting in a historical context — against political events in Italy at the time, religious attitudes of the day and contemporaneous developments in art — and also places it in the context of Leonardo’s career, deconstructing the ways the painter broke with tradition and stamped a familiar and much depicted subject with his distinctive vision.

There isn’t much that’s substantially new in the book — Mr. King appears to draw heavily on the work of Mr. Clark and other Leonardo experts, like Martin Kemp, as well as on Leonardo’s writings — but he does a fluent and insightful job of weaving together all his research.

On several much-debated issues, Mr. King does not hesitate to serve up his opinions. He asserts that the girlish-looking figure sitting on Jesus’ right is John — not Mary Magdalene, as a character in Dan Brown’s best seller "The Da Vinci Code" famously argued. John, Mr. King contends, was traditionally portrayed as “a youthful and slightly feminine figure among his mostly bewhiskered and older companions.”

He says that one of Leonardo’s sketches played with “the idea of placing John asleep on Christ’s breast” — the way he was often traditionally depicted at the Last Supper — but that Leonardo ended up having John lean toward Peter instead in order to isolate Jesus spatially in the composition.

When the Times reviewed Brown's mega-selling novel almost ten years ago, however, it somehow overlooked the, uh, significant liberties taken in the pulpy volume with art history—not to mention Scripture, Church history, theology, and much more—describing it as a "riddle-filled, code-breaking, exhilaratingly brainy thriller" and a "gleefully erudite suspense novel". Sure, the novel rushes breathlessly to "the brink of overkill", but no need to question anything in it, as "in the end Mr. Brown gracefully lays to rest all the questions he has raised." (in fact, the ending of the novel is the clunker to outclunk all clunkers). What Mr. King says is correct; in fact, there isn't an actual act historian worth his weight in pigments and paint brushes who would thinks otherwise. As Sandra Miesel and I wrote in The Da Vinci Hoax:

The grouping of John, Judas, and Peter is purposeful. The group [of three] at Christ’s right, John, Judas, and Peter", Steinberg points out, "clusters the three who are destined for roles in the Passion." Judas betrays Jesus, Peter denies Jesus, and John–"the disciple whom Jesus loved" (Jn 13:23;19:26; 20:2; 21:7, 20)–was the only apostle to stand at Jesus’ cross (Jn 19:26-7). Steinberg states that there are also "significant pairs" in the painting, including Peter and John, and Jesus and John. Peter and John are often companions (cf. Lk 22:8), and personify "the active and contemplative life" and are "shown putting their heads together". Hearing the prophecy of impending betrayal, Peter lunges forward, his hot temper and desire to defend his Master evident. John is the quiet, reflective contemplative who internalizes the distressing news, his hands folded in a prayerful manner appropriate to the coming death of Jesus. These two true apostles frame Judas, the traitor, who personifies greed and disloyalty. Although Jesus and John are depicted as being apart from each other, their mirrored images indicate that they are "soulmates . . . matched in outline, in (original) hue of garment and tilt of head."

Viewing a reproduction of the painting, Sophie sees "flowing red hair, delicate folded hands, and the hint of a bosom" (243). The figure is undoubtedly effeminate, as Leonardo depicted the youthful John in the early-sixteenth-century Florentine style. This approach can be seen in other paintings of the period, including Leonardo’s own Saint John the Baptist (c. 1413-16), which depicts a young man who is quite effeminate in appearance and also has flowing hair and delicate hands. As for the "hint of bosom", it can only be found in the feverish imagination of those subscribing to Brown’s theory–Leonardo’s painting reveals no "hint" at all, unless viewers are willing to see what Brown suggests they see, despite lack of visual evidence.

There is no suggestion, in Leonardo’s sketches or writings, that the figure is Mary Magdalene. There is, however, evidence that is the apostle John. In a sketch for the painting, Leonardo depicts John "leaning over, face down; Christ resting one arm on John’s back as he turns toward Judas . . ."

The point is this: almost a decade after Brown's novel came out, The Da Vinci Code is cemented as a cultural landmark, to the degree that countless stories about art and religion now make reference to it, as if one must bow low before the silly piece of literary trash before entering the halls of history. One might say it is a situation of the tail wagging the dog, but it's even worse, because the tail doesn't even exist. Still, on the bright side, it's nice that the Times finally got around to curtailing its original enthusiasm about The Da Vinci Code, even if years too late and far too indirectly.

40% off Glenn Dudro's "Employee Pick of the Week"

40% off Glenn Dudro's Pick of the Week*

As we experience the polarized rhetoric of the U.S. presidential election cycle, a book that gives us much to ponder about how we as Catholics should participate in civic life is the novel The Cypresses Believe in God, a fictional account of the lead up to the Spanish Civil War written by Jose Maria Gironella in 1953 and reprinted by Ignatius Press in 2005.

The novel begins in 1931 and is set in the town the author’s own birth, the provincial capital of Gerona. It follows the Alvear family over the next 5 years as the slow breakdown of Spanish society spirals down into a brutal civil war. Masterfully, the author explains the major philosophic movements of the age (anarchism, communism, socialism, Catholicism, monarchism, existentialism, and others) as they collide in the Alvear family and the microcosm that Gerona is of Spain. The author puts a human face (though not always pretty!) on the factions fighting in the confused alliances in the Spanish Civil War and their counterparts in the rest of Europe that are planting the seeds of the coming world war.  

The real power of the novel, however, is in the moving depictions of the Catholic faith that permeates the life of the Alvears in both the ordinary and the extraordinary events of the times. Never sappy or triumphalistic, the author draws some of the most powerful scenes of remorse and forgiveness for sins, I think, in all of literature. Altogether, this is a thoroughly educational , entertaining and edifying novel.
 
Glenn Dudro has been directing the finances, accounting and information systems at Ignatius Press since 1994. His wife, Vivian, also works for Ignatius as a senior editor. They have four mostly grown children and live in San Francisco

*Employee Pick of the Week program features savings of 40% off a book, movie, or compact disc personally chosen and recommended by an Ignatius Press employee.  Each week, an Ignatius Press employee will select a favorite book, movie, or other Ignatius Press product and write a few sentences about why he or she thinks customers will enjoy the particular selection. A short bio of the selecting employee will also be included, giving customers a chance to learn a bit more about the people who are Ignatius Press. 

40% off Carolyn Lemon's "Employee Pick of the Week"

40% off Carolyn Lemon's Pick of the Week*

In A Memory for Wonders, Lucette Le Goulard’s father, a teacher, was an ardent socialist, very opposed to the Church.  Her mother was caught up in her career, and Lucette’s arrival was a difficult adjustment for her young parents. Welcomed by her grandparents and great grandfather, she was cared for by them for the first few months, and they had the baby baptized.  When her parents found this out, they were furious.  They decided to leave France so that no one could teach their child about God or influence her mind “with oppressive superstition”.   Thus, Lucette grew up in Morocco and Algiers.
 
At three, the child received her first understanding of God.  Following an oppressive sandstorm, the whole sky seemed to explode in a beautiful sunset.  Lucette suddenly knew that this splendor was created by Someone whom she should adore.  Thus the grace of baptism bore fruit, and the uncatechized child began secretly to pray every day.
 
Although lonely and often disobedient, Lucette was gradually drawn into the spiritual life.  She saw a picture of a crucifix and suddenly knew that the man on the cross had died for her, for all.  She kept and secretly revered this picture.  She grew up reading atheist, left-wing newspapers, but she later became a Catholic despite all the anti-clerical indoctrination.
 
With such an upbringing, Lucette would seem to be a most unlikely candidate to embrace religious life, yet at twenty-two she became a Poor Clare and later abbess in Algiers,  Malawi, and Zambia.  Mother Veronica’s autobiography fills the reader with amazement, hope, and love for God.
 
Mother Veronica wrote her story only as a requested gift for her abbess in Lusaka, Zambia.  Mother Mary Frances finally convinced her to let her story of God’s mercy be shared more widely.  Thus the book has become a gift for the whole Church. A Memory for Wonders is also available as an e-book.
 
Carolyn Lemon, Production Editor, is one of the first employees of Ignatius Press. She has two daughters, Siena and Shawna, and three grandchildren, Rob, Katie Rae, and John Henry.

*Employee Pick of the Week program features savings of 40% off a book, movie, or compact disc personally chosen and recommended by an Ignatius Press employee.  Each week, an Ignatius Press employee will select a favorite book, movie, or other Ignatius Press product and write a few sentences about why he or she thinks customers will enjoy the particular selection. A short bio of the selecting employee will also be included, giving customers a chance to learn a bit more about the people who are Ignatius Press.

CWR Interview with T. M. Doran, author of "Terrapin: A Mystery"

Terrapin: A Mystery (Ignatius Press, 2012; also in electronic book format) is the new, and second, novel by T. M. Doran, who is a writer, consultant, and adjunct professor of civil engineering at Lawrence Technological University. His first novel was Toward the Gleam (electronic book format and audio book download)  published last year by Ignatius Press. He spoke recently with Catholic World Report about Terrapin, literary and intellectual influences, and the craft and process of writing fiction.

CWR: Your background is in civil engineering and education. Was writing fiction something you worked at from an early age, or did you come to it later? And how?

Doran: I have been writing fiction since I was a young boy. A friend and I traded sci-fi short stories that we composed ourselves when we were about ten years old. I've always loved to read, and writing came naturally to me, though I work harder at it now. I can hardly remember a time when I wasn't working on a story. Cole Porter Palmer, who is a character in the stories composed by Dennis Cole in Terrapin, was conceived over a decade ago.

CWR: Who are some of the authors and thinkers who have influenced you the most?

Doran: As to literature, Evelyn Waugh, Flannery O'Connor, J.R.R. Tolkien, and T.S. Eliot, writers and poets who wrote from a Catholic perspective rather than writing explicitly Catholic novels. I read a variety of writers: Jane Austen, Dostoevsky, Patrick O'Brian, Thornton Wilder, Oscar Wilde, Dickens, Richard Adams, and I have learned something about the craft of writing from every one of them. I enjoy mystery stories, especially the golden age puzzle-plot stories from the 1920s through the 1940s. Some of my favorite mystery authors are G.K. Chesterton, Agatha Christie, J.D. Carr (the locked room master), Rex Stout, and the early Ellery Queen mysteries that featured pure "ratiocination". I enjoy P.D. James, who is still writing.

I have been an avid reader of history and biography for decades, which helped immensely when I was composing Toward the Gleam

Thinkers who have influenced me include Blessed John Paul II (especially "Faith and Reason" and "The Splendor of the Truth"), Edith Stein (her journey from phenomenology to the convent), Kurt Goedel (his ideas about time and space), G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis and Frank Sheed (their accessible apologetics), Blaise Pascal (reason in the light of faith), William F. Buckley (conservatism based on first principles and natural law), and Augustine and Aquinas (a little at a time). I have a four-volume Encyclopedia of Philosophy on my bookshelf, to which I refer quite often. I've always had a fascination with competing ideas.

CWR: Both of your novels can be described, at least generally, as works of “mystery”. What are some of the difference between Toward the Gleam and your new novel, Terrapin?

Continue reading on the CWR site.

On Cultivating the Mind that is Catholic

On Cultivating the Mind that is Catholic | Brian Jones | Catholic World Report

For Catholics, the intellectual life is not something reserved for the academic elite.

Reading blogs is not typically something I care to tread into. More often than not, it seems that blogs have become merely an outlet for those who neither want nor seek genuine and fruitful intellectual discussion. This is, of course, not a denial that good blogs exist, or an assertion that good ones ought not to exist, but a simple observation that blogs have enabled anyone to say practically anything without having to provide a reasonable and coherent defense for those positions. While recently reading an article that analyzed St. Thomas Aquinas’ conception of the relationship between science and faith, I stumbled across the following comment from one anonymous blogger:

Religion deals with fiction, or at the very best supernatural stuff that cannot be disproved but is still implausible. Science is about making statements that can be made with certainty. There is no overlap between religion and science. Religious public relations people try to say that there is, but in reality, religion has no relation to science at all. Religion is about believing in stuff without evidence.

In reading these sentences, I couldn’t help but recall the Catholic novelist, Walker Percy, who once provided the following astute insight regarding this philosophic view of reality: “This life is much too much trouble, far too strange, to arrive at the end of it and then be asked what you make of it and have to answer, ‘Scientific humanism.’ That won’t do. A poor show” (Conversations with Walker Percy, “Questions They Didn’t Ask Me,” 417).

Dr. Michael Tkacz, philosophy professor at Gonzaga University, has often drawn attention to the fact that our contemporary culture understands religion to be merely “private, nonrational, and unverifiable,” whereas science is “public, rational, and verifiable.” Science deals with objective, empirical facts about reality and religion provides the ethical tools and resources of how to live with this reality. However, from this perspective, it is important to remember that these two spheres of life cannot and do not overlap since they pertain to two distinct and separate orders of reality. Tkacz has also highlighted that this intellectual dualism is not only fostered in secular culture and universities, but in our Catholic universities and institutions of learning and formation as well. Pope John Paul II’s apostolic constitution Ex Cordae Ecclesiae has provided an in-depth elucidation of what a university ought to be, most especially a Catholic university. Anyone familiar with this document, and the status of Catholic higher education in this country, cannot deny how far off course we have gone, by desperately striving to become homogenous with the Ivy League schools, those so-called “peer institutions.”

Catholic culture has unjustly inherited from her institutions of higher learning a dismantling of the integral relationship between faith, science, reason, and the necessity of cultivating a genuine intellectual life, what Father James V. Schall has rightly labeled “the Catholic mind.”

Read the entire essay at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

The Gospel of St. Matthew: The Unity of the Life of Jesus

The Gospel of St. Matthew: The Unity of the Life of Jesus | Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis | From the Introduction to Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word (Vol. II): Meditations on the Gospel According to St. Matthew

The Gospel according to St. Matthew is not a text simply stringing together haphazard events and occasions that present Jesus teaching valuable and true things. Beyond this, the Gospel text portrays the unity of Jesus' whole life. Very likely the earliest nucleus of the Gospel text is what is now its conclusion, that is, the narrative of Jesus' Passion, death, and Resurrection, which narrative no doubt constituted the heart and substance of the primitive oral kerygma, or "proclamation" of the faith by the apostles and their successors. Everything else in the Gospel text came later, composed to show how everything in Jesus' life and teaching eventually had to lead to his atoning death out of love.

In Matthew's Gospel we see how, against all obstacles and opposition, Jesus moves with a sovereign sweep from the promises of God in the Old Testament, fulfilling them in his Incarnation as Messiah, to his identity as a man who does divine things and speaks divine words (parables, miracles, encounters, discourses), to the culmination of the story in his Passion, death, and Resurrection, and, finally, to the conclusion of the story in Jesus commissioning the apostles to do what they have seen him do and teach what they have seen him teach. In the end, they are to become what they have seen him be.

Thus, the main message of Matthew's Gospel is that we are not saved by detached "doctrines" or "truths", but by the whole life of this man, Jesus of Nazareth, in all its fullness and unity. All Christian theology is but a systematic reflection on this life, on everything it reveals about God and us and on everything this revelation implies for our own future life and behavior.

In the Gospel, Jesus Christ the person and his action in our lives have absolute primacy over anyone's teaching about Jesus Christ.

A comparison of the very beginning of the text with its very end may serve to detail the overarching unity of Matthew's Gospel and its fundamental message. At 1:23 Matthew inserts a quotation from the prophecy of Isaiah (7:14): "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel (a name which means 'God with us')." If we then turn to the last sentence in Matthew, we read: "Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age" (28:20). Now, these are words that only an incarnate God can speak with truth, and we suddenly realize that everything between these two quotations-the promise and its everlasting fulfillment--is meant by Matthew to represent an unfolding of what it means for "God to be with us" in the person of Jesus. Between these two passages there are five major sections of the Gospel, perhaps symbolic of the five books of the Pentateuch that constitute the Torah. Matthew's Gospel, thus, through its symbolic structure, is apparently claiming to contain God's definitive words and deeds, which fulfill and surpass the Torah but only through the presence and action of Jesus, the living Word made flesh: "It was said to you .... But I say to you" (cf. Mt 5:21-22, 27-28, 31-34, 38-39, 43-44).

20% off the newly priced Ignatius Critical Editions

20% off the newly priced Ignatius Critical Editions

Plus, bring the new epic film Restless Heart to your area!
 

The Ignatius Critical Editions represent a tradition-oriented approach to great books and classics of world literature, as opposed  to the more ideological approach of such series as the Norton Critical Editions or Oxford World Classics. With new editions added each season (23 volumes now), these books are great not only for home-schoolers, but for anyone wishing to understand the great works of Western civilization. Each volume includes excellent, helpful introductions, annotations and critical essays, with beautiful book designs. Plus a study guide for each book. With new low prices and 20% off this week, you'll want to stock up on these titles today!

New: "Terrapin: A Mystery" by T. M. Doran

Now available in both beautiful hardcover or sleek electronic book format:

Terrapin: A Mystery

by T. M. Doran

• Electronic Book Download

Dennis Cole and his three best buddies from childhood gather for a weekend reunion. On the first night, one of the men is murdered-or is he?

A professor of engineering by day and a writer of detective fiction by night, Cole and the other survivors try to piece together the mysterious fate of their friend. The suspenseful story moves back and forth between the unfolding reunion gone bad and childhood events that involved these friends who grew up on the same street.

Looming largest in the memory of Dennis is the striking character of his widowed father, T. A.-Marine veteran of the Korean War and blue-collar philosopher. In his interactions with T. A, Dennis tries to make sense out of life; but instead of simple answers, puzzling questions of evil, human freedom, and the possibility of transformation are all T. A. seems to provide. These questions follow Dennis through young adulthood and beyond; they finally catch up to him in the surprising and thrilling climax of this novel.

A murder mystery and a coming of age story, both with many twists and turns, Terrapin is about man's potential for doing either good or evil, his tendency to do the latter, and his response to the consequences of his actions.

T. M. Doran is a writer, educator, and consultant. An adjunct professor of civil engineering at Lawrence Technological University, he is the author of the popular novel Toward the Gleam.