FROM THAILAND – A BOOK REVIEW

We never outlive our need for a little praise now and then. Ed Vargo, a friend who read my novel LIFE COMES TO THE ARCHBISHOP just a couple of months ago, wrote a review of the Kindle edition on Amazon.com that warmed my heart and – well -- maybe even made my head swell just a bit! I’d like to share the review with my readers:

Novel Approach to How the Church Could Right Its Wrongs
June 24, 2010 --Kindle Edition Available on Amazon

By Dr. Edward Vargo (Bangkok, Bangkok Thailand)
See all of Dr. Vargo's Reviews

This review is from: Life Comes to the Archbishop (Kindle Edition)

THEME AND STRUCTURE. I admire Eppley's ability to build chapter after chapter upon dialogues or conversations. It's a great format for bringing up all the issues he wants to treat--celibacy, pedophilia, married priests, gays and lesbians, women in the church, social justice, limbo, dispensations and excommunication, above all the abuse of authority--secrecy, control and punishment overpowering compassion and forgiveness. At the same time, the use of such dialogues inevitably slows down the action. What he's created is preeminently a novel of ideas. That's not a problem in the French or Russian tradition of fiction, but it can be in the British or American tradition. I'm not saying this as a criticism at all--there is a place for such novels in our tradition, too, even if there's a bias against them. On another note, I enjoyed the way Eppley wrapped up many chapters with the archbishop's further reflections on the centerpiece conversations.

ARCHBISHOP FOLEY. I found myself agreeing with so many of the positions and values that Archbishop Foley embodies. He's the type of pastoral bishop whose appointments we were blessed with in the era right before John Paul II. He's grounded in the good news, in compassion and hope, in openness to the Holy Spirit wherever she blows. At the same time, he's a wounded healer, a man who admits to his loneliness as a faithful celibate and in the course of the novel comes to recognize his own fear of bucking the Vatican. Sensitive to departing priest Tom and teenager Toni, by the end he is acting and speaking more fearlessly, not walking the tightrope he did in order to stay in the good graces of higher superiors. It's nice to see the life-giving influence on him of the people he allows into his life. I especially appreciate the views expressed throughout about the distortions of the gospel that the institutional church's exercise of power has often created. Eppley shares with other authors whom I respect very similar views on what's good and what's gone wrong with the church. I'm thinking especially of Leonardo Boff's "Church: Charism and Power--Liberation Theology and the Institutional Church," Anne Wilson Schaef and Diane Fassel's "The Addictive Organization," and John Jacob Raub's "Who Told You That You Were Naked? Freedom from Judgment, Guilt and Fear of Punishment."

RESONANCES WITH RECENT CHURCH HISTORY. The scenario of Ron Hackett trying to blackmail Graham reminded me of the case of Archbishop Weakland of Milwaukee. The way Foley responded to the accusations of sexual harassment against him reminded me of Archbishop Bernardin of Chicago. I love the story of forgiveness and compassion exemplified in the Tibetan monks whose mandala is stamped out. I also loved all the scenes with the Amish community; they brought me closer to a special quality of Cuyahoga and Lorain Counties (Ohio) than anything else in the book. Also liked the way Foley leads Toni out of harsh judgments against the church through pointing out the practice of "shunning" among the Amish. No religion that involves human beings can be absolutely pure and untouched by brokenness.

THE STORY SAILS FROM CHAPTER 33 ON. From this point to the end, I couldn't put Eppley's story down. I kept wanting to see what would develop next. Eppley has prepared the reader very well for Toni's and Tom's dramatic reactions to Ron Hackett. I found it very believable. At the beginning of the novel, I wondered if his choice of dialogues to move the story forward would create two-dimensional "flat" characters (in Forster's use of the term), but by this time I realized the characters were very "round" indeed. They come alive in a way that I found myself caring very much for what happens to them. The feeling of everyone in the climactic scene is obviously deeply felt in its creation and really got this reader into it.

A FEW RANDOM THOUGHTS. I resonated with the remark about celibate priests turning into old curmudgeons for lack of human love in their lives. It was certainly one of the factors in my own belated departure from the ranks. Not to say I've been preserved from being an old curmudgeon, maybe just a slightly gentler one.... I loved the way Huck Finn's struggles of conscience with slavery were brought to bear on Tom's own decision not to pursue a dispensation from the priesthood any further. I especially liked it because that theme resonates with the working title of a memoir I'm now bringing to completion-- FAITHFUL AGAINST THE RULES. The same manner of thinking suggested by that title enters into the conversation between Tom and Foley's successor Archbishop Graham.... Kate's comparison of the Roman Curia to the Taliban is great. Graham Greene used to compare the Curia to the KGB. Same same even if different.... The simple funeral, as requested by Archbishop Foley, took me back to the burial services of Archbishop Lokuang, president of Taiwan's Fu Jen University for most of my years there. He had also requested a funeral without the usual episcopal pomp and circumstance. His wishes were honored, and many people--Catholics, Buddhists, and otherwise--found the simplicity an extremely moving witness to what really counts in life and death.

Posted July 7, 2010

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