Reviews

• The Bishop's Man was a wrenching, moving, compelling book to read. A few years back, in one of my own memoirs (Pinhead), I commented that I thought the Catholic priesthood with its requirement of celibacy was probably one of the loneliest professions on earth. MacIntyre's beautifully written novel does little to dispel that notion. Narrator Father Duncan MacAskill is perhaps one of the most tortured voices in contemporary fiction as he weaves his tale of deceit and coverups in the Canadian Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandals of the 80s and 90s and describes his own role as a bishop's hatchet man who attempts to control damage to the Church and its image by making the "bad priests" disappear. Another character, like Duncan a damaged soul and fellow priest, states best (toward the end of the story) what may be the main theme of the book - "It's always a mistake to identify too closely with any institution. That might have been our downfall. Losing ourselves inside the vastness of the Holy Mother Church, forgetting who we are as people ... Institutions are amoral ... We should never lose touch with our individuality. Once you lose that, you lose touch with the basics. The right and the wrong of things. I have to think we're conditioned to the the right thing, as people. But not as institutions. There's no morality in an institution. It's just a thing." Duncan's boss, "Bishop Alex" - a literary villain who will be remembered, I'm sure - has obviously lost sight of "the right and wrong." He is portrayed as the ultimate company man who will stoop as low as necessary to protect that amoral institution that he works for - the Church. Much of the story in The Bishop's Man centers around the tragic suicide of a troubled young man in the remote Cape Breton parish where Duncan has been sent by the bishop to keep him out of the public eye during the sexual abuse investigations. The priest who delivers the homily at the funeral says this of the boy's short suicide note - "I'm told he wrote 'There is no future.' Think of that ... Think of where we have arrived as a society when those who shape the circumstances of our lives and communities can leave our young, the very embodiment of our collective fate, in such a state. There is NO future?" A bit of existential angst, you might think, but the fact is, the suicide has more to do with things like homophobia in a small town, as well as the ongoing Church sexual abuse stuff. There is also much to ponder here about the importance of father-son relationships, as in when Duncan comments on missed opportunities at better understanding his own war-damaged father, saying, "When you're young, you aren't usually interested." And the character he says this to, the suicide's father, replies: "Well, isn't that the way. The things I'd like to ask the old man now. When it's too late." Much is made of the damage done by the insularity, isolation and loneliness imposed by vows of priestly celibacy, vows sometimes broken and then agonized over for years to come, as evidenced in Duncan's journal entries from his 70s soujourn in a Central American mission, where he'd been sent to cool his heels after making his own accusations of sexual abuse by a priest who happened to be a friend of the Bishop. These journals are interspersed throughout the narrative and elipitically tell a tale of a love affair, as well as a close friendship with another young charismatic priest he knew there. There are scenes of incipient alcoholism, depression, crushing guilt and even suicidal impulses which increase to a point where the narrator is sent away to Braecrest, a Church "rehab center," to get dried out and counseled. If there is a guardian angel in the story, it is probably personified in Duncan's roommate there, a "good thief" priest named aptly - no, not Dismas, but Jude, who if I remember my saints correctly, was the patron of lost causes. There is so much to think about in this book. I could go on, but I won't. This has been a good year for me, as far as discovering numerous books of high quality. But this book, The Bishop's Man, is one that will resonate with me for a long, long time. It was a number one bestseller in Canada last year. Here in the U.S. we rarely get bestsellers of this quality. Almost makes a booklover want to move to Canada. I do plan to read MacIntyre's other two books. Maybe that will have to do for now. - Tim Bazzett, author of BOOKLOVER

• This book will stand the test of time as a great Canadian novel. The underlying themes of faith and taboo are handled with sophistication and on occasion with humour. The central character, a "fixer" for the bishop in matters of clerical indiscretion, must come to terms with the dichotomy between the Catholic church's dirty little secrets and his own faith. Developing a relationship with sophisticated and seductive woman further complicates this challenge. In the background is a cast of Cape Breton characters, ancestors and contemporaries of the central figure, each tormented by history, or by alcohol abuse, or by sexuality and by ties to the land, who help create a many-layered texture.

• I really enjoyed this book on my first reading so when I got to the end I re-read it knowing more about the narrator and the characters and so the second reading was even more enjoyable for having this previous knowledge. I bought the next 2 books in this series but I am saving them for holiday reading. I liked the style of the writing, the description of the hard lonely life of a priest in a small country community could be anywhere in rural Ireland.

• This book was well deserving of the Giller Award. When I was reading the book I was enjoying it so much I never wanted it to end. I felt I had met these priests and knew these places. I don't know if someone who wasn't acquainted with the small town Catholic experience would like it as much as someone who was familiar with Canadian Catholic culture. I could almost smell the furniture polish in cleanliness & sterility of the rectory uncluttered with the chaos of everyday working class family life. The ordinariness of deeply tragic events is superbly written.

• Our bookclub read this book and all of us really liked it. Personally I thought it was one of the best reads I have ever read. The writing lead the reader to get a really clear understanding of the main characters emotional tail spin. It was really really good.

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