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Summary: Howatch does it again!
Review: Susan Howatch is one of the most important spiritual writers of our time. Her grasp of grace and unconditional love always leaves me with more peace than I had before reading her books. I have read every one of her books over the past twenty years and always check the "just released" rack for more from her. I was excited to discover HIGH FLYER a few weeks ago, bought it immediately - and read it in two days. The plot kept me turning page after page into the wee hours of the morning. But the best part of the book came at the telling of the "sheep dog trials". I will not spoil the story by saying more, just that I highly recommend this book! Thanks, Susan, for another great read.
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Summary: A devoutly spiritual and intelligent novel. Well Done!
Review: Thank God for novelists like Susan Howatch. At a time when Christian novels are so full of the apocalypse and end of days Ms. Howatch's The High Flyer comes through! An intelligent story of the struggle of good against evil and the ultimate gift of redemption that sings praise to the Living God with faith and reason. It is obvious that Ms. Howatch has been well blessed with a healthy vibrant faith that is fully integrated with an equally healthy and strong intellect. Perhaps Carter's dialogue is a little tough to take, but then so is Carter. (Who isn't when they think they have all the answers?) In a world where success is the misguided measure of our worth as human beings, I found Carter to be very familiar in her failings, in her strengths, her struggle, and in her vulnerability. And so very redeemable. Thank God for the journey and the gentle companion who is never what we expect. P.S. David Ford's "The Shape of Living" is a very special added bonus!
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Summary: Suspenseful but problematic message
Review: The High Flyer demonstrates Susan Howatch is a more than competent writer, able to develop interesting characters, a suspenseful story and believable dialogue, but I had great difficulty with the message of this book. Clearly, this book is written from a Chrisitan perspective and as such values forgiveness and redemption and talks a great deal about Jesus Christ. That's okay by me and I even admire how Howatch pulled that off without sounding preachy. Not many writers are willing to write about faith without apology. Despite being impressed with how Howatch deals with faith, I'm not so impressed with her female characters. Howatch draws a stereotypical central charcter whose basic problem is that she dismisses her "feminine" side in favor of a life plan dominated by acheiving "macho" (Howatch's term) success (being a high power lawyer, earning "megabucks," living in the right place, marrying a similar high flyer). Her husband's admission that he married her because she's "just like a man" leads her to realize that he can't see the real (feminine) her. In an internal dialogue she explains, "The reality was that I was a woman. My masculine persona, adopted long ago to help me survive in a cut-throat world dominated by men..." Here's the best example (and, amazingly even pedantic than the last section): as a young woman, the main character chooses to change her name from Catronia to the masculine Carter. The end of the book sees her return to a more feminine name and hints at the possiblity of a more traditional marriage. The central antagonist is a powerful women who has harnesses evil forces to destroy others and run a cult. There are no other female characters worth discussion. All in all, I left the novel wishing Howatch liked women more and feeling that the main point of the novel is to convince women to give up their quest for equality, respect and dignity. Reads a little like a backlash to me.
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Summary: Weak entry in a strong series
Review: This book like the Wonder Worker continues in the vein of the Church of England series, which is one my favorites. While the plot was fairly strong, the writing was not up to Ms. Howatch's usually excellent standards. The bare bones stuck out too much--I felt like I was reading an earlier draft that had not yet had the rough edges polished off. The dialogue, especially Carter's interior dialogue was clunky, repetitive and unconvincing. Many of the events seemed labored and over the top. Did her husband Kim really have to be a Nazi and involved in the occult, and in perverse sex? Themes were pushed hard instead being more quietly illustrated by the story itself. Howatch still writes a gripping spiritual thriller, but this needed more work.
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Summary: Spiritual thriller for the theologically minded
Review: This is a novel about spiritual warfare. The protagonists are a sinister New Age practitioner called Mrs. Mayfield, and two flawed, eccentric Anglican priests. Caught in the middle are the narrator, a ferocious thirtysomething career woman called Carter Graham, and her husband Kim. The first half of the book is a fast-moving adventure story, with the plot being driven by revelations about Kim's past (involving Mrs. Mayfield, and his first wife, Sophie). For much of the second half the pace slows and more serious themes emerge. Carter moves from her earlier indifference to Christianity towards a tentative engagement. There is much discussion of the nature of evil. The underlying theology is Anglican (roughly equates to Episcopalian), liberal but clearly supernaturalist, and greatly informed by Jung. I enjoyed this book. I haven't read any of Susan Howatch's novels before, and I am sure I shall read others. It's hard to find a writer to compare her with (some have apparently suggested Trollope, which I think is just batty). To me she reads like a modern and much more populist version of Charles Williams (novelist from the 1930s and 1940s and friend of C.S. Lewis). I had some reservations. I felt that a reader who just wanted a good adventure story and didn't have any interest in theology or psychology would find parts of the book tedious and would want to skip them. I also found the writing uneven. Some of the dialogue clunks. Carter's idiosyncratic vocabulary (e.g. "tiger-thumpers" for sexist men who try to sabotage high-flying women) became tiresome after a while. And the social context of the characters is not always happily observed. E.g. I don't believe that a partner in a London commercial law firm would shop for an important dinner party at the local branch of Safeways supermarket! Despite these reservations I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone who shares the author's interests. Three stars is a fair verdict.
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Summary: A great read, but a little heavy on the dialogue...
Review: This is the first time I've ever read Susan Howatch. The book just caught my eye in the library and I like books with psychological dealings in them. I really got into this book, especially because the beginning was so captivating. Carter's (the main character) word usage was creative and very funny.. I found myself laughing at how she expresses what she is feeling throughout the book. However, about 300 pages into it, I was feeling rather sick of the endless telling and retelling and all that of all of Carter's problems. I was like yeah yeah yeah.. OK, so she thinks her husband is wacko, that's nice MOVE ON! I skipped about 20 pages of dialogue and was able to figure out exactly what was going on when I started actually reading again. That was the only complaint that I had to this novel; it oculd have been about 50 - 75 pages shorter. It was all in all a great read though; I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend it. I've never read any other of the books and it looks like they are all part of some sort of a series but I had absolutely no problem following along. Enjoy!
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Summary: Another mesmerizing novel by Howatch
Review: This was really one of her best books. The transformation that Carter/Catriona undergoes was fascinating to read and the deception perpetuated by Kim was equally amazing. Howatch always makes me think about my faith and she does it in a subtle, effective manner. This was difficult to put down and a book that I was sorry to finish.
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Summary: nutterguff
Review: Why do I keep reading Susan Howatch novels? Because I can't resist the positive way she depicts Christianity in general and Anglicanism in particular. Because I am enthralled with her images of a loving God and supportive, healing communities of people.
What I am finally realizing, though, is that Howatch's novels are actually romance novels. In High Flyer, the cunning corporate female protagonist so sharply and tellingly depicted in the early chapters of the book abruptly degenerates into yet another sniveling, quivering Howach heroine desperately in need of male protection by chapter 10. Such a sudden and drastic transformation is just not believable. And, oh my, there are a plethora of knights in shining armor poised to rescue her. Her next love interest is already slavering at her feet even before the plotline conveniently disposes of her husband. Books like this one are at once entertaining and infuriating.
And, amid all the psychobabble, how often do real adults employ (constantly!) terms like "fruity-loops"?
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