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nm_young's review against another edition
5.0
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A book that I loved, an absolute must read, and now a favorite of mine. It’s a book that will live on my shelves forever and I would re-read in the future. I would pick up anything else by this author without question. This book is now one of my all-time favorites,
I don’t even know what to say about this book except that I couldn’t put it down. I didn’t want it to end but I just had to find out what happened.
The only downside to me was how much the story hopped around. I would have like to have it unfold in a more solid linear fashion.
It’s a story that put me through a lot of emotions. Although it’s a work of fiction it made me think that things like this go on inside organizations religious and otherwise. At times it got me thinking about how strong my own faith was.
It touches on secrets, miscommunication, loneliness, sorrow, temptation, hopelessness, disgust, and other difficult human emotions and parts of life.
A sad but moving journey.
A book that I loved, an absolute must read, and now a favorite of mine. It’s a book that will live on my shelves forever and I would re-read in the future. I would pick up anything else by this author without question. This book is now one of my all-time favorites,
I don’t even know what to say about this book except that I couldn’t put it down. I didn’t want it to end but I just had to find out what happened.
The only downside to me was how much the story hopped around. I would have like to have it unfold in a more solid linear fashion.
It’s a story that put me through a lot of emotions. Although it’s a work of fiction it made me think that things like this go on inside organizations religious and otherwise. At times it got me thinking about how strong my own faith was.
It touches on secrets, miscommunication, loneliness, sorrow, temptation, hopelessness, disgust, and other difficult human emotions and parts of life.
A sad but moving journey.
karinlib's review against another edition
4.0
This book was a compelling read, disturbing, but I could not put it down.
burns_cheadle's review against another edition
5.0
4.5 - 5 stars: not an easy or comfortable read, but fine character development and imbued with a deep sense of place in the Cape Breton Island setting.
blairconrad's review against another edition
4.0
Really good. A story told in a slightly complicated, non-linear fashion - enough so that one has to pay attention, but not so much that the reader has to take notes. The characters felt like they had depth, and the setting had history. I found that I was really drawn along once the story got going (and the Olympics were done...)
Oh, and throughout there were these absolutely beautiful turns of phrases that (for once in an award-winning book) actually felt like they belonged in the text.
Oh, and throughout there were these absolutely beautiful turns of phrases that (for once in an award-winning book) actually felt like they belonged in the text.
ldv's review against another edition
4.0
This book demonstrates the power of subtlety. Nothing is overt, everything is implicit. It's so much more reflective of life -- how often do we name horrors, but instead we speak in code and leave ugliness unspoken, partly as a way of dealing with it?
This book does not condemn or blame, it simply acknowledges that ugly things happen(ed) and people try to deal with those realities in the best ways they can, not sure if they're right or wrong. Especially when there is no right action. I love that this book just lays it out there so realistically.
Not challenging to read in terms of basic writing style, but certainly the implied story requires a discerning reader, and the subject matter (when you do read between the lines) is heavy. A worthy winner of the 2009 Giller Prize.
This book does not condemn or blame, it simply acknowledges that ugly things happen(ed) and people try to deal with those realities in the best ways they can, not sure if they're right or wrong. Especially when there is no right action. I love that this book just lays it out there so realistically.
Not challenging to read in terms of basic writing style, but certainly the implied story requires a discerning reader, and the subject matter (when you do read between the lines) is heavy. A worthy winner of the 2009 Giller Prize.
macwoods's review against another edition
4.0
This book is part of the Long stretch trilogy. I really enjoyed it. I found the back and forth of the writing, a prominent feature of the previous book, much more seamless this time. He’s a good writer. This is a really interesting way of telling this story (the pedophile priests) - in whispers and suicides. Another tragic tale from Cape Breton
megan_prairierose's review against another edition
5.0
I admit to being apprehensive about reading this book. With so much controversy and scandal surrounding this topic, how would MacIntyre approach it?
This book was beautifully written and kept me wanting more, even when it was finished!
The landscape of the East Coast is as haunting as the story.
Tackling tough issues such as sexual abuse, subastance abuse, PTSS from World War II, suicide, family relationships and dynamics, etc. This book was a heavy read, but in my opnion worthy of the Giller Prize.
This book was beautifully written and kept me wanting more, even when it was finished!
The landscape of the East Coast is as haunting as the story.
Tackling tough issues such as sexual abuse, subastance abuse, PTSS from World War II, suicide, family relationships and dynamics, etc. This book was a heavy read, but in my opnion worthy of the Giller Prize.
weaselweader's review against another edition
2.0
"Scandal, Duncan. This is about scandal.”
Duncan MacAskill is a complex, pious, undoubtedly well-intentioned but deeply flawed and weak-willed man. For his own reasons (in hindsight, reasons as flawed and as misguided as his personality) he chose a life as a Roman Catholic priest and found himself exiled, to a temporary posting shall we say off the beaten track and safely away from probing journalists, in Central America when he wouldn’t disavow and recant his knowledge of another priest’s sexual abuse of a young member of his flock. Cooling his heels away from clerical supervision allowed him to succumb to his corporal weaknesses, the temptations of the flesh and the bottle. Upon his return to Canada, his administrative isolation continued with a posting as the pastor to a small urban parish on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. MacAskill then struggles mightily with the certain knowledge that the suicide of one of his young parishioners was a direct result of the young man’s mental struggles with the abuse he had suffered at the hands of one of MacAskill’s fellow priests.
The self-assured and utterly evil self-righteousness of the bishop in his absolute certainty that the church must be protected from the negative publicity of priests being tempted by preying children who have somehow become sexualized before their time is breathtaking in its depth and ugliness. But even such a brilliant portrayal as that cannot save THE BISHOP’S MAN from becoming lost in its single-minded pursuit of an ill-defined version of literary excellence. For my money – and I’m only a single reader, of course – THE BISHOP’S MAN would have been a much more rewarding read if it had been a little more direct in its prognostications, its analysis and vilification of the evils of the Roman Catholic Church, and a little more linear in the development of the story and the history.
A powerful novel, to be sure, but not easy to read and even more difficult to enjoy.
Paul Weiss
Duncan MacAskill is a complex, pious, undoubtedly well-intentioned but deeply flawed and weak-willed man. For his own reasons (in hindsight, reasons as flawed and as misguided as his personality) he chose a life as a Roman Catholic priest and found himself exiled, to a temporary posting shall we say off the beaten track and safely away from probing journalists, in Central America when he wouldn’t disavow and recant his knowledge of another priest’s sexual abuse of a young member of his flock. Cooling his heels away from clerical supervision allowed him to succumb to his corporal weaknesses, the temptations of the flesh and the bottle. Upon his return to Canada, his administrative isolation continued with a posting as the pastor to a small urban parish on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. MacAskill then struggles mightily with the certain knowledge that the suicide of one of his young parishioners was a direct result of the young man’s mental struggles with the abuse he had suffered at the hands of one of MacAskill’s fellow priests.
The self-assured and utterly evil self-righteousness of the bishop in his absolute certainty that the church must be protected from the negative publicity of priests being tempted by preying children who have somehow become sexualized before their time is breathtaking in its depth and ugliness. But even such a brilliant portrayal as that cannot save THE BISHOP’S MAN from becoming lost in its single-minded pursuit of an ill-defined version of literary excellence. For my money – and I’m only a single reader, of course – THE BISHOP’S MAN would have been a much more rewarding read if it had been a little more direct in its prognostications, its analysis and vilification of the evils of the Roman Catholic Church, and a little more linear in the development of the story and the history.
A powerful novel, to be sure, but not easy to read and even more difficult to enjoy.
Paul Weiss
terinorfolk's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.5