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A review by wwatts1734
Trinity by Leon Uris
3.0
I have read several of Leon Uris's historical novels and for the most part they are very good. This one was a disappointment for a number of reasons. For one thing, it took on an epic format that tended to lose the flow of the novel. The novel actually started in the 18th century and ended in 1915 and covered several generations of a family. This made it hard to follow. I found that the characters were a bit shallow, formulaic and one dimensional. They really didn't have personalities, they were mere role fillers. This was also disappointing.
Leon Uris novels tend to be about rebellions or uprisings. Mila 18 was about the Jewish uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943. Exodus was about the Zionist struggle to establish Israel and defend it in the 1948 war. Trinity is also about a struggle, only this novel was not about Jews, it was about the Irish. And herein lies the rub. In Trinity, Uris sets up the Irish as the poor oppressed people, like the Jews are in his other novels. In this novel, the oppressors are the British, mixed in with the Unionist Protestants of Belfast, although Uris tends to see the Unionists as victims themselves. The problem is that throughout the novel it is obvious that Uris has a problem with the Catholic Church and the Catholic religion. He portrays priests as vile creatures who oppress the faithful and he portrays practicing Catholics as hypocrites and pollyannas. The problem with this is that Catholicism is part of the Irish national identity. The Irish were adamant about independence from Britain precisely because they were Catholic and the British were Protestant. So if Uris's heroes in this novel, the Irish Nationalists, were fighting for the freedom to practice a faith that Uris finds revolting, then what precisely was heroic about the Irish Nationalists? They were simply trading one oppressor, the British, for a worse one, the Catholic Church. This doesn't make any sense and it throws the whole premise of the novel into confusion. This is why writers of novels dealing with revolutions and uprisings should sympathize with the culture and values of the characters that they choose as protagonists. I suspect that Uris' decision to write this kind of novel about the Irish was a poor choice for him.
Overall the novel isn't too bad and there are some good points about the novel. However, I would recommend Uris's other novels more than I would recommend this one.
Leon Uris novels tend to be about rebellions or uprisings. Mila 18 was about the Jewish uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943. Exodus was about the Zionist struggle to establish Israel and defend it in the 1948 war. Trinity is also about a struggle, only this novel was not about Jews, it was about the Irish. And herein lies the rub. In Trinity, Uris sets up the Irish as the poor oppressed people, like the Jews are in his other novels. In this novel, the oppressors are the British, mixed in with the Unionist Protestants of Belfast, although Uris tends to see the Unionists as victims themselves. The problem is that throughout the novel it is obvious that Uris has a problem with the Catholic Church and the Catholic religion. He portrays priests as vile creatures who oppress the faithful and he portrays practicing Catholics as hypocrites and pollyannas. The problem with this is that Catholicism is part of the Irish national identity. The Irish were adamant about independence from Britain precisely because they were Catholic and the British were Protestant. So if Uris's heroes in this novel, the Irish Nationalists, were fighting for the freedom to practice a faith that Uris finds revolting, then what precisely was heroic about the Irish Nationalists? They were simply trading one oppressor, the British, for a worse one, the Catholic Church. This doesn't make any sense and it throws the whole premise of the novel into confusion. This is why writers of novels dealing with revolutions and uprisings should sympathize with the culture and values of the characters that they choose as protagonists. I suspect that Uris' decision to write this kind of novel about the Irish was a poor choice for him.
Overall the novel isn't too bad and there are some good points about the novel. However, I would recommend Uris's other novels more than I would recommend this one.