book review: Faith by Jennifer Haigh
The backstory: In my pre-blogging days, I read Mrs. Kimble by Jennifer Haigh and really enjoyed it. I didn't track my reading in my early post-college days, but it's one of those novels I remember specific scenes from, so I was eager to read Haigh's latest novel, Faith . My thoughts: Faith puts a very human face on the issue of priest abuse. We hear about Art, who is accused of abusing a young boy, through his sister Sheila. It's an interesting narrative device to hear Art's story through someone else, but I appreciated it. It's a powerful narrative device and questions the very nature of story and how the storyteller shapes the audience's perceptions and knowledge. I also appreciated sharing the journey with Sheila. She shared my desire to know what happened. At some point, however, my desire as a reader shifted and the why became so much more important than the what. The verdict: I adored Faith , and it's a tribute to Haigh's writing and sc...