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ehunsy's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
varunob's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
Robert Harris’ work has, for the most part, interesting concepts meeting good writing and resulting in enjoyable, relatively light fiction. True, two of his last three haven’t quite worked for me, but my love for Fatherland, Enigma, The Ghost, The Fear Index, and An Officer and a Spy means I return to Harris’ work fairly often.
Conclave is a novel Harris published a few years ago, and is set in the Vatican City, with the centrepiece being the Papal Conclave, the conference of Cardinals who meet to elect a new Pope as and when the time arises.
This is one of the rare Harris novels set in contemporary times, and though the jury online seems divided on this sub-genre of his work, I have thoroughly enjoyed both The Ghost (a political thriller involving a Blair-esque former PM and the ghostwriter of his autobiography) and The Fear Index (a techno-thriller set in Switzerland).
Harris’ interest in the Catholic Church is also well-documented, as is his fascination with the Roman Empire, which spawned four novels (Pompeii and The Dictator Trilogy).
Conclave opens with the death of the incumbent Pope – a fictitious one, and the immediate aftermath of the event, which soon rolls over into the Conclave, presiding over which is Cardinal Lomeli, also the protagonist of the story. As Dean of the College of Cardinals, it is Lomeli’s duty to supervise the election of the next leader of the Catholic world, running for which are an abundance of characters, each exemplifying a different school of thought within the beliefs of the Church.
Harris scores on two fronts of the novel with ease – in simplifying the world of the Vatican and making it accessible, and in writing Lomeli, a man who has started to question his faith and the path he has chosen in life.
The novel, revolving as it does around men of God, is slower, though not necessarily steadier, than most of Harris’ work but makes for compelling reading as far as the examination of Lomeli’s crisis of faith and the election itself is concerned.
The rest of it is window-dressing, but of readable standards. When Harris does throw a spanner into the works, however, he first exposes himself on a moralistic front for how he treats a character guilty of statutory rape (the same crime committed by Harris’ friend, filmmaker Roman Polanski, an issue on which Harris has not acquitted himself as he would be expected to in normal circumstances), and with the twist he throws in at the end, which shoots to shit quite literally all the hard work done in the preceding three hundred pages.
These two factors hinder Conclave tremendously, and it comes up short in the final count. I usually despise books that contrive to “shock” the reader through the ending and though I wouldn’t say I despised this one, it’s difficult to say I enjoyed it as a whole after the deed had been done.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Rape
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