Evensong (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: A clergyman friend of mine sent me this book for Christmas and I must say that I found it to be quite wonderful. I have never read any of Ms. Godwin's books previously, but having just finished the book, I can highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in faith journeys and the like. I reminds me in some respects of the Mitford series which my wife and I have both so enjoyed, but this is many respects is much more complex and open-ended. It has my heartiest recommendation.

Rating:
Summary: Reads like a 3rd person journal
Review: Evensong just didn't work for me as a cohesive story. There were lots of competing story lines, but not one that was prevalent or that caused me to wonder what would happen next or how it would be resolved. There is Margaret, the main character and an Episcopalian preist, who is married to Adrian (also a priest). The author plays with story lines that include: Margaret's struggle to make sense of her mother's abandonment, the effects of economic depression on a small town, the craziness that the town experiences at the approach of the millenium, the disparities between christian fundamentalists and more traditional style christians, the ideology of women in the preisthood, the ramifications of Margaret choosing a much older husband, Adrian's depression, a major church fire, a young boy's abandonment by his adoptive parents, and the secret return of Adrian's father (who had abandoned him in childhood). Any one of these ideas could have been a good main plot or subplot. Unfortunately none of them are developed enough to make the reader care. The result is that Evensong reads like a third person journal of the events in this family at a particular time. The reader spends a long time waiting to 'get into' the main story line, but it simply never develops.

The only reason this book received even three stars is that Gail Godwin proves herself to be a very talented writer. I'm sure that this book would have been fabulous if she could have just pulled it together with a main plotline. This is my first Gail Godwin book. While I didn't like it, I may try another in the future, based upon the talented writing of the author.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but does not live up to Father Melancholy
Review: I couldn't wait to read this one to find out what had happened to the characters from Father Melancholy. Be sure to read Father Melancholy's Daughter first if at all possible. Gail Godwin is brilliant. There is amazing complexity in the relationships among these characters. However I thought Grace was really annoying and somewhat stereotyped. Also the milleniuum theme seemed to be more of a playing up to the current madness than actually essential to the story. Overall the book was worth reading. If you like Gail Godwin, don't miss The Good Husband. It is still my favorite of her works.

Rating:
Summary: A Warm and Inspiring Book
Review: I enjoyed this book very much. If you like the Mitford series, you should enjoy this more sophisticated story about a woman Episcopal priest in another North Carolina mountain town. I found the author's spiritual insights to be not only enlightening, but also vital to the understanding of the story.

The contrast between Grace and Margaret perfectly illustrates the tension and conflict between many church-going Christians. The author is careful not to declare either approach right or wrong, but does point out the short-sightedness on both sides.

This book perfectly describes the normal, everyday trials and struggles of living as a minister's wife and as a minister. Like everyone else, ministers and their families deal with marital and child-rearing difficulties along with tragic events in their less-than-ideal lives, but the author aptly captures the "fish-bowel" living that occurs in the ministry. Even Margaret's and Adrian's intimate relationship and struggles with depression were sensitively and beautifully portrayed.

I recommend this well-written book to anyone who attempts to have a practical spiritual life in a hectic and harried world.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Book
Review: I felt like this book was an enjoyable, easy to read but not too simple, and thoughtful. I was drawn in by the characters, particularly the main character and her husband. It chronicles part of a female pastor's life with her husband (who is also a pastor) in a small mountain Episcopal church. As a divinity school student, I would read parts of the way that the main character would talk about God or her work with people who were suffering and hope so much that someday I can be as eloquent and thoughtful about God and the mysteries of life (and afterlife). I found the relationship between her and her husband to be complex and interesting and the way the story unfolded to be slow enough to leave a little suspense, but it lets the reader know enough that you could read at a comfortable pace not worrying about "what is going to happen next." The writing was rich and smooth. I particularly recommend this book to those who are searching spiritually and to those who work in churches and in some sort of helping profession.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Book
Review: I felt like this book was an enjoyable, easy to read but not too simple, and thoughtful. I was drawn in by the characters, particularly the main character and her husband. It chronicles part of a female pastor's life with her husband (who is also a pastor) in a small mountain Episcopal church. As a divinity school student, I would read parts of the way that the main character would talk about God or her work with people who were suffering and hope so much that someday I can be as eloquent and thoughtful about God and the mysteries of life (and afterlife). I found the relationship between her and her husband to be complex and interesting and the way the story unfolded to be slow enough to leave a little suspense, but it lets the reader know enough that you could read at a comfortable pace not worrying about "what is going to happen next." The writing was rich and smooth. I particularly recommend this book to those who are searching spiritually and to those who work in churches and in some sort of helping profession.

Rating:
Summary: sequel falls short of "Father Melancholy"
Review: I greatly enjoyed "Father Melancholy" which is the first book about Margaret. However, a few things bothered me about "Evensong."

First, as mentioned by another reviewer, the protagonist Margaret did not really behave like a thirty-year-old woman. Her attitudes towards such things as the Internet, even allowing for a Luddite-like upbringing, seemed more characteristic of a senior citizen. Also, she seemed so steadfast, so sure of herself, that it was hard to see her as human. If her conflict with her husband - apart from that one juicy fight - had been fully developed in the book that would have helped the reader care about her.

Also, Chase did not really talk or act like a teenager from a rural area. He was an alcoholic, and it seemed that the author - through Margaret and Adrian - believed that if he would just learn to love himself - through watching others set a good example, his addiction would vanish. This seemed like an odd attitude to have at the turn of this century. It was implied that he wouldn't have had any serious problems if his parents had been loving. While there is truth to this, it struck me as a simplistic handling of a serious problem.

I enjoyed many of the secondary characters such as Gus, her daughter, and Grace, the larger-than-life evangelist. However, I felt the book's end kind of fizzled, despite all the color and depth the author had worked into the novel.

Rating:
Summary: sequel falls short of "Father Melancholy"
Review: I've read most of Godwin's books and enjoyed them, but Evensong is the exception. The pace is very slow, the flashbacks can make it difficult to follow, and the characters are never developed enough to make them interesting. Not one I would recommend as one of her best.

Rating:
Summary: RELATIONSHIPS, RELIGION, REDEMPTION
Review: Relationships, religion and redemption are the 3 R's in National Book Award nominee Gail Godwin's Evensong, an eloquently rendered, albeit sometimes decelerated, story of a woman's path to spiritual identity.

In this, her tenth novel, Ms. Godwin reintroduces us to Margaret, the daughter in Father Melancholy's Daughter (1991). We are reminded that Margaret was deserted at the age of six by her mother, and raised by her father, a too needy Episcopalian rector who suffered from bouts of depression and "lived by the grace of daily obligation."

Later, either responding to a call or displaying filial approbation, Margaret chooses to follow in her father's professional footsteps. When we meet her again she is attending General Theological Seminary, and has set her sights on Rev. Adrian Bonner, a balding, fortyish, self-denigrating cleric. Margaret is convinced that having each other will make more of them both.

Dropped off at a Catholic orphanage by his parents, Adrian also bears scars of rejection. As a 10-year-old, he sought approval by imitating the institution's director - the young Adrian fashioned a rudimentary flagellum with "strips of rubber from a piece of inner tube," and punished himself daily.

An unlikely candidate for conjugal bliss, a facsimile of Margaret's father? Indeed. It puzzles why Margaret, as astute as she is in the study of human nature, did not see this herself. Only later does she unearth "a flinty bedrock of self-hatred" beneath Adrian's chronic despair. Becoming temporarily impotent, he makes "bitter jokes about December graybeards who took to themselves May brides."

As the world stands ready for Y2K, the Bonners move to High Balsam, a small North Carolina community. Margaret is to be rector of All Saints High Balsam, and Adrian on the staff of a therapeutic high school.

A paradigm American community in economic straits, High Balsam is ripe for an onslaught by Grace Munger, a rabid and rotund evangelist who receives direct instructions from the Lord. Describing herself as a "freelance apostle," Grace says God has mandated a parade - a Millennium Birthday March for Jesus. When Margaret declines Grace's invitation to join her march, the evangelist digs in her booted heels and campaigns to change the young rector's mind.

Two surprising visitors add to the turmoil in Margaret's life. First, there is the appearance of Tony, a "scraggy old customer" who claims to be a monk from the Abbey of the Transfiguration. Margaret feels obligated to invite the 80-year-old to spend the night with them, a stay that becomes days and then weeks.

Tony, it turns out, is as adroit at duplicity as he is at rolling his own cigarettes. By making himself useful, he slowly insinuates himself into the couple's lives.

A second unexpected houseguest is Chase Zorn, a rebellious teenager who has been expelled from Adrian's school, a "volatile boy, seething with intelligence and mistrust, testing to the limit anyone who dared love him."

The addition of these two disparate personalities to a rather benign household proves to be an incendiary mix, both literally and figuratively, when Tony confesses that he is Adrian's father and a forgotten iron sets fire to Margaret's church.

One of the novel's most poignant scenes is found in Margaret's conversation with a young girl who disdains the Bible as a book that tells one how to be good. Margaret explains, "It's a record of people keeping track of their relationship with God over a long period of time.... People go through some pretty awful stages as they fumble toward what they're meant to be."

Moving toward what one is meant to be is at the heart of Ms. Godwin's well articulated tale. Whether defiantly questioning or unquestioningly faithful, Margaret's journey is much like everyman's journey. Evensong may help us along the way.

Rating:
Summary: A rich story on many levels
Review: This full and rich story brings me into a world I know little about -- the Episcopal church and its clergy. Set in a southern mountain town, Margaret is the pastor of the church and her husband, Adrian runs an experimental school for troubled young people. The tension is created when Grace, a charismatic fundamentalist who has received a "calling" wants to create a march for Jesus, an elderly man in monk's clothing comes to town for his own private reasons, and a troubled teenager disrupts their routines.

There's a richness to Ms. Godwin's writing. It's all in the expert layering of details which bring out the story on many levels, including faith in God and the Christian tradition. I was fascinated by it all, loved the characters, and enjoyed curling up with the people and places in this special landscape. There's a mastery in the author's use of subtleties and I found myself constantly pondering some of the ideas it raised.

Perhaps there was a little too much of constant exploration about questions of faith but I accepted it as part of the writing style and in keeping with the theme. The pace is leisurely and that is why I think the ending was a little too abrupt. Another fifty pages or so would have been more in keeping with its style. However, I did enjoy the book and recommend it as a really good read.