A review by karenchase
Pastoral by André Alexis

4.0

This is a really lovely book. I can't remember how I found it -- I think it was a series of links from other books, probably here on Goodreads. I know I had to order it to my local library, since they had all the other volumes in the series, but not this one, which is the first. I thought it sounded like a neat little story, and it is, but I realized after I wrote it, by skimming a few reviews and stuff, that it was conceived in the style of the pastoral (that's not just the title), and I had to look up what that meant. According to wikipedia, it "places the complex life in a simple one." And it also involves spirituality, the spiritual quest, and sheep. This book has all of that. It follows Father Pennant, a newcomer to the priesthood and to the small rural Ontario town of Barrow, and Liz Denny, who has lived in Barrow most of her life. Father Pennant becomes fast friends with the caretaker of his vicarage, Lowther, who exposes the priest to miracles that are designed to test his faith and help Lowther determine whether Pennant is an appropriate shepherd for Lowther's impending death. Liz Denny seeks out Father Pennant's guidance when she must decide whether to go through with marrying her longtime sweetheart, who is openly seeing another woman, and can't understand why neither woman wants to share him. That's pretty much all that happens in this book, but the themes of faith, love, and determinism run deep, and provoke thought, without getting bogged down in a lot of conflict or theology. It is apparently the start of a series that approaches stories within specific genres (I think the next one, Fifteen Dogs, is what twigged me to the series, as it is based in Greek mythology, which is a subgenre that I've been steeped in lately), but do not share any throughlines. I fully intend to carry on.