Morte d'Urban

Here is the long-awaited novel by the author of PRINCE OF DARKNESS and THE PRESENCE OF GRACE of whom Evelyn Waugh, reviewing the latter volume in Commonweal, said, "I see no limit to his possible achievement." Here is Father Urban who has, among other things, succeeded in making himself nationally known as a preacher, and this without much help from radio and television. Nobody, with the possible exception of the Holy Founder himself (who had died at the hands of fanatical Huguenots), had ever done more for the Order of St. Clement. But then came a day when everything seemed to count for nothing ... and then a year in which Father Urban had to make the best of the blows dealt him by fate. Here, too, are:

• Father Wilfrid, making bricks without straw—or clay.
• Brother Harold, his good right hand.
• Father John, whom the world was not too much with.
• Monsignor Renton, troubled by curates and the passing of time.
• Billy Cosgrove, a fat cat.
• The Thwaites Family, a mixed bag.
• And many more.

What are the qualities which make the writing of J. F. Powers such a delight? A style at once quiet and incisive; the power, never a vicious one, to uncover human foibles; irony tempered with compassion; and, perhaps above all, a talent for revealing great truths through small incidents.