Earthly Powers (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics) (Paperback)

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Review
Much too, long and just as loosely assembled as his other recent novels, Burgess' latest black-comic variation on man's sin and God's cruel tricks does have, however, an engagingly grandiose design: the life of homosexual, lapsed-Catholic Kenneth Toomey - a popular, second-rate novelist/playwright whose dates (1890-1971) and connections embrace most of the sexual, artistic, and religious pressure points of the century's first half. Approximately 75% Maugham, 15% Coward, and 10% Waugh, Toomey begins his narration at age 81 - when, self-exiled in Malta and wrangling with his latest lover-secretary, he's asked to support the canonization of the late Pope Gregory XVII with a written recollection of one of the Pope's miracles. A book-length flashback then ensues, of course, starting with Toomey at 26, unsuccessfully "trying to reconcile my sexual urges with my religious faith." Dumped by a smarmy, mincing poet (a lifelong nemesis), threatened with scandal over an affair with a married actor, and depressed by his mother's horror at his homosexuality, Toomey leaves London for Europe - where he falls in with the rich Campanati brothers: anti-prohibition businessman Rafaelle, who'll be a Mafia victim in the US; hack composer Domenico, who'll marry Toomey's sister Hortense and (wisely) sell out to Hollywood; but, above all, fat Carlo, a gluttonous, gambling, devout exorcist-priest with whom Toomey debates the matter of free will. And when Toomey find true love with a doctor in Kuala Kangsar who gets fatally cursed by a native Satanist, it's Carlo who magically appears for an exorcism - an impressive, though futile, performance . . . soon followed by Carlo's miracle cure of a dying child in a Chicago hospital. From the Thirties on, however, the novel becomes more lazily episodic, a parade of global and personal calamities to parallel the climbs of Toomey and anti-fascist Carlo (who's out to "make Pope"): the Campanatis' mother dies while trying to assassinate Himmler (who's saved, embarrassingly, by Toomey); Toomey attempts to rescue an Austrian Nobel-winner but merely winds up on German radio sounding pro-Nazi (like poor P.G. Wode-house); Hortense, now with a black lesbian lover, loses an eye in a freak accident. And after Carlo does make Pope in 1958, becoming ecumenical Gregory XVII, family woes escalate: Hortense's anthropologist son is killed by African terrorists (the murder is later linked to the natives' wayward embrace of Catholicism!); her lover dies in agony; and her granddaughter dies in a Jonestown-like mass suicide led by guru Godfrey Manning . . . who turns out to have been that child whom Carlo miraculously healed years ago in Chicago!! So much for miracles - and free will - and life - is what pessimist Burgess (a professed "renegade Catholic") once again seems to be saying; and that one-note theme is hardly resonant enough to round out the sketchy characterization and daffy plotting here. Still, Toomey is an ideal Burgess narrator - bitchy, erudite, wordplaying - and his involvements with America, academia, opera, musicals, and literature (boozy Joyce, smelly Forster, Havelock Ellis, Kipling, a censorship trial in which Toomey finally comes out of the closet), inspire slashing put-downs, wicked parodies, and splendidly whimsical allusions of all sorts. Despite all the issues and debates, then: an essentially skin-deep entertainment, chiefly for savvy Anglophiles and theologically inclined litterateurs, which - as Toomey says of his own work - takes unprofound material and manages "to elevate it through wit, allusion and irony to something like art." (Kirkus Reviews)

Product Description
This novel traces 81 years in the life of a homosexual writer and lapsed Catholic called Frank Toomey, who spends a lifetime unsuccessfully trying to reconcile his sexual urges with his faith.

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15 Reviews 5 star:  (13) 4 star:  (1) 3 star:  (1) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 4.8 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   17 of 17 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars An offbeat masterwork, 9 Sep 2005 By  "jrmonk" - See all my reviews This review is from: Earthly Powers (Vintage Classics) (Paperback) A lot of mythologising surrounds this novel; when it was first published, the critics snarled and disdained it, and in large part didn't understand it, which is forgiveable, because it is a huge, complex monster of a book. The plot (which is far from being the central point of the book) follows the richly colourful and sympathetic inner life of an ancient, eccentric author against the backdrop of twentieth-century history: this is merely a stage against which to set his relationship with an Italian priest of great character and complexity, destined to become Pope. This relationship is in itself a mere frame for an analysis of the nature of good and evil, and faith and free will, in an astonishingly subtle and labyrinthine way. The whole thrust of the book is to propose an idea, only revealed near the end, which is so philosophically shocking that the reader has to have some way of rejecting it, should they so wish. Suddenly the rest of the book is thrown into crystal relief - the vast complexity of the narrative is a web of deliberate errors of fact, logic and conclusion to allow this escape: the nature of human memory and thought itself is thrown into question. Beyond that, I leave you to argue it out amongst yourselves. This is a truly great book by one of Britain's most important C20 writers. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   10 of 10 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Epic Masterpiece, 19 Dec 2001 By  francisco.caravana@clix.pt (Manchester Uk) - See all my reviews This review is from: Earthly Powers (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback) I can't believe this isn't full of reviews, this book is one of the best books I've ever read. Anthony Burgess is one of the most inventive, original authors, making you believe everything because he entwines fiction with reality. This is a huge book, a review of the 20th century, deep, and extremly inteligent. By the end of the book Toomey (the main character) is a part of your life, I was so sad to let him go... Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   18 of 19 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Burgess's masterpiece, 28 April 2004 By  Gregory Norminton (Edinburgh, Scotland) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    This review is from: Earthly Powers (Vintage Classics) (Paperback) Most writers scratch and fidget, gaze longingly at the telephone, developneurotic ticks, suffer fits of envy, fury, self-pity... and then get alittle writing done. Anthony Burgess, on the other hand, seems to havewritten a chapter before breakfast, knocked off a couple of book reviewsbefore lunch, written a symphony over crumpets and tea, and finallyrelaxed by reading THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY in Mandarin translation. Hisenergy must have provoked suspicion among his peers, who failed to giveEARTHLY POWERS the Booker Prize it so richly deserved. The novel may behis greatest achievement: charting eighty years in the life of KennethToomey as he crosses continents, meets artists and Nazis, Americancultists and a devil-bashing Pope. It is a picaresque comedy that looksinto some of the darkest recesses of the 20th Century. It is huge,rambunctious, and encyclopedic. And don't let that put you off: this(slow) reader finished it in four days. So chuck out that wretchedthriller. Make EARTHLY POWERS your holiday read. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 15 customer reviews...		Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars A fun read Don't be put off by Martin Anis's recommendation - it really is a good read and very funny. If you like farce, you'll like this. Read more Published 6 months ago by I. Holton 5.0 out of 5 stars The Perfect Novel I remember picking this up and getting a feeling of joy bubbling through me when I read the first line and found that I already liked Kenneth Toomey as he explained his thinking... Read more Published 9 months ago by D. M. Deeks 3.0 out of 5 stars garlicky garlicky puns???omnilingual jokes!!! top hole old boy... the best sleeping pill I have ever used...a great cure for insomnia.. Read more Published 11 months ago by John Fitzgerald 5.0 out of 5 stars Religion/Power 4.7 or 4.8 stars. A remarkable parody of that greatest of cliches - the self-indulgent reflections of a writer. But this is happily more than a conceptual joke. Read more Published 11 months ago by Pablo K 5.0 out of 5 stars Response from an Ordinary Person Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess A tour de force by an erudite and fluent author; he has structured a framework of individual lives and relationships within which he... Read more Published 18 months ago by mesmh 5.0 out of 5 stars Burgess deserved far better This book remains one of the key novels of the 20th century. Burgess was an extremely fine writer and this, in my view, is his best. Read more Published 23 months ago by S. de Villiers 5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favourite novels Funny, dramatic, entertaining, informative,spine tingling, wonderfully readable. The camp novelist / autobiographical voice and the Italian Pope are fantastic. Read more Published on 15 Dec 2006 by W. Jones 5.0 out of 5 stars WOW!! I bought this book by total chance a few years ago, for long enough i regretted paying the best part of a tenner for a book id never heard of before but then, one day recently i... Read more Published on 14 Aug 2005 by cherubinterrorist 4.0 out of 5 stars Wide-ranging and wonderful journey This book is a wonderful journey through the life and adventures of Kenneth Toomey, the world-wearing and endearing protagonist. Read more Published on 12 May 2005 5.0 out of 5 stars Literary Powers, too. My Amazon copy is my third, the previous editions having fallen apart from constant re-reading. Earthly Powers is simply my favourite novel (of the many I've read either in... Read more Published on 10 Oct 2002 by Plom de Nume Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 15 customer reviews...

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