Monthly Archives: February 2009

Thirteenth Night, by Alan Gordon

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This book was a Christmas present from my sister-in-law. She eschewed all of the heavy tomes of theology and philosophy she found on my Amazon wish list in favor of a light-hearted tale of murder and deceit. It’s an odd and interesting book that I’d probably have picked up on my own, were I buying mysteries this days (I run hot and cold on mystery novels, and am currently running cold) and had I run into it, which I’d not.

The book draws its inspiration from Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night. The premise is that Feste, the Duke of Orsino’s Fool, was in fact no fool. Or, rather, that Feste was the member of the Fool’s Guild, a kind of secret society with the goal of preserving peace in Europe. Feste was in the town of Orsino not merely to entertain the Duke and his guests, but to ensure that certain things happened to further the diplomatic and political goals of the guild. Having done so, Feste disappeared, moving on to other assignments.

And then, fifteen years later, the Duke of Orsino turns up dead at the bottom of a cliff. Accident? Murder? Feste is sent back to Orsino to find out. Much foolishness, including (naturally) a certain amount of cross-dressing, ensues.

The book isn’t particularly deep, but I found the setting fascinating. It takes place in 12th century Europe. (I don’t recall whether the year is ever stated explicitly, but a young Francis of Assisi makes a brief appearance.) The culture in which Feste lives is undeniably and plausibly Catholic, with particular individuals varying widely in their degree of piety and virtue. Feste and the other fools we meet are not un-Christian, but are not entirely orthodox, either; one gathers that the Guild doesn’t entirely approve of the Church, and is actively working to subvert certain aspects of it. We also meet a “holy man”, a hermit of the Catharist heresy, to whom Feste appears to be quite sympathetic. Where the author stands on the Church is impossible to say; certainly, the Church was seriously in need of renewal in St. Francis’ day, which is, of course, what St. Francis was there for.

I found the book entertaining enough, though the mystery aspect seems a little lacking in retrospect. I’m not planning on rushing out to buy the sequels, of which there are evidently several; but then, I’m not buying a lot of mysteries at present, and I’ve got plenty of unread books floating about the house. If I were in need of a book, though, I wouldn’t hesitate to pick up the next in the series.

A Reviewer, or a Critic?

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For most of my time on-line I’ve been a reviewer of books. I greatly fear that I’m mutating into a critic.

These two jobs distinct and separate. A reviewer’s job is to tell you enough about the book so that you can decide for yourself whether or not you’d like to read it. As a reviewer, I try to talk about what kind of book it is; whether I enjoyed it or not (and if not, why not); and in general, whether it contains an interesting tale, well-told. These are fairly modest goals.

A critic, by contrast, is all about evaluating a book from some other point of view. And I find that when I come to review a book these days, I can’t help pondering the degree to which it is consistent with Catholic teaching. That phrase, “consistent with Catholic teaching,” covers a vast world of things, which I can’t do justice to in this short post; I hope to have some things to say about in the future. At present, I’ll simply say that I’m not talking about whether or not the book has explicitly Catholic themes, or whether or not the characters behave according to Catholic moral teaching; it’s more complicated than that.

And then, of course, if the book does say something explicit about the Catholic Church, I feel like I need to address it.

I can’t seem to help any of this; and I’m not at all sure it’s a bad thing. But after having worn a pretty smooth and comfortable groove in the area of writing book reviews, it’s unsettling. I hope the results will be no less useful.