Book Review: The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber

The Book of Strange New Things

Author: Michel Faber

Publisher: Crown Publishing Group

Date of Publication: October 28, 2014

Pages: 500 (Hardcover Edition)

     This book is itself somewhat of a strange new thing.  The main character, Peter Leigh, is an Englishman, a recovered alcoholic, drug addict and petty criminal.  He reinvented himself as  a Christian minister after being befriended by a nurse during a convalescence.  This nurse becomes his wife and partner in his ministry until he is selected to go alone to another planet to spread the Word of Jesus to aliens on a recently colonized planet called Oasis.  The colonization project is run by a nebulous company identified only as USIC

     It takes a while for Peter to become acclimated to his new planet and even longer to meet and begin his work with his new parishioners.  The author does a masterful job of describing this new world, including details of agriculture, climate, topography and the native inhabitants, called "Oasans" by Peter.  Peter is able to communicate with his wife, Bea, via an inter-stellar e-mail.  Just as Peter's ministry begins to flourish, troubles at home strain his relationship with Bea.  As he desperately tries to reconcile his missionary success with his personal failures, suspicion regarding the motives of USIC muddy the waters.  

     One can't help but be reminded of Mary Doria Russel's The Sparrow.  In The Sparrow the missionary is a Jesuit priest and the theology espoused is most definitely Ignatian.  In The Books of Strange New Things Peter's denomination is never characterized other than "Christian" and the religious concerns bounce around from issues of faith, suffering, redemption and salvation and even predestination.  There is not a particular theology presented, although the Bible is thoroughly explored as Peter translates Jesus' parables and teachings (Oasans prefer the New Testament).   

     The Book of Strange New Things is a marvelous exploration into faith and sharing.  It raises serious issues of being so concerned with others that you lose track of what's going on to those right next to you and trying to find that balance of saving the world but being true to your own relationships. 

Book Review: The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

The Sparrow

Author: Mary Doria Russell

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Date of Publication: September 28, 1997

Pages: 405

     The Sparrow is this author's first novel and was published in 1996.  She has subsequently published a sequel and three more novels.  Mary Doria Russell earned a PhD in biological anthropology from the University of Michigan.  She was raised as a Roman Catholic and has converted to Judaism.  Her science background as well as her religious heritages are readily evident in this novel.

     The Sparrow has a fascinating premise.  What if an intelligent alien species was found and before earthly governments could respond, a religious order organizes an expedition to meet and greet these celestial neighbors?  Ms. Russell uses the Jesuits as that order since they have a long history of missionary work.  Francis Xavier, for instance, was the first Christian missionary to travel to China and Japan in the 1500s.  A team of scientists and Jesuits is assembled and launched on an asteroid to the planet Rakhat in Alpha Centauri, the closest solar system to our own (4.37 light years away).  The mission is a success on some levels but eventually accidents occur, conflicts arise and Father Emilio Sandoz, S.J. is the only survivor who returns.

    This is science fiction of the highest order, suffused with a heavy dose of Ignatian spirituality.  Ignatius of Loyola was the founder of the Society of Jesus (the Jeuits) after an early life as a soldier.  A mystical experience during convalescence from an injury lead Ignatius to a life of service to the Pope and to his fellow man.  As the author states in the prologue: "The Jesuit scientists went to learn, not to proselytize.  They went so that they might come to know and love God's other children.  They went for the reason Jesuits have always gone to the farthest frontiers of human exploration.   They went ad majorem Dei gloriam: for the greater glory of God."  

     Father Emilio Sandoz is the main character, but there are many excellent secondary characters as well.  One of the many strengths of this novel is the depth of all of the characters.  The main purpose of The Sparrow, though, seems to be as a platform to look at difficult theological questions.  Early on Sandoz is asked "How do you experience God?"  to which he gives a straightforward Jesuit response: "I would have to say that I find God in serving His children."  Russell also asks how do humans respond when confronted directly with the presence of God in their lives and what does it mean to find God?  How do you reconcile the concept of God with evil that surrounds us as well?

     The ending of The Sparrow was unexpected and disturbing.  The Sparrow is a challenging read but very well researched and tremendously well written.  The inclusion of basically a primer in Ignatian spirituality was unanticipated but appreciated.  I'm glad I read this, I'm still thinking about it and I look forward to reading the sequel Children of God.

Book Review: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 451 

by Ray Bradbury

“We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against. So! A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon.” — Captain Beatty


     Ray Bradbury would have been 92 years old this past Wednesday (August 22, 2012).  He was a prolific writer of science fiction and horror stories, novellas and novels and is best known for Fahrenheit 451, first published in 1953 by Ballantine books.  

   This is the story of Guy Montag, a fireman in a future America.  In this society a fireman's job is not protection from fire, but to burn books and the homes which contain them.  The goal of this is to remove the influence of literature.  Guy begins to doubt his purpose in life when he meets a young neighbor girl named Clarisse.  Clarisse is a romantic and encourages Guy to appreciate and engage his surroundings and life in general:

“You’re not like the others. I’ve seen a few; I know. When I talk, you look at me. When I said something about the moon, you looked at the moon, last night. The others would never do that.”

     Clarisse and her family disappear under suspicious circumstances and Guy ponders the meaning of his discussions with Clarisse.  He becomes frustrated with his wife Mildred who sits all day enveloped in a television "room" where her stories are displayed on the walls.  Mildred talks of the actors as if they were family and her whole life becomes interchangeable with the plots of the television dramas.

     Guy becomes particularly distraught when, during the process of burning a book-filled home, the old woman who owns the home perishes in the fire.  He begins a process of pilfering books and keeping them in his home (well aware of the danger of such action) and befriends an old theologian.  In the final chapters of the book Guy is revealed as a book owner and he is on the run from the authorities after a particularly violent confrontation at his burning home.  In hiding out in the country, Guy encounters other intellectuals on the lam and witnesses the beginning of an Armageddon-like war.  

     There have been many interpretations of this brief but powerful novel.  Many center around the idea of censorship and suppression of knowledge by the state.  Bradbury himself stated that the novel was more about the dehumanizing effect of television on humans - taking over their lives and thoughts at the expense of self-knowledge, free thinking and individuality.  How prescient is this novel, written nearly sixty years ago?  Today we do have room-sized televisions, 3-D screens and surround sound, much like the "television rooms" Bradbury describes in Fahrenheit 451.  We also have the phenomenon of "reality TV" where the characters in these shows become like family for some.  We live in an age where the majority of adults never read a book and what passes for literature is basically trash (Fifty Shades of Grey, anyone?).

     This novel is well worth reading, not only for the critical ideas the author explores, but also for the quality of the writing, so absent from today's "literature."