A novel of fate and prophecy
Written: Aug 18 '05 (Updated Aug 19 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: A thrilling story of the moral choices of a novice priest in Rome.
Cons: None that I can think of.
The Bottom Line: Amanda Prantera has written a number of novels on subjects where reason and belief interact. This is the best of them.
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| johngo's Full Review: Spoiler Books |
Benedict is delighted to be in Rome taking the first steps in his vocation to become ordained as a priest and is doubly joyous to be taking them at the very heart of Christendom, Roma, caput mundi. His account of his experiences is given partly by excerpts from his journal and partly in retrospect.
The journal records Ben's thrill at arriving at the Pontifical College St Thomas More, and his developing friendship with a fellow-seminarist in the college, Adam, a Scot. Adam is more widely read, more sophisticated than Ben, and Ben's admiration for Adam's intellect develops into affection, and more than affection. Though the Ben's feelings are not expressed in any tangible, concrete way, the two postulants form a bond as tight as friendship can permit. They live in adjacent rooms, and between their rooms is the bathroom they both share. There is access directly from room to bathroom on either side, and when Ben was shown into his room, he was instructed by the priest showing him round that whenever he was in the bathroom he was to lock both the door opening on his room, and the door opening on to Adam's. When Ben meets Adam for the first time, Adam scoffs at this rule, mentioning the risk of forgetting to unlock the door to the other room after using the bathroom, and locking the other person out. Ben agrees to signal use of the bathroom by knocking on the door, and they leave the doors unlocked.
Adam is intellectually curious, perhaps too intellectually curious, and subjects the discipline of faith to the scrutiny of reason, though never with any suggestion of lack of orthodoxy. Ben ruefully recognizes the superiority of Adam's imagination and knowledge, and admires him. With the admiration there is a developing feeling of more than friendship. One night, Ben stirs in his sleep and realises that somebody is in his room, recognizes Adam and concludes that he must have come in through the bathroom. He has opened up Ben's wardrobe and seems to be doing something with Ben's
clothes. Ben is both excited and apprehensive and so decides that the wisest course is simply to pretend to be asleep, but he feels a thrill that perhaps Adam feels more for him than simple friendship; and though he is at a loss to understand what that might have to with his clothes, he feels that Adam's behaviour is evidence of the strength of Adam's feelings towards him. Adam leaves quietly through the bathroom.
Shortly afterwards Adam dies as a result of a fall from the roof of the college. Suicide is not an acceptable cause of death for a postulant for the priesthood: everybody privately assumes suicide; everybody publicly says accident. Adam's soundness had been doubted: his commitment to reason had perhaps undermined his faith, and perhaps he had committed suicide because he had lost his vocation or even his belief. Ben is devastated by his bereavement.
One night shortly after Adam's death Ben is woken by the sound coming unexpectedly from Adam's room, an inexplicable puffing, whiffling sound, and the sound of the tapping of the keys on Adam's computer. Ben is alarmed by the sounds but does not dare to investigate. A few days later, when he plucks up the courage to go into Adam's room he discovers that it has been stripped of all Adam's belongings including his computer.
Some time later, after washing a pair of smelly trainers Ben looks for somewhere to dry them and finds the perfect place, a shelf above hot water pipes at the back of his wardrobe. He puts the trainers on the shelf but one slips off. He kneels down to pick it up and sees the lower surface of the shelf from below; taped there is package that contains three floppy discs. Ben realises that what Adam was doing in the cupboard, during his secret visit, had nothing to do with clothes. Adam was hiding the package of discs. Ben concludes that Adam had wanted him to have the discs. It is also evident that the puffing prowler was searching frantically for material on Adam's computer, perhaps the very material that was recorded on the discs. Ben is caught: Adam was keeping the material secret, hidden somewhere where other people would be very unlikely to find it. Evidently Adam would not have wanted Ben simply to turn the discs over to the authorities. Ben makes the momentous decision. He will keep the discs secret and read their contents before he decides whether or not to pass the discs on to his superiors.
Ben manages to read the discs. He has to do it surreptitiously because junior seminarists are not provided with computers for their own private use. He discovers a mass of unedited material which is difficult to make sense of. Much of the material is related to the Third Secret of Fatima, recently revealed by the Vatican. In 1907 the Virgin Mary is believed by some to have appeared to three shepherd children at Fatima in Portugal, and is supposed to have communicated three prophecies which were written down at the dictation of, or verbatim by, one of the children. Two of the prophecies had been revealed, but something about the third one led the Vatican to keep it secret until very recently. All the popes are supposed to have read the third prophecy: one is said to have wept when he read it, another to have fainted. The prophecy was generally believed to be terrifying, quite different in character from the bland message put out by the Vatican as the official version of the Third Prophecy. The contrast between the fearful expectation and the relatively mild text has led some extreme theorists of conspiracy to believe that the published version of the Third Prophecy is incomplete, and that, in fact, the Third Prophecy gives concrete information about when and where the antichrist will be born. Ben becomes convinced that some group of conspirators discovered the nature of Adam's researches and murdered him to keep his discoveries secret. The novel follows Ben's response to Adam's analysis.
The novel is distinguished by its persuasive use of source material and especially by its exploitation of the genuine confusion produced by the recent publication of the Third Prophecy of Fatima. The novel is particularly intriguing because it describes Ben's understanding of the events as he was involved in them at the time, from hour to hour, also in retrospect after the events had receded into the past. What sets it apart from other novels with eschatological themes is the fact that the significance of the events manifests itself in Ben's character and understanding of what is happening around him. There are no explicit demons or miracles in Ben's world, but for all that, uncertainty and dread builds to an appalling climax.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
johngo
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Member: John Ollason
Location: Scotland
Reviews written: 83
Trusted by: 61 members
About Me:
I used to work at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, a lecturer in ecology.
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