- Unknown Binding
- Publisher: Scribner (Aug 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0743215745
- ISBN-13: 978-0743215749
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
Clerical Errors
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
In Father Edmond Music, Alan Isler has created a wholly believable character, yet so multi-faceted, that as you read the book, you keep discovering more about him. A Jew, yet a Catholic priest, a heretic, a lover (of his house-keeper Maude), deeply compassionate, yet also acerbic and sarcastic.
Edmond has had a privileged life as custodian of a richly endoowed retreat centre and library. He has carried out his duties faithfully, while enjoying the benefits to the full, and yet a threat to his comfortable life arrives on his doorstep in the person of a deeply unpleasant Father Twombley who seeks to expose Edmond for apparently selling off one of the retreat house's valuable treasure, many years before.
Yet this "plot" is not what the book is about in my view. It is more an exploration of the character of the highly complex Edmond Music. By the end of the book, the reader finds that Edmond "lives", and that one has discovered real affection for him. Along the way there have been many hilarious (and also moving) scenes, but all of them revolving around genuinely human experiences which tell us more about ourselves and the people around us.
The book touches on some complex issues, such as the relationship between post-Holocaust Jewry and Christianity, Edmond carrying the conflict within him, extremely uncomfortably at times, but also extremely enrichingly.
A great read and makes me want to read everything else I can get my hands on my Alan Isler.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Forget kindly, selfless Father Flanagan - his antithesis is Father Edmond Music, a priest gone far astray. He finds joy in celebrating the pleasures of the flesh with his housekeeper, Maude, is involved in the disappearance of a thought-to-be Shakespeare manuscript, was born a Jew, and worst of all, he's an unabashed atheist.
Let's say up front that some will be offended by what they may consider blasphemy; it's pure Isler who won the 1994 National Jewish Book Award for "The Prince Of West End Avenue." He's satirical, laugh out loud funny, exquisitely literate, and touching. He's also unwilling to be reined in by "popular constraints."
Thanks to a much earlier love affair with the robust Kiki, who gave the church her family home, Beale Hall, Father Music is contentedly assigned to be the Hall's director with the stipulation that it be used as a spiritual retreat.
Regrettably, the priest's laissez faire attitude has earned him a persistent enemy, one Father Twombly who is determinedly investigating the disappearance of a valuable manuscript from the Hall's library. Thus, at a rather advanced age Father Music is forced to try to outwit his vengeful nemesis.
Mr. Isler laces his text with ruminations on life, love, and faith - not longueurs but substantial food for thought offered with sly winks and witty prose pictures. "Clerical Errors" is a rich rabelaisian feast.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is truly a fine read. Poignant, humorous and thought-provoking.
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