cover image The Shadow of God: A Journey Through Memory, Art, and Faith

The Shadow of God: A Journey Through Memory, Art, and Faith

Charles III Scribner, . . Doubleday, $24.95 (291pp) ISBN 978-0-385-51658-7

Young man from well-traveled, moneyed family goes to Ivy League university to study art, music and literature. Before completing his degree, he leaves the Anglicanism of his forebears and joins the Roman Catholic Church. While Scribner's story may remind readers of The Seven Storey Mountain, it resembles Merton's youthful autobiography only superficially. Rather than entering a monastery, Scribner joins his family's publishing firm. Rather than plumbing the depths of his soul, he describes happy "epiphanies"—fond memories, inexplicable coincidences, aesthetic experiences, beloved mentors. His stately writing style and privileged life—private schools, governesses, summer homes, European holidays—evoke the Edwardian era, though he was actually born in the 1950s. Many readers will appreciate the religious leitmotif ("I usually feel I have missed something if I cannot at least step inside a church or chapel sometime during the day"), while others will enjoy his ongoing fascination with art and music. Despite its title, however, the book is short of shadows: "At this point in life I want only comedy, whether divine or profane, I don't care, so long as it ends in happy resolution." It is not easy to create a gripping memoir devoid of interior struggles or exterior hardships. (Apr. 18)