Strikingly original and thematically complex. Readers who like to be challenged will devour this—and wonder eagerly what...
A wet nurse in 14th-century France sustains an entire town with her milk during a siege.
In 1349, 15-year-old Blanche was miraculously borne aloft in church as the inhabitants of Villeneuve prayed for deliverance from pestilence. Townsfolk gave her the surname Mirabilis (“astonishing”), venerating Blanche until it became clear she was pregnant. In 1362, her 12-year-old daughter, Bonne Tardieu (“God’s bastard”), watched as Blanche perished in the church set ablaze by those same townsfolk. Now Bonne is 22, living on precarious sufferance as a wet nurse in an insular society brilliantly re-created, from the physical filth of the streets and the residents (who seldom have a chance to bathe) to the political machinations of the priests and the powerful. Though her illegitimate baby died six years ago, Bonne keeps her milk flowing between jobs by suckling her friend Godfridus, a journeyman carver working on the new church who dreams of praising God in his own, innovative sculpture. Hired by wealthy, pregnant widow Radegonde Putemonnoie, who feeds her lavishly to improve her milk, Bonne flourishes even as the English besiege Villeneuve: an attack by a starving artisan shows her how she can nourish the hungry town. Baroque though the story developments are (Bonne also rescues Hercule, a seeming child who turns out to be a dwarf fleeing his murderous noble master), Cokal’s elegant prose never stresses the weirdness, focusing instead on the characters’ longings for love and transcendence. Bitter, provocative Hercule and tormented Godfridus are strong supporting players, as are a power-mongering priest and a bakerwoman who voices the volatile emotions of the town masses, ready to cry “saint!” one moment and “witch!” the next. Proud, secretive Radegonde seems closest to the author, who views the medieval church with a sardonic eye but keeps an open mind about the “miracles” that overcrowd the close of an otherwise meticulously plotted and thoughtfully developed first novel.
Strikingly original and thematically complex. Readers who like to be challenged will devour this—and wonder eagerly what this adventurous newcomer will do next.Pub Date: July 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-399-14753-5
Page Count: 389
Publisher: BlueHen/Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001
An illuminating read for anyone interested in the inner workings of the Catholic Church; for prelate-fiction superfans, it...
Harris, creator of grand, symphonic thrillers from Fatherland (1992) to An Officer and a Spy (2014), scores with a chamber piece of a novel set in the Vatican in the days after a fictional pope dies.
Fictional, yes, but the nameless pontiff has a lot in common with our own Francis: he’s famously humble, shunning the lavish Apostolic Palace for a small apartment, and he is committed to leading a church that engages with the world and its problems. In the aftermath of his sudden death, rumors circulate about the pope’s intention to fire certain cardinals. At the center of the action is Cardinal Lomeli, Dean of the College of Cardinals, whose job it is to manage the conclave that will elect a new pope. He believes it is also his duty to uncover what the pope knew before he died because some of the cardinals in question are in the running to succeed him. “In the running” is an apt phrase because, as described by Harris, the papal conclave is the ultimate political backroom—albeit a room, the Sistine Chapel, covered with Michelangelo frescoes. Vying for the papal crown are an African cardinal whom many want to see as the first black pope, a press-savvy Canadian, an Italian arch-conservative (think Cardinal Scalia), and an Italian liberal who wants to continue the late pope’s campaign to modernize the church. The novel glories in the ancient rituals that constitute the election process while still grounding that process in the real world: the Sistine Chapel is fitted with jamming devices to thwart electronic eavesdropping, and the pressure to act quickly is increased because “rumours that the pope is dead are already trending on social media.”
An illuminating read for anyone interested in the inner workings of the Catholic Church; for prelate-fiction superfans, it is pure temptation.Pub Date: Nov. 22, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-451-49344-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2016
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
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