The Sparrow

[perlmonger]

I'm currently reading The Sparrow. I'm not sure this post counts as a spoiler (and the book is 12 years old), but cut just in case.


This is a beautiful, flawed, painful excavation of the limits of faith, of humanity, of understanding; a confluence of A Case of Conscience, Out of the Silent Planet and Use of Weapons: I'm maybe ⅔ of the way through, and I'm just wondering if the whole edifice was constructed just to allow Mary Doria Russell to use the phrase "and they could hear the Dominicans howling in the forest"?

Comments

[perlmonger.livejournal.com]

Finished last night, and yes: I can empathise with the hurling across the room bit. For myself, I can only say that faith, as characterised in the final pages, is not only beyond my comprehension but also beyond anything I think I'd ever want to comprehend. ramtops, a recovering Catholic, has expressed some interest in reading the book; I'll be interested in her reaction if she gets through the whole thing.

There may well be a further post from me on this subject, as and when my thought and feelings about it gel.