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Reviews of Literary Books/Novels|
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Comments and reviews on Books and Novels by Stephen Hand
Leo Madigan reviews Poor Souls, by John William McMullen
Poor Souls is a Catholic novel. What is a Catholic novel? Do protagonists who happen to be Catholics make a Catholic novel? I don’t think so. Most of the characters in Candide are Catholic but no one native to planet earth would label Candide a Catholic novel. Do the religious origins of the writer serve to categorize a work? Hardly, or all the Joyces and Conrads would be Catholic novelists.
Francis Phillips reviews St George: Knight of Lydda, by Anthony Cooney
Anthony Cooney’s chief purpose in writing this historical novel ‘has been to bring our patron saint out of the shadows into the world of his day, and present him to our day as a real person…’
Francis Phillips reviews The Catholic Revival in English Literature,1845-1961, by Ian Ker
The six writers included in this most interesting study are John Henry Newman, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Hilaire Belloc, GK Chesterton, Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh; 1845 was the year of Newman’s conversion to Rome; 1961 was the year Waugh finished his masterpiece, the Sword of Honour trilogy. Ian Ker asks the key question: what makes a Catholic writer?
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Theotokos Catholic Books - Book Reviews Section - www.theotokos.org.uk