Who is an American Black, Catholic or Jewish Writer?

I’d like to share with my fellow readers and students of Catholic fiction an article I just bumped into online on the website of the American Studies Center at Nanzan University in Japan. Written by David R. Mayer of Nanzan University, the article is entitled, “Who is an American Black, Catholic or Jewish Writer?” and it [...]

The Samurai with the Cross: The Martyrs of Japan

Of special interest to fans of the classic Catholic novel, Silence, by Shusaku Endo, here is an article by Sandro Magister on the recent beatification (Nov 24, 2008) of “Fr. Kibe and his 187 companions”, martyred for their faith in feudal Japan in circumstances similar to those related in the novel.

Mr. Blue, by Myles Connolly

Reviewed by John Murphy
Spies of God
Mr. Blue is a little gem of a book – short but affecting, and featuring a memorably iconoclastic hero. Published in 1928, Myles Connolly’s first novel is like a Catholic answer to The Great Gatsby, questioning that distinctly American brand of materialism which offers big houses, fancy cars, and a [...]

A Canticle for Liebowitz, by Walter M. Miller, Jr.

reviewed by Marilyn Prever
This 1959 science fiction classic gives a new twist to the familiar post-nuclear war story: it follows the life of an American Catholic monastery from the new Dark Ages after the devastation of World War Three, through the slow re-building of civilization (a span of several thousand [...]

The Loved One, by Evelyn Waugh

Gallows Humor
One of my favorite stories about Evelyn Waugh finds him at a swank Parisian dinner party. After rudely belittling a helpless French intellectual with his characteristic boorishness, the host asked Evelyn how he could be so mean and still call himself a Catholic. “You have no idea,” Waugh answered, “how much nastier I would [...]

The Power and the Glory, by Graham Greene

Reviewed by John Murphy
Yours, Now and Forever
The last priest in Mexico is on the run. The Church has gone underground, outlawed by the incumbent Powers-that-Be. Owning a rosary or a prayer book will land you in jail. Faithful Catholics thirst for the Mass, for the Eucharist, for God, but must content themselves with sporadic celebrations. [...]

Come Rack! Come Rope! by Robert Hugh Benson

Reviewed by Christine J. Murray
Robert Hugh Benson’s historical novel about the persecution of Catholics under the rule of Elizabeth I is one of his more popular even to this day. He wrote Come Rack! Come Rope! after being invited to preach at a retreat held at Padley in 1911—the site of a hidden chapel used [...]

The Song of the Scaffold by Gertrud von le Fort

Reviewed by Rachel Murphy
I happened to pick up this little novella while staying at the home of friends of mine while they were away. (They had set aside their little “library” room for me—a dangerous prospect!)
Written in the style of a letter from an “eyewitness” to the execution of the 16 Carmelite martyrs of [...]