The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
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Book Summary Author: Mary Doria Russell Edition: Paperback Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published) Published: 1997-09-08 ISBN: 0449912558 Number of pages: 448 Publisher: Ballantine Books |
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Book Reviews of the The Sparrow
Customer Review: Come along for the ride - a metaphysical trip to the future!
Summary: 4 Stars
The Sparrow
by Mary Russell Doria
MT 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge.
With what awareness does God watch our individual progress, love us into being, care about our path? This is the question at the core of The Sparrow, a novel set in the future in which the Society of Jesus sends a missionary expedition to a newly discovered planet in outer space. Rich in parallels with actual Jesuit missionary history, disturbing and persistent questions arise. Cultural naivete on the part of the missionaries unleashes events which delve into the dark and tortured side of human nature (Jakvat nature as well).
The Jesuit expedition consists of three Jesuit priests (the head of the expedition, the linguist, and the artist) and four non-Jesuits (a woman doctor and her husband; the scientist who discovered the beautiful music wafting through the universe; and a brilliant young female logician). The novel gets off to a slow start. The author's technique of moving back and forth in time, combined with the introduction of the web of relationships among the characters, makes the first quarter of the book difficult. Once the expedition is under way, however, it becomes a great read, difficult to put down.
The characters are rich in complexity and well intentioned. Celibacy is still a stricture for priests in this futuristic society, and the author explores the challenges and limitations of such a choice. The secular characters are fully fleshed out - particularly Anne, the 60ish doctor - affectionate, agnostic, no-nonsense. She is the perfect foil for the intellectual, elitist Jesuits - the Jesuit leader of the expedition falls ill soon after landing; the artist is ineffectual outside of his realm of specialization; and the linguist, our hero, for all his call to holiness, is reduced to the lone survivor, a victim of circumstance and tunnel vision.
The author has some fun with stereotypes, particularly with the "Jesuitical" manipulation of the "inquisition"which the surviving Jesuit undergoes upon his return. There is some play of traditional Christian symbolism - our hero's hands are mutilated by the hosts on yon planet (stigmata?) He is dragged from imprisonment to one far worse - and humiliated in the streets (carrying of the cross?) This is the character who most poignantly feels the abandonment of God (My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?) The reward for his celibacy is sexual intimidation and rape.
The culmination is ironic. The victimization of the protagonist and his subsequent humiliation in a court of his peers, who at first blush are unrelentingly unsympathetic, is given a lot of airplay. Yet when they discover that he had not turned to prostitution and murder of his own volition but was instead imprisoned and ruthlessly abused, they are shocked into sympathy, compassion, horror. Now they can fully understand his rage at God, his sense of betrayal, his unwillingness to cooperate in narrating his story. This makes for a good story line, but why is this treatment more shocking when a priest is the victim than it is for the millions of women and children throughout history who have suffered and continue to suffer this same fate? Not so different after all - and perhaps that is the author's point.
There are humor, brightness, love and discovery in The Sparrow. With a true spirit of adventure, we journey with the Stella Maris through space, to God knows what end. Doria is a good storyteller, and she has a good story to tell in The Sparrow