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A review by clare_tan_wenhui
Faith by Jennifer Haigh
4.0
Priesthood isn't an easy life. It's a solitary life. It demands a certain temperament. It gets harder with age. Priests make a great many sacrifices.
pg 286
The novel cleverly uses the backdrop of the Boston church scandals, to pose certain questions (what is the identity of a priest) and dispell other myths (not all who have suffered child abuse follow along the trajectory of becoming a predator themselves later in life), which was the big value add. If there's any slight grouses I have, it is with the narrative format of the novel, told through the eyes of Shelia, who seems to be the person least involved in the entire sequence of events. This "in hindsight" kind of narrative feels a bit messy to me, though thankfully it doesn't discount the character development of the protagonist Fr Arthur.
pg 286
The novel cleverly uses the backdrop of the Boston church scandals, to pose certain questions (what is the identity of a priest) and dispell other myths (not all who have suffered child abuse follow along the trajectory of becoming a predator themselves later in life), which was the big value add. If there's any slight grouses I have, it is with the narrative format of the novel, told through the eyes of Shelia, who seems to be the person least involved in the entire sequence of events. This "in hindsight" kind of narrative feels a bit messy to me, though thankfully it doesn't discount the character development of the protagonist Fr Arthur.