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Paperback: 192 pages Publisher: Harper ISBN-10: 0060981180 reviewed by Kathleen Valentine This is quite possibly the most beautiful book I have ever read. The writing is lyrical and precise. Some chapters—divided according to the hours of prayer observed by Catholic monastics—are like meditations. One of the most striking aspects of the novel is the descriptions [...]
ISBN: 978-1-59597-0145 published by Idylls Press reviewed by Ellen Gable Hrkach I have been wanting to read The Mystery of Things by Debra Murphy for a long time. I was fortunate enough to receive a copy of this book recently and, on one rainy Saturday, I finally had an opportunity to read it. I was [...]
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 [...]
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.
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, [...]
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 years), right up to [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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