Shoes of the Fisherman

Rating:
Summary: Sometimes life does imitate art. . .
Review: A heartwarming and profound novel about an Eastern European who surprisingly becomes pope. No, it's not a fictional account of the election of John Paul II -- it was written many years before the current Pope's election.

Surrounding the main plot are a number of sub-plots dealing with the very human problems of abortion, infidelity, divorce, homosexuality, and many of the other issues which continue to plauge the world and the Church.

This book is highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: One of West's best works
Review: Morris West is one of those rare authors who can conjure up an excellent book from minimal material. A lot of his works centers around (or is linked with) the Catholic church of which he is an excellent and compassionate portrayer, even when he is being critical.

Shoes of the Fisherman, one of his best, is a heart warming look at the Papacy. Starting with the esoterics of a papal election by acclamation (an unusual procedure) of Kiril Lakota, a virtual unknown, West sees the leader of the church not as the storied infallible pontiff but rather as an earnest human being, beset by his own frailties and needs as well as constrained by the inflexible traditions and bureaucracy of the Vatican. But in focusing on Lakota (and his fellows) as a human being, subject to the same weaknesses of all humanity, West makes one admire him all the more, for his willingness to carry the burden. As the head of a religious organizations that spans the seven continents and hundreds of different cultures, the pope must make huge decisions in lonely abstract while bearing in mind the ordinary man and woman who comprise the church. This is a tremendous responsibility and a near impossible task. In the process West looks at numerous sub-themes that still plague the church (though this book is sited at the peak of the Cold War), of marriage, of theology, of doctrine and of the clergy. He makes no judgments, but in painting the essential humanity of the players, West makes the institution of the church and the papacy not only more accessible to the reader, he also generates a more sympathetic understanding of both. This may not (as previous readers have remarked) be a book with a major plotline, but it is a book that, even at its darkest, maintains faith in humanity. Highly recommended, (though members of other religions may find some of the parts hard to follow).

Rating:
Summary: Compassionate, Intellectually Interesting, But No Plot
Review: This book came highly recommended to me by a good friend of mine and overall I enjoyed reading it, but I must let everyone know-- this book has no plot. The book starts out promising enough-- the election of a surpise pope. However, no major plot arcs emerge. Instead we get these minor plot arcs that we recognize as being secondary and yet they often take up large parts of this book as if they were major plot arcs. This left me wondering when the "real" story was going to happen, but sadly the most promising story arc that is hinted at all book (a major meeting for peace between the US and Russia) never happens.

But this is a well written book for what it is. West does a great job in developing the complicated character of this new pope as well as many of his advisors. West also does a great job in showing the immense complexities of the modern papacy (so many countries, so many different competing interests) while still showing a great compassion for the ordinary man and woman. It's this compassion that is perhaps most striking and the most powerful component of the book. Read this book for its emotions and its ideas, not for its plot.