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KJ Kron

Autore di Saint Peter Killed God

3 opere 13 membri 3 recensioni

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I got this book before I read the reviews, and now I'm eager to read and rate it for myself. I dislike that the author rates his own book and appears to be friendly with other reviewers. It looks dodgy. I'll keep an open mind until I've finished it, but it had better be good.
 
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Twikpet | 2 altre recensioni | Mar 29, 2013 |
I got this book before I read the reviews, and now I'm eager to read and rate it for myself. I dislike that the author rates his own book and appears to be friendly with other reviewers. It looks dodgy. I'll keep an open mind until I've finished it, but it had better be good.
 
Segnalato
Twikpet | 2 altre recensioni | Mar 29, 2013 |
Questa recensione è stata scritta per gli Omaggi dei Membri di LibraryThing .
I received this as an 'Early Reviewers Giveaway' . I try to give unbiased reviews.

Father Peter is a Catholic priest who believes that the church has lost its way and must be challenged by the creation of a new ‘Modern Church’, with himself as its founder and chief prophet. Unfortunately his first attempt to bring this about results in a mental breakdown, a suicide attempt and his incarceration in a psychiatric ward.

Awakening in the hospital, Father Peter has amnesia; all he has in his possession is a journal (where he refers to himself as ‘Saint Peter’) in which he has recorded his plans for a new church, and a number of sermons setting out his arguments against established religion. In his new state of mind however, he is appalled at what he now sees as the naivety and perhaps madness of his unremembered self.

A good deal of the action (and I use the word loosely as there is not a great deal of action in this book) takes place in the psychiatric ward and concerns Father Peter’s relationships with the staff and other patients. The staff seem to believe that you can be cured if you take your medication and ‘pull yourself together’, and the patients don’t seem to be as disturbed as many of the people that I’ve known and worked with over the years. Some have mild fantasies or persecution complexes; one believes that he is a great poet and delivers diatribes that are bereft of any poetical content whatsoever. Not very interesting, but not the sort of things that one would have thought required secure detention. Amidst this, Father Peter reads his diary and it takes him back to a childhood where he is constantly a figure of contempt to his parents, siblings and school friends, and one can see why.

The dialogue between characters is often stilted and unrealistic; for example, Father Peter meeting the bishop for the first time, ‘Hallo, I’m Bishop Walsh. You were given an immaculate review. Once you get acclimated to the priesthood I assume you’ll be an excellent priest and look like one too.’
What? If someone spoke to me like that on meeting me for the first time, I’d turn round and get back on the bus.

I’m not sure what this novel is trying to tell me. The arguments for reformation are simplistic, even childish sometimes, and I can’t see them convincing anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of Christianity, let alone a theologian. They don’t even convince Father Peter when he reads his own words; so he decides to ‘bring the church down from within’ by becoming an ultra orthodox priest and thus repelling people and turning them away.

I’m sorry, but none of this makes sense to me. I am a born Catholic, now atheist but still interested in religion and that was what drew me to this book. The concept is good, but like the church the novel seems to have lost itself along the way
… (altro)
 
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Roger_the_Dog | 2 altre recensioni | Aug 23, 2011 |

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Opere
3
Utenti
13
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#774,335
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3
ISBN
1