news, views & reviews
Debra is the editor of CatholicFiction.net and the author of THE MYSTERY OF THINGS. Visit her website at: http://www.debramurphy.com
reviewed by Debra Murphy “Catholic fiction” is a broad and slippery term, capable of encompassing a vast range of themes and approaches. In some ways it may more fruitfully be discussed in terms of what it precludes rather than what it includes. Either way, there is a small but growing segment of the fiction market [...]
It certainly has gone down in my book as one of the best film adaptations of a classic novel, Catholic or otherwise, ever made: the 11-hour 1981 TV adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited succeeded largely due to it’s faithful, almost word-by-word script—perfect for the filming of a short novel told in the first person [...]
The classic Parade’s End tetralogy by Catholic novelist Ford Madox Ford (1873-1939) is being given the classy BBC/HBO treatment in a five-part miniseries scheduled to air in 2012. The script was penned by playwright and Oscar-winning screenwriter, Tom Stoppard, and the cast list is mighty promising, too, including Miranda Richardson, Rebecca Hall, Rupert Everett, and [...]
reviewed by Debra Murphy Image Journal, indispensable for anyone who takes Faith, the Arts, and good writing seriously, is, as I’ve said before in these pages, also one of the only venues that openly welcomes contributions from writers of short literary fiction with religious themes. Image no. 69 has three wonderful short stories, “Zero Gains” [...]
Graham Greene’s novels have fared better than most “classics” when it comes to film adaptations. The trailer from Rowan Joffe’s new version—Joffe both wrote and directed—suggests that here’s another worth watching and comparing to the original, considered by many the most “Catholic” of Greene’s Catholic-themed novels. Among its other assets, the film’s cast includes Helen [...]
reviewed by Debra Murphy Paperback: 278 pages Publisher: Parlez-Moi Press; 1st edition (December 1, 2009) ISBN-10: 9780978594039 ISBN-13: 978-0978594039 ASIN: 0978594037 Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches Who, if I cried, would hear me, of the angelic orders? or even supposing that one should suddenly carry me to his heart — I should [...]
The urge to tell stories seems to be hardwired into human neurology. Still, most of us who know something of the history of Christian fiction don’t think of much before the medieval romances, but I’ve always thought that we should certainly take its origins to the parables of Jesus, particularly the story of the Prodigal [...]
reviewed by Debra Murphy For those readers of CatholicFiction.net who are not yet familiar with it, IMAGE journal, published by the Center for Religious Humanism at Seattle Pacific University, is one of the few (and finest) journals around whose editorial focus is the intersection of the Arts and Religion, especially Judeo-Christian religion. Edited by Gregory [...]
Thanks to Emma Taylor for pointing us in the direction of this article, listing some major players in our society who majored in English Lit in college–that oft denigrated college degree that (as my own husband can affirm) rarely translates into a marketable job skill. And yet…what we would do in a world without an [...]
The Canadian National Post has an interview with Jesuit Fr. James Martin on his new book, The Jesuit Guid to Practically Everything. Of particular interest to readers and writers of Catholic fiction is the following interchange: Here’s a taste: HP: Some of the greatest writers of the 20th century — Walker Percy, Flannery O’Connor, Thomas Merton, [...]
[Ed. note: Michael P. Murphy, who teaches literature in the Bay Area, is the author of A Theology of Criticism: Balthasar, Postmodernism, and the Catholic Imagination] Clark, who led last year’s expedition to the Afar region of northern Ethiopia, and UC Berkeley colleague Tim D. White, also said that a re-examination of a 300,000-year-old fossil [...]
Those of you with e-readers, or who don’t mind reading on your desktop or laptop…listen up! At Idylls Press, in our ongoing efforts to spur a new Catholic literary revival, we are trying to spread the word about the rich heritage of fiction written in the Catholic spirit by tracking down and making available an [...]
In case you haven’t noticed the new “Discussion Forum” tab on the top navigation menu of the site…TA DA! The new discussion forum is up and running here. Please bop over there, register (or login, if you’ve already registered) and join the conversation about your favoite Catholic novels and short stories, authors and news.
Paperback: 224 pages Publisher: Princeton University Press (July 21, 2010) ISBN-10: 069114575X ISBN-13: 978-0691145754 reviewed by Roy Peachey It is often assumed, in England at least, that the age of great Christian literature is over. What we have instead, the argument goes, are books which either ignore religion completely, mock it mercilessly, or treat it [...]
reviewed by Debra Murphy John Henry Newman was a leading spiritual and intellectual figure in the so-called “Oxford Movement” in the Anglican Church when, after a lengthy spiritual struggle, he converted to Catholicism in 1845. Some of his friends preceded him into the Church and many of his followers followed him, which made for [...]
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