THE BLIND SIDE OF THE HEART

Editor and novelist White (American Fiction IV, 1993, etc.; the mystery A Brother’s Blood, 1996) describes the trial of a Catholic priest for sodomy and murder in a small Massachusetts town. Behind every good priest, in this country at least, stands an Irish widow with an iron and a broom. Maggie Quinn seems to fit the rectory housekeeper mold pretty well: Fiercely loyal to her employer, Father Jack Devlin, she nurses him when he’s sick, worries when he comes home late, and allows herself a drop of his Jameson’s now and again when his back is turned. A single mother from County Galway, Maggie left Ireland brokenhearted after her young son drowned. Once in the States, though, she went from bad to worse and finally ended up in a mental hospital after a failed suicide attempt. There she was found by Father Jack, who got her back on her feet and gave her a new lease on life. Now, though, her placid world starts to unravel anew when two former altar boys accuse Father Jack of rape. Maggie sticks by Father Jack even after he’s convicted and sent to jail, proclaiming his innocence to her neighbors and suffering no small humiliation as a result. But things become even more ominous when, while in prison, Father Jack is indicted again—this time for the murder of a 12-year-old boy. Again, Maggie comes to the priest’s defense, but some of the details of the case are troubling, even to her. Has she misplaced her trust? Or is it simply being tried? In the end, Maggie discovers that “faith” means a lot more than the Penny Catechism let on. Overlong and written in a rambling, anecdotal style (“Now Mrs. Burke had a son named Franny, and here’s where things take a bad turn”) that’s annoying. But White’s narrative is strong enough to overcome his own verbosity and provides some nice twists along the way.