Review by solcatcat - Conclave

solcatcat 's review for:

Conclave by Robert Harris

5.0

challenging inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Absolutely fantastic, brilliant. It helped to watch the movie first, so I knew what the heck was going on. There are a lot of names thrown about and intricate intrigue at play. I understand why the movie Conclave won the Oscar for Best Adaptation; it is a fantastic rendition of the novel. It is, actually, almost exactly the novel. Very impressive. I think the “thriller” elements come through a little bit more in the novel than the movie. The movie was suspenseful and definitely made you feel uncomfortable, but in terms of a traditional thriller the novel plays that stronger. I would recommend both the book and the movie, but maybe watch the movie first if you are someone who struggles with remembering names.

The one sin I have come to fear more than any other is certainty. Certainty is the great enemy to unity. Certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance. Even Christ was not certain at the end.... Our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand in hand with doubt. If there was only certainty and if there was no doubt, there would be no mystery and therefore no need for faith. Let us pray, that the Lord will grant us a Pope who doubts and by his doubts continues to make the Catholic faith a living thing that may inspire the whole world. Let him grant us a Pope who sins and asks forgiveness and carries on.

What an extraordinary variety of races they represented. What a testament, to the breadth of the universal church that men born so different should be bound together by their faith in God.

an excess in simplicity after all was just another form of ostentation and pride in ones humility is sin.

We are mortal men. We serve an ideal, we cannot always BE ideal.

And this unity of an institution is worth preserving, even at the price of breaking ones sacred oath?

Content Warnings