Vestments

From Publishers Weekly Alcorn's intelligent, satisfying second novel (after The Pull of the Earth), concerns a successful Boston journalist whose smugly cynical view of the world is dramatically overturned by a calamitous series of events, a trial-by-fire that eventually leads to spiritual rebirth. Sebastian Taggart makes a handsome living writing and delivering "liberal" editorials for a local TV station, while mocking these humanitarian sentiments off-camera. He shares a chic co-op with an attractive and WASPy interior designer whose ingenuous willingness to embrace the faddish makes her an easy foil for his scalding wit. An orphan, Sebastian was adopted by an Irish-Catholic aunt, who now lies slowly dying in a nursing home; in her delirium, Aunt Esther imagines her nephew to be a priest, and Sebastian is happy to indulge this fantasy by wearing a clerical collar during his bedside visits since he believes that the aunt has left him a fortune in her will. The act of donning a priest's vestments opens a Pandora's box of unresolved feelings and buried spiritual leanings in Sebastian's lapsed Catholic soul. Meanwhile, a series of personal disasters leads him to reexamine his beliefs and consider devoting himself wholeheartedly to a faith that he had previously rejected. An intelligent and skillfully written book, moving deftly between low comedy and high seriousness, the narrative addresses important issues dealing with "looking for a world of faith beyond the world of things." This entertaining tale of the hectic progress of a modern-day pilgrim should increase Alcorn's stature as a gifted novelist with a moral vision. Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Sebastian Taggart, a cynical British expatriate living in Boston, learns that his wealthy maiden aunt is dying of cancer. The old woman had always hoped that Sebastian would enter the priesthood; now, to brighten her final days (and to guarantee himself a place in her will) Sebastian begins to visit her wearing a fake clerical collar. But the disguise somehow makes him feel betterwiser, more temperate, and chaste. Dressing up becomes an obsession, and soon he is doing so at every spare moment. He loses his job, his fiancee, and his friends, but he feels that it is all for the best: the solitude will give him time to re-read St. Augustine. This is a frequently funny but fundamentally serious religious novel that recalls the works of such great Catholic satirists as Evelyn Waugh and Wilfrid Sheed. Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch., Los AngelesCopyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.