The Neon Madonna
Dan Binchy. St. Martin's Press, $18.95 (263pp) ISBN 978-0-312-07042-7
In this disappointing first novel, Father Jerry O'Sullivan, a Vatican diplomat suffering from ulcerative colitis, is sent to a tiny Irish village to serve out the rest of his days. The idiosyncratic man of the cloth (he drives a new Alfa Romeo and is heir to a bootlegger's fortune) is ill prepared for the turmoil that erupts when two local women claim to have seen the town's neon-haloed madonna move and weep. The Catholic Church is no sacred cow in this occasionally comic look at provincial politics and piety, which features a devout matron whose religious fervor has less to do with spiritualism than with moral rectitude. Aiming beyond satire, Binchy attempts a full-scale portrait of life in a contemporary Irish hamlet, embracing also the hard-bitten way of life that turns villagers to drink and suicide. Unfortunately, with its meandering plot and overcrowded cast, the novel sinks under the weight of its own ambition. (Mar.)
Details
Reviewed on: 03/02/1992
Genre: Fiction