Faith (2011) by Jennifer Haigh

 1001 Novels: A Library of America

Faith (2011)

by Jennifer Haigh

Boston, Massachusetts

 Massachusetts: 8/30

    I think this is the first 1001 Novels book from Boston.  I have spent a LOT of time in the city of Boston over the past decade- twice a year, usually two to three days each visit.  It's a solid second tier city- I would say the only two really world class, top tier cities in the US are New York and Los Angeles followed by a dozen at the same level as Boston.  Maybe you could put Chicago on a top three with NYC and LA.   Anyway- Boston is a top 10 city.   Not top 3, but top 10.  The positive qualities of Boston relative to other cities in the top 10 are:  the history- as in, it has some.  The center city is relatively compact, 19th century affair making getting around on foot very plausible.  It's located on the water, making for a relatively mild climate for the area.  The airport is 10 minutes from downtown.  Weed is legal, the food and bar scene is and Fenway Park and Madison Square Garden are both in the city proper. Negatives include a horrific tunnel-based road system in the center city, a history of white, working-class racism and a stodgy elite that has been slow to catch up with 21st century trends in urban management.  Those are pretty minor problems as US cities go.

    Faith has a plot that sounds like it was spit out by a Boston literature mad-libs generator:  A priest is accused of child molestation and it impacts his family, mostly his sister (the narrator) and his half-brother. I repeated this description to my Boston-area native partner and she quipped, "Isn't that every novel about Boston?"  As I've mentioned, there is a surfeit of books within the precincts of the 1001 Novels: A Library of America list that deal with conflicts between siblings.  My favorites are the ones narrated in flashback forms about their sibling issues- Affliction is the best example.   So, by those standards, Faith is more tolerable than other books of its ilk because it is narrated by the older half-sister in the aftermath of the events described- same as Affliction.  

    The Boston of this book is drab and colorless, which, don't get me wrong, is an accurate description of Boston, at times.  However, something I'm now looking for when I read books on the 1001 Novels: A Library of America list, is show-piece physical descriptions of these places- Boston- in this book.  Something like the opening sequence of Underworld by Don DeLillo which takes place during a 1951 New York Giants baseball game at Ebbets field.  In the Boston context- the first mention of Fenway Park comes 10 books in, and I've to get even a mention of the Boston Garden, either in the basketball of hockey context.  

   The particulars of the plot of Faith are grim and dare I say, a trifle sordid. The three siblings all have their failings but obviously a priest getting accused of child molestation in the post-Church Child Abuse Scandal era is a big deal for all involved.  I'm not sure I'd put this specific narrative on a "must read" list to understand the story, specifically because it takes place in the aftermath of the original out-cry.  The construction of the plot contains multiple spoilers as Haigh leaves the readers guessing about guilt, innocence and the personal histories of the three siblings. 

  One fact that emerges that I found particularly hard to square with my own knowledge of these situations is that it comes out that the accused priest/half brother was himself molested as a very young child by a local priest who preyed on his single mother.   And yet, he went on to become a priest himself.   If this book was set in the 19th century, perhaps that would make more sense to me, but it is hard to square that later disclosed fact with his earlier decisions vis a vis the priesthood.   I'd be the first to admit that I "just don't get" the cultural values embodied here. 

   I listened to the Audiobook version which was grim- if I had to do it over I would have read the physical book so I could get through it as quickly as possible- not the kind of novel one savors.