The Priest: A Gothic RomanceKnopf, 1995 - 303 pages Since his work first began to appear in the early 1960s, Thomas Disch has proven himself, again and again, to be one of the most prodigiously talented novelist/playwright/poets of our time. In Newsweek he was saluted by Walter Clemons as "the most formidably gifted unfamous American writer." But in 1991, with the publication of The M.D., Disch's remarkably various gifts converged in a horror novel that propelled him into the mainstream even as it remade the genre in its own startling image. Now, in The Priest, Disch gives us an even more potent, darkly hypnotic, and fiendishly comic novel - a gothic romance like no other. At the center: Father Patrick Bryce, a Catholic priest with a present-day Minneapolis parish - and a pedophile past. He's spent time at a church-run retreat for priests of his persuasion and returned "rehabilitated": even better equipped to keep his vice active and hidden. Until the blackmail begins. It comes from three different sources (his own bishop being one), and each tops the next in imaginative proposals: Father Pat must head a militant (and probably illegal) anti-abortion campaign; Father Pat must apologize to each of his victims, face-to-face; Father Pat must read, and be ready to discuss, the work of a bizarre cult science fiction writer, and get the face of Satan tattooed on his chest. But the blackmailers and their demands are the least of Father Pat's problems. More dire is his increasingly incontrovertible sense that the nightmares in which he has been leading the life of a thirteenth-century bishop are not dreams at all. And that the Church, rife with corruption and scandal in both eras, is the only realistic sanctuary for him and his doppelganger, Bishop Silvanus de Roquefort, as they move - at once separately and together - through their own centuries-spanning maze of soul-killing horrors toward a distinctly hellish destiny. The astonishments, mayhem, and villainy they encounter along the way come brilliantly to life in an eerie and wildly populated narrative that builds at breakneck speed to its gripping, gruesome, and romantic finale. The Priest is a spellbinding confirmation of Thomas Disch's standing as a master conjurer of the most darkly compelling tales. |
From inside the book
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Page 19
... lip and deftly positioned the false mustache . Then he waited for the gum arabic to dry . In the mirror the mustache looked full and fierce and not quite his own , a mustache someone else had grown ( Petey perhaps ? ) and he'd adopted ...
... lip and deftly positioned the false mustache . Then he waited for the gum arabic to dry . In the mirror the mustache looked full and fierce and not quite his own , a mustache someone else had grown ( Petey perhaps ? ) and he'd adopted ...
Page 116
... lips retracted from the un- healthy teeth not in a smile but from a simple insufficiency of flesh . " And your fear was that I should lack fortitude if I accompanied you to the crypt , " the skeletal monk said in a whining , nasal voice ...
... lips retracted from the un- healthy teeth not in a smile but from a simple insufficiency of flesh . " And your fear was that I should lack fortitude if I accompanied you to the crypt , " the skeletal monk said in a whining , nasal voice ...
Page 211
... lips and closing his eyes , as though to say his lips were sealed . " Is this something else Bryce is involved in ? " Father Mabbley per- sisted . " Something else ? Except for his having gone off on an unan- nounced retreat , I know of ...
... lips and closing his eyes , as though to say his lips were sealed . " Is this something else Bryce is involved in ? " Father Mabbley per- sisted . " Something else ? Except for his having gone off on an unan- nounced retreat , I know of ...
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Common terms and phrases
abortion Albigensians Alexis Alison altar boy Anker Anyhow asked bats believe Bernardine's Bing Bishop Bishop of Rodez Blessed Konrad Bonamico Boscage called cell child Christ Church Clay Cogling's confession confessional Crispo Damon dark Delilah dome door eyes face Father Bryce Father Cogling Father Mabbley Father Pat Father Pat's feel felt flesh fucking Gaillac Gene Stratton Porter Gerhardt girl Greg hair hand happened head Hedwig hell heretics Holy idea inside Janet Jesus kind knew look Marquesia Mary Monsignor Montpellier-le-Vieux mother never nodded okay once pain pallium Patrick Peter priest Raven rectory reliquarium remember Roquefort Satan seemed shit Shrine Shroud Shroud of Turin side Silvanus sins smile someone St-Loup succubus suppose sure talk tattoo tell there's thing thought told took torture Trinitron trying turned wait who'd Wolf woman young