First started reading this book about a year ago when my friend sent it to me and recommended I read it. I got through about a quarter of the book and set it aside. I couldn't figure out why my friend had sent me a trashy, historical romance.A month or so ago he brought the book back and said I needed to read it. I figured that since he was telling me a second time I must have missed something the first time around. For that first part of the book I was still wondering what the heck was going on and why my friend, a grown man, was telling me to read this crap.Then I hit the middle of the book when the main character goes through a metanoia and suddenly I realized my friend was a genius. I couldn't put the book down after that and would recommend it to anyone who likes to be challenged in your perceptions about books and about yourself.Glittering Images is a story that could easily describe almost all of us. It describes how a man builds up a "Glittering Image" personality for the world to see, all the while struggling to cope with numerous issues and keeping his "real" self hidden from the world.The book is filled with a lot of interesting historical material related to the Church of England at the turn of the last century. I am big on historical fiction so this was one aspect of the writing that I enjoyed.Being a former seminarian for the Roman church, I was intrigued by the theological and practical similarities and differences which were represented here. Even early 1900's Anglican theology was considerably more liberal than Roman Catholic practice. The discussion about divorce was particularly intriguing.Then we get into the psychology. I read a bunch of other reviews on this book and was surprised at how many people didn't get past the surface content. This book is deep. Much deeper than most novels and probably a significant challenge for the passive, unexperienced reader.Perhaps I was able to appreciate the in depth analysis of interior turmoil because I related to it so closely. My own life has been filled with the need to project my "Glittering Image" for fear that the real me would not meet up to the expectations of those around me. I was very impressed by the step-by-step process through which our protagonist travels on his journey to spiritual and mental freedom. Often the most harrowing slave-master is our own mind.This is the first Susan Howatch book I have read but I plan to pick up the rest of the series and I hope that they challenge my perceptions as much as this one did. Highly recommended.
Short Review: This is a second reading and review of Glittering Images. I read it first about 2 years ago and it gave me a new concept of what it means to live a Christian life. Since then I found a spiritual director and have been meeting with him for about 18 months and my theology has shifted a bit too to become more sacramental (and Anglican). The book itself can be a bit melodramatic at times and there may be a bit too much going on. The first half is about an Anglican priest and professor (Charles Ashworth) that is sent to investigate a bishop covertly. But Ashworth, has his own issues and in the midst of his investigation he falls for a woman that works for the Bishop and then has a full spiritual breakdown. The second half of the book is about Ashworth's recovery at the hands of Jon Darrow a spiritual director. The spiritual direction is highly fictionalized and really like actual spiritual direction, but it gave me a view of what spiritual direction could be. I had actually asked for some referrals of counselors before I read this because I was in a stuck place in life. But this book gave me a new concept of what I was looking for. It was not depression or midlife crisis, but need for an older Christian to formally come alongside me and help me concentrate on my spiritual life. I have a review next week of Eugene Peterson's Practice Resurrection which i re-read along with Glittering Images to help give some non-fiction context. Both books focus on the Christian life as a work in progress and I at least have found that important.My first blog review of Glittering Images http://bookwi.se/glittering-images/My second reading review of Glittering Images http://bookwi.se/glittering-images-2/
I don't really know how to review this one. It defies genre.Set in 1937, the main character is an Anglican Priest, given a tricky assignment by the Archbishop of Canterbury to investigate another bishop. This story contains memorable characters, intrigue, deep theological discussions, family secrets, philosophy, spiritual gifts, supernatural intervention, and a little too much Freud for my taste.It's mostly talking: one character monologuing to another. It's dense. But somehow that makes it sound worse than it is, because it held my interest. I wanted to know what happened next.The book was written in 1987, but its subject matter (the nature of self, what happens when we present one self to the world and believe we are another "real" self inside) seems prescient of our social media age when no one is really sure who their "real" self is, much less who other people might "really" be.The only reason I hesitate to recommend this book is the sex obsession held by more than one character. For the most part this is limited to brief discussions (and the occasional profanity), but one section of the book becomes far more graphic (although not titillating) than I care to read. So, reader beware.Ultimately, I found the ending unsatisfying. I thought the wish of the author to absolve all characters of being truly "bad" led to an implausible ending. But it's a book I'll think about for longer than it took to read it, so that makes me glad I read it, even with all the negatives.
—Karen
This book rode my book shelf for several years. I picked it up, and others of the Starbridge series from a used book sale at a theological library. A friend suggested it telling me that the characters in this series were based on theologians and churchmen in the Church of England. I love church history and was interested. My wife read a later book in the series and didn't enjoy it, so it kind of killed my excitement in starting in on these. But as I have been downsizing my library I thought I'd
—James
After 2 months, I've finally finished this book and have to say it wasn't great. I guess it was easy enough to read, but the situations played out a little too smoothly. The characters referred more than once to Freud and I couldn't help but think Ms Howatch had taken a psych 101 course and had turned one or two classic case studies into characters. The scenes were too pat - scripted is what I want to say but since this is a novel, I guess it is by definition scripted.Also, the whole book, or 99% of it anyway, is dialogue. It's a series of overly-dramatic scenes where people act out and then disect it all later. Not enough inner thought for my taste.I couldn't help but think this book relied pretty heavily on people being absurd and if any one of them would have stepped back and said "wait, this is ridiculuous" then everyone would have seen how stupid they were all acting and then the book would disintrigate. Which I guess is what happened, it just took 450 pages and a lot of words to say "this is ridiculuous".There's no way to avoid my cynical nature here, but I also objected to everyone being noble and good by the end of the book. No one had bad motives, they were all just victims of their pasts (that Freudian childhood thing) and circumstances, and all it took was a wise monk to untangle the mess and - ta da - beautiful souls were set free. Hmmmmm.
—Laura Rittenhouse
