Rachel Mann
Autore di Desert Life
Sull'Autore
Rachel Mann is a parish priest, writer, speaker, and broadcaster with a particular interest in the relationship between popular culture and faith. Author of a number of popular books, she was formerly Poet-in-Residence at Manchester Cathedral. Her books include Fierce Imaginings, the Lent courses mostra altro Still Standing and From Now On, and the widely acclaimed novel The Gospel of Eve. mostra meno
Opere di Rachel Mann
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Data di nascita
- 1970-02-27
- Nazionalità
- UK
- Istruzione
- Queen's College, Birmingham
Lancaster University
Manchester Metropolitan University - Attività lavorative
- Priest
- Organizzazioni
- Church of England
Manchester Cathedral
Church of St Nicholas, Burnage
Manchester Writing School
Utenti
Recensioni
Premi e riconoscimenti
Potrebbero anche piacerti
Statistiche
- Opere
- 28
- Utenti
- 377
- Popolarità
- #64,011
- Voto
- 3.8
- Recensioni
- 5
- ISBN
- 40
- Lingue
- 1
The novel starts in medias res, with the narrator Catherine “Kitty” Bolton discovering Evie – her fellow ordinand, friend and erstwhile lover – hanging from “a low beam in the chapel…the weak January light [bleeding] through the East Window giving her body a ghostly glow”. More than two decades later, and now a respected priest “the best part of fifty”, Kitty revisits the circumstances leading to the death of Evie. This tragedy is linked to an exclusive group of students whom Kitty and Evie frequented at the college, all of whom were “disciples” of Professor Albertus Loewe. Loewe is conservative in approach, but encourages his students’ enthusiasm for the Middle Ages, even when it ventures into dubious and dangerous territory.
The Gospel of Eve is a Gothic delight, its plot made up of dark twists and turns. One can imagine Mann with a twinkle in her eye, having her narrator repeatedly hinting at mysteries which will be revealed – Kitty is, of course, recounting the story with the benefit of hindsight, whereas we readers are made painfully aware that we are yet to be initiated into the protagonist’s dark knowledge. Suffice it to say that the word “secret” is used twenty-nine times in the novel (I checked on Kindle…), and Mann does a great job at building a twilit atmosphere heavy with the smell of old manuscripts brimming with esoteric knowledge. Indeed, I was also reminded of Eco’s The Name of the Rose, not least because of the novel’s erudite references: in case you were wondering, The Gospel of Eve really existed, as did other rare books mentioned.
Beyond the naughty fun (by the end we’re edging towards grand guignol), Rachel Mann, an Anglican priest and theologian, delves into serious themes and concerns: such as the nature of faith and vocation, the thin line which divides sainthood from obsession, and how essentially good people can turn into misguided monsters and abusers. Kitty is herself a symbol of this ambivalence. Despite bearing the scars of the horrific events at Littlemore, she refuses to renounce to her memories of what was, in some ways, the best time of her life. The Gospel of Eve can be read as the guilty confession of a person who sees herself as both victim and abuser, a tragic figure worthy of classic Gothic literature.
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-gospel-of-eve-by-rachel-mann.html… (altro)