Showing posts with label JFPowers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label JFPowers. Show all posts

Wednesday, 27 February 2019

The Substance of Things Hoped For Short Fiction by Modern Catholic Authors - John B. Breslin, SJ Editor

The Substance of Things Hoped For:
Short Fiction by Modern Catholic Authors
John B. Breslin, SJ Editor
Doubleday Religion
Hardcover
ISBN 9780385234283
ISBN 0385234287
Paperback
ISBN 9780307590992
ISBN 0307590992
 

Father John B. Breslin, SJ, was a priest, a professor, and a writer. He was the editor of this collection. In the introduction he states:

“In a self-consciously ecumenical era, it may seem invidious to publish a “Catholic” anthology of short fiction. Surely, a Christian collection would be more in keeping with efforts to break down ghetto walls and remove the scandal of division that has undercut the credibility of Christ’s followers for the past four and a half centuries—-and more. Twenty years ago, as the effects of the Second Vatican Council began to seep down into the lives and imaginations of Catholics, such considerations would have made this anthology an instant anachronism, perhaps even an embarrassment to the bien pensants of the day.”

He also stated:

“As for the stories themselves, the choice was ultimately and inevitably personal, for which I assume full responsibility, taking the blame for omitting a reader’s favorite story while hoping to get occasional credit for introducing the same reader to a new author or a hitherto unknown tale.”

I recall picking up this collection in hardcover on a bargain table at a book store shortly after the paperback edition came out. At the time I was a student at Queen’s University and love the collection. For many of the contributors it was my introduction to their works. I read the book twice that year I believe. Later that year wile living in a rectory I loaned the book to a seminarian and never got it back.

But there was one story in the collection that came back to me often. In 2006 I wrote these words about that story and this book:

Haunting, that is the only way I can describe the short story. I read a short story years ago, back in the late 80's I had a collection of short Catholic Fiction, I read it ad enjoyed it, but there was a particular story that has haunted me. I can only describe it that way. Yet I no longer had the book. It was lent out and not returned back in the early 90''s and yet this story would come to mind again and again over the years. I did not know the author of the story, the editor of the book, all I could remember was that the book had a black cover with yellow writing.

A few weeks ago I was at a retreat at Mount Carmel Monastery in Niagara Falls, and this story came to mind again. So I decided to try and find it. I did searches on Amazon.ca and Chapters.ca and tried to find the book. I searched '`Catholic'' and 'fiction'' also 'Catholic' and '`Short Story'' and tried many other searches. Nothing matched what I remembered but there was a book from 1984 that they did not have a cover image for The Substance of Things Hoped For edited by John Breslin S.J. so I interlibrary loaned the book at school and found the story I was looking for. It was called, The Warm Sand by J. F. Powers and was very much what I remembered. I also found out that it had been made into a novel that won the National Book award in 1968 so I am now reading the book Wheat That Springeth Green of which the short story is chapter 6 in the book almost exactly. I have posted the Short Story as the post before this one and would love your take on it. I have my prie-dieu and at times it has been used, but not as much as it should. Check out the story and tell me what you think.

And in the almost twelve years since tracking the book down I have read it several times. When researching this review, I was surprised to discover that the paperback edition is still in print. It was a happy surprise as I can think of many people, I would want to share this volume with. The sections and stories in this collection are:

Introduction
INITIATION
The Beginnings Of A Sin - Bernard Maclaverty
Delia - Mary Gordon
A Christmas Tale - Francois Mauriac
Alice Long’s Dachshunds - Muriel Spark
The Liar - Tobias Wolff

EXPLORATION
The Enduring Chill - Flannery O’Connor
Hot Ice - Stuart Dybek
Life After Death - Elizabeth Cullinan
Polikushka - Ignazio Silone
The Salvation Of Me - Breece D’J Pancake

RESPONSIBILITY
A Father’s Story - Andre Dubus
Mothers - Shusaku Endo
Candles For The Madonna - Heinrich Boll
The Warm Sand - J.F. Powers
The Recruiting Officer - John Mcgahern
The Promiscuous Self - Walker Percy
Crucifixus Etiam - Walter M. Miller, Jr.
The Comedian- John L’heureux

RESIGNATION
A Visit To Morin - Graham Greene
Absolution - Morley Callaghan
Jack Frost - Josephine Jacobsen

Profiles of the Authors

There are some very powerful stories in this collection. The Warm Sand by J.F. Powers as mentioned has stuck with me for years. Other stories that stick out to me in particular were Mothers, by Shusaku Endo and The Enduring Chill by Flannery O’Connor which were both about the power of Mothers over sons. There are some that were a shock, both when I first read the collection and again rereading it now for example Hot Ice by Stuart Dybek.

Today I make a distinction between Catholic writers, Catholics who write Catholic stories, and authors who write Catholic stories. To some extent all three are represented in this collection. And some authors may even have works in more than one of the three categories.

Another interesting piece of this collection is the author biographies. These biographies provide some interesting information and also serve as a time capsule. As of the writing of this review in 2019 only 5 of the 21 contributors are still alive. For Powers it states he has 3 collections of short stories, the years after this collection was published, he published his second and final novel both of which won the national book award.

This collection has a wide range of stories, from a diverse group of authors. It does a great job of providing a snapshot of Catholic fiction from the last century. It is worth the time to pursue and if you do give it a read I would love to know what stories have an impact on you.

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Saturday, 25 August 2018

Three Great Catholic Writers That You Might Never Have Heard Of! Curtayne - Lord - Powers

Three Great Catholic Writers That You Might Never Have Heard Of!
Curtayne - Lord - Powers

 I have a habit of coming across writers, falling in love with their works, trying to track down all of their works. The three authors featured in this piece are writers I consider to have exceptional skills. But other than powers most of their works are out of print, and proving hard to track down. I will give some brief information on each of the authors, and provide links to any reviews I have written, and I strongly encourage you to track down some of their writings and sample them for yourself. I am going to present the authors in the order I encountered them.
J.F. Powers
July 8th 1917 - June 12th 1999


My introduction to the works of J.F. Powers was a short story The Warm Sand, it was a story that really stuck with me, in fact I stated that it haunted me. I wrote about this story and eventually tracking it down again here. It stuck with me and once I found out it was part of a larger story I devoured the works of Powers. I was so intrigued by the works of Powers that in my final year of university I made arrangements to do an independent reading course on his life and his works. He published 2 novels 25 years apart, and both won the National Book award. He also published 4 collections of short stories with some overlapping stories.  Currently both his novels and a collected volume of stories and available in print and electronic formats. In a previous essay I quoted Joseph Bottum who stated that J.F. Powers was: "'The greatest Catholic Writer of the 20th Century'. Up until encountering the following two authors I would have agreed, now I consider the three of them excellent and could not pick a favourite.
Alice Curtayne
November 6th 1898 - 1981


I first encountered the writings of Alice Curtayne through an eBook of Twenty Tales of Irish Saints. I immediately loved it and started researching the author and her works. The hard part is that many of her works did not have North American printings, and all but 2 are currently out of print. I believe she wrote 23 books and 10 booklets. Her booklets were published for the Catholic Truth Society and other publications. Of the 33 works I have identified to day I have been able to track down 17, and have read and reviewed 9. He writing about saints is masterful. And her collections of short stories about Irish Saints are wonderful, and loved by my children and I. The rest of her works are not available in Canada through inter library loan. So I am slowly working on purchasing scanned copies from libraries in Australia, Ireland, England, and Scotland. One book I have tried to purchase used three times, the first was the wrong book when it arrived, the second time it disappeared in the mail, and the third the book seller cancelled because they could not find it after it was ordered. Everything of hers that I have read is excellent. 
Daniel A. Lord
April 23rd 1888 - January 15th 1955


A priest and author posted about Daniel A. Lord and piqued my interest. My first foray into his works is a booklet called I Don't Like Lent, it is simply brilliant. I read it three times this past lent, and have sent a download link to numerous friends. In the introduction to his autobiography Played by Ear I was astonished to read: "He wrote exactly thirty adult books and twelve booklets. His pamphlets must number nearly three hundred. He wrote forty-eight children's books. He wrote twenty-five plays, twelve pageants, three musicals; and he published five separate musical compositions, not to mention the tunes incorporated in his pageants, some written in collaboration with others." If Powers is known by the sparseness of his published works, Lord takes the cake for his prodigious output. Currently all of his fiction seems to be out of print, as well as his booklets. But 45 of his pamphlets are available electronically on Kindle. And numerous are available through The Australian Catholic Truth Society Archive. From what I have read to date, his works like the authors above are well worth tracking down.
So there you have an introduction to three great Catholic authors, leave a comment with who you would recommend. My to be read pile is so high now there is no harm adding to it.


My Reviews and Articles on Powers:
1962 - Morte d'Urban - novel
1963 - Lions, Harts, Leaping Does, and Other Stories
1988 - Wheat that Springeth Green - novel
1991 - The Old Bird, A Love Story - Illustrated Edition
1999 - The Stories of J. F. Powers
J.F. Powers Selected Bibliography
J.F. Powers Book Covers
That Elusive Story
The Warm Sand
Meme Booked By 3 May 2007
Meme Book Meme
Meme Booked by 3 February 2007

 RS398 Directed Reading - The Religious Fiction of J.F. Powers
Essay - Why J.F. Powers
The Prince of Darkness and Other Stories
The Presence of Grace
Morte d'Urban
Look How the Fish Live
Wheat that Springeth Green
Essay - J.F. Powers Literary Life and Legacy

Books and Booklets by Alice Curtayne:
A Recall to Dante
Francis Ledwidge: A Life of the Poet
Lough Derg: St. Patrick's Purgatory
Patrick Sarsfield
Saint Anthony of Padua
St. Bernard Doctor of The Church 1933
The New Woman Transcript of a Talk
The servant of God, Mother Mary Aikenhead
The Story of Knock
The Trial of Oliver Plunkett
Twenty Tales of Irish Saints
...

Books Edited by Alice Curtayne:
The Complete works of Francis Ledwidge

Books Translated by Alice Curtayne:
Labours in the Vineyard by Giovanni Papin

Books Contributed to by Alice Curtayne:
The Irish Way

Books by Daniel A. Lord:

Father Finn, S.J., The Story Of His Life Told By Himself For His Friends Young And Old

Played by Ear
…

Children's Books:


Novels:
Red Arrows in the Night

Pamphlets:
Our Nuns: Their Varied and Vital Service for God and County
I can read ANYTHING!? All right! - then read THIS!
Confession is a joy?
Religion and Leadership
Fashionable Sin - A Modern Discussion of an Unpopular Subject
My Mother, The Study of an Uneventful Life
You Can't Live That Way
The Call to Catholic Action
Our Part in the Mystical Body
I Don't Like Lent

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Tuesday, 21 March 2017

Friendship, Mentor, and Teacher - Dr. Peter Frick

Today I had the pleasure of having lunch with one of my mentors and friends Dr. Peter Frick. I have had a photo of him of my desk for almost 19 years now. today I took a new one to replace the old. I did my first course at UW with Peter in the spring of 1998 and my final course in the fall of 2009. The first course was RS209 Paul's Life and Letters and the last course was an independent reading course on the works and life of J.F. Powers.

I have written about peter before:

Confessions of a Bibliophile #7 - How do you treat your books?
20 Years After - Reflections on Life, the University and Everything
The Undergrads - Who Are You?

It has been a blessing knowing this man, having worked for him part time and getting together from time to time for mentoring, conversation and sometimes just food or coffee. 

If you want to read any of my essays you can find them here. Or my writings on Powers here.




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Wednesday, 13 January 2010

The Stories of J.F. Powers

The Stories of J.F. Powers
J.F. Powers
New York Review Books
(NYRB Classics)
978094032222

The stories in this volume comprise the complete collection of the short stories by J.F. Powers that were published previously in three separate volumes. As far as my research can show there are only about a handful of other stories not contained in this collection. The three previous collections were:

The Prince of Darkness and Other Stories
The Presence of Grace
Look How the Fish Live

The links lead to reviews on each volume, and summary's of each short story. The list of stories is:

The Lord's Day
The Trouble
Lions, Harts, Leaping Does
Jamesie
He Don't Plant Cotton
The Forks
Renner
The Valiant Woman
The Eye
The Old Bird, A Love Story
Prince of Darkness
Dawn
Death of a Favorite
The Poor Thing
The Devil Was the Joker
A Losing Game
Defection of a Favorite
Zeal
Blue Island
The Presence of Grace
Look How the Fish Live
Bill
Folks
Keystone
One of Them
Moonshot
Priestly Fellowship
Farewell
Pharisees
Tinkers

For the Powers fan this is an essential collection. The stories appear in order based on the original order in each of the volumes they were previously published in.

My Reviews and Articles on Powers:

1962 - Morte d'Urban - novel
1963 - Lions, Harts, Leaping Does, and Other Stories
1988 - Wheat that Springeth Green - novel
1991 - The Old Bird, A Love Story - Illustrated Edition
1999 - The Stories of J. F. Powers
J.F. Powers Selected Bibliography
J.F. Powers Book Covers
That Elusive Story
The Warm Sand
Meme Booked By 3 May 2007
Meme Book Meme
Meme Booked by 3 February 2007

RS398 Directed Reading - The Religious Fiction of J.F. Powers
Essay - Why J.F. Powers
The Prince of Darkness and Other Stories
The Presence of Grace
Morte d'Urban
Look How the Fish Live
Wheat that Springeth Green
Essay - J.F. Powers Literary Life and Legacy
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Sunday, 20 December 2009

J.F. Powers Literature, Life and Legacy

J.F. Powers is an enigma. He wrote mostly about priests, yet was never one himself. He was a writer yet his output was slim in comparison with his contemporaries, both religious and secular. He was praised by other authors and academics and yet his words, his works, seem to sit on the edge of a wide audience. To use an analogy, the works of J.F. Powers are like a supporting actor who wins a Grammy for a movie that was mediocre at best. Powers created an exceptional canon of work in its quality, and ability to evoke a response, yet it is a small collection by comparison to most. Maybe that is how we can best sum up Powers' life and legacy; he did not produce much, but what he did produce was of extraordinary quality. He was a modest man who for the most part lived outside the limelight, much like his works, and yet today they can be found in numerous collections, anthologies and in college curriculums.

In this final essay we will endeavor to remark about why such an unassuming man in so few published works could create such a lasting impact and legacy. Evelyn Waugh stated of Powers' first collection Prince of Darkness and Other Stories: "Prince of Darkness is almost as unique as his country as a lay writer who is at ease in the Church; whose whole art, moreover, is everywhere infused and directed by his Faith." Thus we will now examine some reactions to Powers' works and his life.

First, in his book Good People … from an Author's Life, Powers' contemporary Jon Hassler dedicates a chapter to Powers and his wife Betty Wahl and states: "J.F. powers was a man of few words and carefully chosen." He was speaking about his first conversation with Powers and yet this concise sentence sums up Powers' writings also. Hassler also relates that when asked if his priest novels were mostly for Catholic readers that Powers replied: "Is Wind in the Willows mostly for animals?" Though the comparison is a stretch it makes his point. Hassler then goes on to say: "He (Powers) and his wife, the writer Betty Wahl, were the best examples I've ever met of people whose dedication to a principle resulted in a legacy of great value. Their principle was writing fiction, and their legacy to the readers of the world." Hassler then relates a story of a conversation where he discovers that Powers was working on a novel that was thirteen years overdue for the publisher. Hassler emphatically states: "It isn't hard for me to believe that Powers had spent every day of those many overdue years working on the novel, for he was simply the most deliberate writer I've ever known or heard of." Finally Hassler, commenting on Powers' last novel Wheat that Springeth Green, states: "I was struck by what little space he devoted to physical description; his strength was in writing what people thought and said." Hassler had a great deal of respect for Powers both as a person and as a writer. That respect is seen in many who have encountered these writings.

Next we will examine Ross Labrie'. Labrie wrote extensively about Catholic fiction and catholic writers. He wrote about Thomas Merton's artwork, he compiled a collection called The Catholic Imagination in American Literature, but the piece we are concerned about is called The Professional, the Amateur and the Other Thing, his article on J.F. Powers written in 1974, and subsequently republished a number of times. Labrie states of Powers: "He is one of the foremost stylists of the 20th Century. The subject of his later work, and most of his earlier, is the life of Roman Catholic clergy, yet one would be wrong to imagine his work limited in scope. The theme is the big one of money and power." Labrie interprets the stories and novels of Powers in their scope and not their quantity. Commenting on the fact that the novel Morte d'Urban is for the most part a collection of short stories, Labrie states: "Two fine orchestral passages frame the novel and attempt to redeem it from being a set of (marvelous) short stories about Father Urban." Labrie seems to appreciate Powers' skill and talent and yet not to like the ending of Urban, implying that as Powers criticized clergy in his writings, his writings are criticized by readers.

There are two collections dedicated to examining Powers' works both published in 1968. The first is The Christian Critic Series - J.F. Powers edited by Fallon Evans. It is a splendid collection with eleven pieces examining various aspects of Powers' writings and life. At about a hundred pages of text, it is as concise as Powers' writings and just as focused. The piece that had the greatest impact on me was by Thomas Merton, called Morte D'Urban: Two Celebrations. Merton states about the novel: "This book is not a tract for or against anything, yet it can be taken perhaps as a witness and as a warning. The mission of the Church in America is not purely and simply to get itself accepted by wearing affluent expression and adopting the idiosyncrasies of American Business. We are here to celebrate the mystery of salvation and of our unity in Christ. But this celebration is meaningless unless it manifests itself in an uncompromising Christian concern for man and his society." All of the pieces in this book about Powers' works were previously published and compiled in this collection, which is an excellent resource. One of the greatest pieces in this collection is the first one, an interview done between Sister Kristen and Powers, transcribed in question and answer format. It originally appeared in 1964 and is titled The Catholic and Creativity. It is the single largest collection I have found of Powers speaking or writing about himself and his process. As such, it is invaluable to the study of his works.

The Second collection dedicated to Powers' writings is the Twayne's United States Authors Series - J.F. Powers, edited by Sylvia Bowman. This specific volume by J.V. Hagopian is dedicated to examining Powers' works. It has a great chronology of Powers' life and his works as well as an extensive notes and bibliographical section. Hagopian in his preface states: "Although he is a writer's writer, J.F. Powers has no broad popular following but is known among his peers as a brilliant satirist and meticulous craftsman. His fiction is widely anthologized and often taught in universities." It is a great pity that more recent academic scholarship has not been as extensively applied to Powers' work.

Powers' stories do indeed show up in numerous anthologies and collections, including collections of Best American Short Stories, Best American Fiction and Best American Catholic Fiction. If anything, his work is at an all-time high level of popularity. All of his books have been in print for more than a decade; almost every year one or more of his short stories makes it into a new collection, introducing a new generation to his great skill and wit.

So, with all of the accolades and resurgence in his popularity, what does it mean to my study of J.F. Powers, his life and literature and legacy? I can only state that by having worked through his works in published order, and working through the books about him and his works, I now have a greater appreciation for him as both an artist and as a man. Powers' one short story had influence over me for more than a decade. I could not even remember the name of the story or the author but could have told you the story nearly verbatim. Now, having examined his works as a whole, I can only state that that influence has been magnified. He wrote about people trying to live a life of faith and people living in a fallen world. He wrote about struggles, goals, aspirations and hopes. He also wrote about fears, failures and fragility of both body and mind. His works are pieces I will return to again and again. And each time they evoke an emotional response and a desire for action. They seem to help center me, to help me return to a focus on prayer and other spiritual disciplines. Maybe that is the greatest testament to Powers' writings - those who truly discover his works become fans and dedicated disciples.

Endnotes:

1. Evelyn Waugh as quoted in J.F. Powers, 81, Dies; Wrote About Priests http://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/17/arts/j-f-powers-81-dies-wrote-about-priests.html
2. Hassler, Jon: Good People … from an Author's Life, Loyola Press, Chicago, 2001, p.86
3. IBID p.87
4. IBID p.87
5. IBID p.88
6. IBID p.98,99
7. Labrie, Ross, Honest Ulsterman, The Professional, the Amateur, and the Other Thing, p.32
8. IBID p. 39
9. Fallon, Evan (Editor) The Christian Critic Series J.F. Powers, B. Herder Book Co. St. Louis, Missoury, 1968, p.100
10. Bowman, Sylvia (General Editor) Hagopian, J.V. (author) Twayne's United States Authors Series - J.F. Powers, Twayne Publishers Inc, New York, NY, 1968, p.9

(First written for RS398 - The Religious Fiction of J.F. Powers.)

My Reviews and Articles on Powers:

1962 - Morte d'Urban - novel
1963 - Lions, Harts, Leaping Does, and Other Stories
1988 - Wheat that Springeth Green - novel
1991 - The Old Bird, A Love Story - Illustrated Edition
1999 - The Stories of J. F. Powers
J.F. Powers Selected Bibliography
J.F. Powers Book Covers
That Elusive Story
The Warm Sand
Meme Booked By 3 May 2007
Meme Book Meme
Meme Booked by 3 February 2007

RS398 Directed Reading - The Religious Fiction of J.F. Powers
Essay - Why J.F. Powers
The Prince of Darkness and Other Stories
The Presence of Grace
Morte d'Urban
Look How the Fish Live
Wheat that Springeth Green
Essay - J.F. Powers Literary Life and Legacy
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Saturday, 19 December 2009

Wheat That Springeth Green J.F. Powers

Wheat that Springeth Green by J.F. Powers, Image Books, The New York review of Books, New York, NY, 2000 (First published in 1988). This novel follows a young man through life, from early years growing up in an urban parish through to the priesthood and on into life in the ministry. It is a story told in three parts, but as a series of vignettes. Powers was a short story writer and even though both his novels won awards, they are really a collection of short stories, woven together.

Chapter 6 in this novel, Out in the World, was previously published in the New Yorker as The Warm Sand. A different variation on that same story appeared in the collection The Substance of Things Hoped For: Short Fiction By modern Catholic Authors and was my introduction to Powers' work. When I first read the story, I was drawn in by Joe's desire to be more religious, to wear a hair shirt, to use a prei-dieu, (and I have one to this day), and by his keen desire to serve the church and do so with integrity. Yet, what happens is, the day-to-day work of running a parish erodes his spiritual aspirations to the point that he is just doing the business of running a church. This is a man most of us can relate to; we desire to do good, to choose what is best, but often get caught up in the tyranny of the urgent.

Other parts of this book were previously published as short stories also, both more than once. Chapter 10 of the book Good News, was published in the New Yorker and also the collection of short stories Look How The Fish Live. And chapters 16-18 in the novel, Priestly Fellowship, were also published in both of those publications previously.

The three parts of this story or movements are first, from youth to a curate to his first church as rector. The second is his middle years of ministry, and the third act, three independent stories about later in life. These three stories have an unusual quality about them. In some ways they feel like the three teaching lessons tacked onto the end of Daniel in the Deuterocanonical version - three separate stories each told with a specific purpose and meaning. These three have more humor than the rest of the book, almost as if Powers wanted to lighten the load at the end of the story for the readers.

The lasting power of this story is that Joe is everyman, in that he has beliefs and he desires to live up to those beliefs. Yet he ends up settling for something far below his original goals. I know that I and many men my age feel the same way; we are not where we expected to be, or doing what we expected to be doing with our lives, either in ministry or out. As such, the story's impact is that even though it is about a priest living and working in the ministry, it can serve as a mirror for all of us who read it, thus causing us to remember our original goals and aspirations and maybe inspiring us to live up to them. This is accomplished primarily by how well-written Joe is as a character and how well-written the novel is. This story was the culmination of Powers' Literary output. Some of these stories have undergone years of revisions and were crafted together into the novel we have now. Powers shaped and reshaped the stories, individually and collectively, to give us this masterpiece presented in three movements.

(First written for RS398 - The Religious Fiction of J.F. Powers.)

My Reviews and Articles on Powers:

1962 - Morte d'Urban - novel
1963 - Lions, Harts, Leaping Does, and Other Stories
1988 - Wheat that Springeth Green - novel
1991 - The Old Bird, A Love Story - Illustrated Edition
1999 - The Stories of J. F. Powers
J.F. Powers Selected Bibliography
J.F. Powers Book Covers
That Elusive Story
The Warm Sand
Meme Booked By 3 May 2007
Meme Book Meme
Meme Booked by 3 February 2007

RS398 Directed Reading - The Religious Fiction of J.F. Powers
Essay - Why J.F. Powers
The Prince of Darkness and Other Stories
The Presence of Grace
Morte d'Urban
Look How the Fish Live
Wheat that Springeth Green
Essay - J.F. Powers Literary Life and Legacy
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Friday, 18 December 2009

Look How the Fish Live - J.F. Powers

Look How the Fish Live by J.F. Powers Image Books, Alfred A. Knopf Ltd. New York, NY, 1975. This third collection of J.F. Powers' short stories was published twenty-eight years after his first collection and nineteen years after his second. All of the stories in this collection were previously published in magazines and newspapers, between 1957 and 1975. Unlike his earlier two collections, all of these stories have been previously published elsewhere. Another unique feature of this collection is that six of the ten stories are written in pairs, meaning that the stories are about the same characters or people.

The stories that are paired are the first and last stories: Look How the Fish Live and Tinkers, both of which appear to be autobiographical(I can find allusions to this assumption but no definite evidence; as such it is just opinion.) Next, the second and seventh stories, Bill and Priestly Fellowship respectively, are about Joe. Both also appear as chapters in the book Wheat that Springeth Green. And finally Keystone and Farewell are both about a bishop in a rural diocese of Ostergothenburg in Minnesota.

Therefore this collection has six religious short stories, 2 secular short stories, and the two autobiographical stories that seem to be a little of each. They are not as overtly religious as most of his fiction that falls into that category, but it does make reference to God and faith so it falls in between. Thus we will now examine each story separately.

Look How the Fish Live
After reading this story combined with the last story in this collection, that is about the same family a few years later, the reader cannot but feel somewhat that it is autobiographical. Powers in his lifetime lived back and forth between the United States and Ireland. It appears that when money was good and he had an arts patron he moved the family to Ireland. When money became tight and he needed more income, he returned to the States and took up various teaching positions at different post secondary institutions.

In this story our protagonist, an unnamed parent, is preparing to bury an abandoned bird his children brought home. He is complaining to God about all the animals he has had to bury, and reflecting that the large wood lot has been sold to a university for a parking lot. While discussing the death and his weariness of nature, the neighbour misquotes Matthew 6:26 and we have the title 'Look How the fish Live.' This is a sad little story with overtures of environmentalism.

Bill
In this story Father Joe gets his first assistant pastor. It functions well as a stand-alone short story but also fits well into the whole story of the novel Wheat That Springeth Green. Joe the Pastor is uncertain how to prepare for a curate; he does not want to have the experience he did with his first parish, but he does not know how to do it. So he feels awkward and the story shows that awkwardness.

Folks
This story does not seem to fit with the rest of Powers' canon. It alludes to 2 couples that were swingers and soon grew to four couples that vacationed together and had wonderful experiences. It seems to be written as part of a collection about one of the people in the story but it is unclear which one.

Keystone
This story is very typical of Powers' short stories. It is about a rural Diocese in Minnesota, and focuses around the politics of the Chancery, and amongst clergy in general. The Bishop, John Dullinger, is currently at odds with his Chancellor Monsignor Holstein. Dullinger picks Father Gau as his new driver and assistant. Over the progression of the story Father Gau replaces Holstein as rector of the cathedral and steers the Bishop into many activities he previously avoided - public speaking, involvement with the youth and laity, and more. Gau also leads the bishop into building a new cathedral, but Dullinger becomes dissatisfied with the building and with Gau in the process.

One of Them
This story is about a priest who is a convert, and his experiences at his first parish. It captures parish life from the view inside the rectory. Back in 1992, I lived in a small rectory in south eastern Ontario. This story could have been one of my personal experiences at that time. It is about a slightly weird thrifty rector, an eager young curate, or seminarian, and a housekeeper who tries to run the parish from the kitchen of the rectory.

Moonshot
This short story, written as a play in three acts, is full of humour and sarcasm. It tells about a lunar landing just seven years before it actually took place. Yet the whole thing is just an attempt by two young men to get permission to have the hands of the women they love. The story is far less serious than any of Powers' others and as such is a unique contribution from his pen.

Priestly Fellowship
This story continues some time after Bill, from earlier in this collection and in the novel Wheat that Springeth Green. In the novel there are 5 chapters separating the two short stories. In it Joe has an idealized vision of how priests should associate together and the types of conversations they should have. Unfortunately, because young Bill is of a different generation and Father Otto is with a religious order and not a parish priest, (even though he is in residence at the rectory and helping out with parish work), this story is a little sad and bittersweet, especially since it reminds us that often we do not live up to our expectations of ourselves. And Joe, as a member of the clergy, has even higher expectations for himself and those around him.

Farewell
Continuing sometime after Keystone, Bishop Dullinger is about to retire and the conflict between him and his replacement Bishop Gau has only intensified. The story captures the politics that can exist in a diocese no matter how small, rural or traditional. It could have been written about most dioceses I have ever lived in and about clergy I know personally.

Pharisees
This piece is an example of Powers' satire at its best. Short, concise and extremely funny.

Tinkers
Returning to an autobiographical theme, this story continues after Look How the Fish Live. The family tight on money has been running a hotel. Then in the middle of the night they move out because the former landlord has returned home. Joseph Bottum in the magazine First Things, states about Powers: "Powers led an astonishingly uneventful life." And this story captures that feel, even if in reality it is not fact.

Steven Knight in his list of books to read states about J.F. Powers: "He is sometimes described as a writer's writer, meaning that he was an artist too good to gratify the most casual reader, but he was also a reader's writer, if we assume a reader who thinks of fiction as intelligent art rather than low entertainment." Furthermore Joseph Bottum

This collection of short stories has more focus and intention than the previous two collections. The overlapping stories in this volume, and the greater consistency in dealing primarily with religious matters and framing it in the context of autobiographical material gives it a cohesive feel. And that feel is the essence of Powers' writings and why those who encounter him, more often than not, become fans and continue to pursue his works again and again.

(First written for RS398 - The Religious Fiction of J.F. Powers.)

My Reviews and Articles on Powers:

1962 - Morte d'Urban - novel
1963 - Lions, Harts, Leaping Does, and Other Stories
1988 - Wheat that Springeth Green - novel
1991 - The Old Bird, A Love Story - Illustrated Edition
1999 - The Stories of J. F. Powers
J.F. Powers Selected Bibliography
J.F. Powers Book Covers
That Elusive Story
The Warm Sand
Meme Booked By 3 May 2007
Meme Book Meme
Meme Booked by 3 February 2007

RS398 Directed Reading - The Religious Fiction of J.F. Powers
Essay - Why J.F. Powers
The Prince of Darkness and Other Stories
The Presence of Grace
Morte d'Urban
Look How the Fish Live
Wheat that Springeth Green
Essay - J.F. Powers Literary Life and Legacy
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Thursday, 17 December 2009

Morte d'Urban - J.F. Powers

Morte d'Urban by J.F. Powers, Image Books, New York Review Of Books, New York, NY. 2000 (First published in 1962). This book won the 1963 National book award for fiction. It is the story of Father Urban, a man in the church but also a man of the world; a man just as comfortable in a five star hotel as a camp site. But he is also a man of ambition. He believes he should be leading the Clementines, and when at the General meeting, the current leader of the order retains his position, Urban is vanquished to the order's outpost in rural Minnesota. Powers has created a novel that is considered a classic in American literature, yet in many ways it is atypical.

The novel focuses around a factious religious order, the Clementines and a man in that order that is great at interacting with the world, but maybe not so religious. The Clementines are a mediocre order at best, and they know it. They went through a few years of success and growth, but things have been on a down turn. Men with vocations want an order with a history, like the Jesuits or Benedictines. Urban, our hero, feels the order needs to be more relevant, and as he is relegated to the sidelines in Minnesota, he does his best to turn that situation around and to make a comeback.

The greatest strength of Powers' writings, and this book in particular, are the characters. The people in this book seem real, hard, hardened and human, not lofty and overly good, not demons. Just humans trying to make their way in the world, humans full of faults and flaws. Another strength is the timeless nature of the story. Set before Vatican Council II, the story reads as if it is happening in Rural America today. The greatest weakness of the story is how Father Urban, a worldly man, a very bright, maybe even brilliant man can make so many mistakes when reading and interacting with people. An example is letting himself be trapped on an island with a young naked single woman in the chapter Belleisle.

Powers was a master with the pen. This novel, his first, was really a collection of continuous short stories, some previously published and some not. What Powers excelled at was his characters, and maybe because he wrote short stories, the characters needed to be complete. There are not a lot of extraneous descriptions in the novel. What drives it is the characters and the dialogue. There is a modern movement in literature called minimalism. Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club, is considered the master of the style and creator of the format - books that read more like screen plays and cut from story to story or segment to segment. That is the style that Powers has in this book long before there was a name for it. Any maybe that is the best way to sum up this novel. It is a collection of stories set in and around Chicago, the home of the Clementines, or rural Minnesota and their mission outpost there. But it is also a collection of segments in Urban's life, each vignette ending with a poignant reflection on Urban or the world he lived in.

(First written for RS398 - The Religious Fiction of J.F. Powers.)

My Reviews and Articles on Powers:

1962 - Morte d'Urban - novel
1963 - Lions, Harts, Leaping Does, and Other Stories
1988 - Wheat that Springeth Green - novel
1991 - The Old Bird, A Love Story - Illustrated Edition
1999 - The Stories of J. F. Powers
J.F. Powers Selected Bibliography
J.F. Powers Book Covers
That Elusive Story
The Warm Sand
Meme Booked By 3 May 2007
Meme Book Meme
Meme Booked by 3 February 2007

RS398 Directed Reading - The Religious Fiction of J.F. Powers
Essay - Why J.F. Powers
The Prince of Darkness and Other Stories
The Presence of Grace
Morte d'Urban
Look How the Fish Live
Wheat that Springeth Green
Essay - J.F. Powers Literary Life and Legacy
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Wednesday, 16 December 2009

The Presence of Grace - J.F. Powers

The Presence of Grace by J.F. Powers Image Books, Victor Gollancz Ltd. London, England 1957 (First published in 1956). This second collection of J.F. Powers' short stories was published nearly a decade after his first collection. The nine short stories were previously published between 1949 and 1956 in a variety of magazines including The Partisan Review, The New Yorker, Tomorrow, Commonweal, and Accent. This collection of Powers' short stories is very different from his first collection, The Prince of Darkness and Other Stories, in that this collection is almost exclusively Catholic-themed stories. This collection also avoids some of the political nature of the first collection, with no stories about racism or Antisemitism. Of the nine stories all but one have Catholic themes, and most revolve around the lives of priests.

Powers creates unique stories in that his writing style is minimalist before it was even recognized as a style. His stories are events and dialogue driven. Seldom does he go into extensive descriptions of locations, places or surroundings. When he does, the reader realizes that it is critical to the story. An example of this is the description of the furniture and environment in the basement in the story The Losing Game. The young curate is trying to get a desk from the Rector. They are down in the locked basement, and there is more description in this segment of this story than the rest of the book. Because of this lack of description, what carries these stories and gives them such power, is Powers' exceptional creation of characters, and his use of dialogue, both external and internal, to individual characters.

In this collection, we are also introduced to the Clementines - a factious religious order that is the focus of Powers' first novel Morte d'Urban. In the story, the Devil Was a Joker, we encounter a traveling salesman who hocks the literature of the Clementines and supplements his income with a variety of religious paraphernalia. But there are a few of the stories that have that Clementine feel; the Clementines are a middle-rate religious order, nowhere near as glorious as the Jesuits, and not as pathetic as the Missionary Oblates.

Powers presents priests in two categories, those who are adept at their jobs, and truly care about people and those who seem to be in it just as a business. The interesting thing about these stories is that even though they were all written before Vatican Council II, they can all be read as if they were written today and about today's priests and laypeople. These stories are about life - life as part of a faith community, a community that has both strengths and weaknesses just like the members who make up that community. As such he continues to speak to readers a half century after it was first published.

Dawn
This is a quirky story about an envelope left in a collection plate addressed to the Pope. It causes much consternation both in the parish and in the office of the diocese. It is an example of how people can always fear the worse, and their own apprehension makes the situation worse.

Death of a Favorite
This is the first of two stories told from the perspective of a cat. In this collection, combined with Defection of a Favorite, they tell the story of a rectory where the Pastor refers to the cat as his curate. Father Malt likes to make fun of Father Bruner, his real assistant, by claiming the cat is his assistant. The story is a little unusual from Powers, in being told in the first person and that person being a pet cat.

The Poor Thing
This is the story of an elderly woman, Teresa, whose pension just does not make ends meet. As such, she takes some work as a personal-aid worker to a woman in a wheel chair, Dolly. Both characters are to be pitied for their situations in life and their inability to deal with them appropriately. Both are Catholic and Dolly uses her faith as a weapon to make Teresa feel guilt and to do things she does not really want to do.

The Devil Was the Joker
This is a story about the Clementines. Or rather about a traveling salesman Mac, who represents them to dioceses and parishes around the country, trying to sell their booklets and magazines. But it is also the story of Myles, a failed seminarian who is trying to find a way to have a Vocation. Mac meets Myles while Mac is in the hospital and Myles is working as an orderly. Myles is enlisted to assist in this work, with the lure of it being a vocation and could maybe help him get into the fold of the Clementines. However Myles soon learns Macs' religious rhetoric is just a game and he will sell anything, including playing cards with angels and devils on them.

A Losing Game
This and the final story are about a parish where Father Fabre is a curate and there is an unnamed pastor. In this instalment the curate gleans insight into the pastor's character and ambition, all the while trying to get a desk out of the pastor for his typewriter in his room. In the process, he is shot while the pastor is trying to kill rats in the basement. The story is a little humorous but really does not feel completed until we read the final story, The Presence of Grace where the story of these two continues at some point later in time.

Defection of a Favorite
In this story Father Malt has been injured and is in hospital for most of the story. During that time, Father Bruner goes through a transformation from being a little self-centered and obtuse to really living and working for the ministry into which he was apparently called. The animosity and antagonism between Bruner and the cat also end, and they become friends and the cat attempts to assist Bruner when the Bishop visits.

Zeal
The Bishop is on the beginning of a pilgrimage journey to Rome, when an old classmate introduces him to Father Early just before the departure from Saint Paul, Minnesota. During the train ride to Chicago the Bishop is initially put off by the aggressive and outgoing priest. However, he soon realizes that the priest is really just zealous for God and does all he tries to do, however misguided, because of that zeal.

Blue Island
This is the only secular story in this collection. It is an odd story about a housewife, who is a newlywed and moves to her husband's home town, Blue Island. Her husband is quirky and even though he saved the family business he does not really fit in. Like many of Powers' stories, this one is about someone who is a bit of an underachiever and this causes him to put undue pressure on his wife.

The Presence of Grace
In this story young Father Fabre makes a mistake. He decides to visit a parishioner without clearing it with the pastor. In doing so he opens a large can of worms. Once he realizes his mistake, he waits for the pastor's return in fear and trepidation. However the pastor calms him and meets with the Women's League and deflects them as well. All this time Fabre had thought the pastor was holding him back and not very effectively. In this instalment he realizes the wisdom in the pastor's long silences and idiosyncratic ways.

(First written for RS398 - The Religious Fiction of J.F. Powers.)

My Reviews and Articles on Powers:

1962 - Morte d'Urban - novel
1963 - Lions, Harts, Leaping Does, and Other Stories
1988 - Wheat that Springeth Green - novel
1991 - The Old Bird, A Love Story - Illustrated Edition
1999 - The Stories of J. F. Powers
J.F. Powers Selected Bibliography
J.F. Powers Book Covers
That Elusive Story
The Warm Sand
Meme Booked By 3 May 2007
Meme Book Meme
Meme Booked by 3 February 2007

RS398 Directed Reading - The Religious Fiction of J.F. Powers
Essay - Why J.F. Powers
The Prince of Darkness and Other Stories
The Presence of Grace
Morte d'Urban
Look How the Fish Live
Wheat that Springeth Green
Essay - J.F. Powers Literary Life and Legacy
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