Christian Adulthood, 1987: A Catechetical Resource

Originally published in 1934 under the pseudonym Murray Constantine, Burdekin's (1896-1963) intriguing tale is related by a highly evolved, logical, telepathic, androgynous being who has observed 1930s England in a dream. According to this narrator, called ``the Person,'' it is a land troubled by ``antagonism'' between the sexes, though there are ``three main avenues of escape . . . religion, art, and war.'' The narrator explores each avenue in turn as s/he lives with a priest, a woman who tries to write novels and a man who is a serial killer of young girls. The coolly analytical Person offers ideas on an array of topics: privilege, power, marriage, masculinity/femininity, homosexuality and atheism, to name only a few. Although some comments show their age (and largely skirt the issues of race and class), many indicate just how at home Burdekin would be in lively feminist discussion today, especially when she serves up quotable sentences like ``It would be a great relief to men if someone could prove that genius resides in the testicles.'' As fiction, Burdekin's work may not be up to the standard of her pithiest quotes, but in this book the ideas are the entertainment, and they're decent entertainment at that. (Nov.)