Hmmm. I find it interesting how 2 stars can mean different things to different books. In the case of The Priest, 2 stars is my way of saying - Hey! I finished you! You weren't completely horrible! But man, oh man, did you miss the mark!Here- we have a book that is just trying waaaay to hard to be something it's not. Something it just wasn't meant to be. Something that is (perhaps) a little more complicated than the author can handle. We are tossed back and forth between numerous character storylines, which initally did not bother me.. I could see that they were all going to tie in together towards the end. But as we got farther along, I realised that Disch was trying to spice it up, throw out some curve-balls, keeping the reader on their toes. Only, it didn't keep me on my toes. It started to frustrate the hell out of me. There was already too much going on to begin with. We start with a naughty priest. Father Pat Bryce. Hi, nice to meet you Pat, I hear you like little boys, how lovely. What a shocker, it seems to be a prerequisite of those who take the collar, doesn't it? (ohhh shut it! You all know I'm right!)Then we realise that the naughty priest is being blackmailed for his naughty sins. By more than one person. Awwww. Poor Father Pat. I'm so sorry to hear that you're sins are catching up to you. Such a shame. A bit further in, things start to disinegrate. Rapidly. There's some satanic tattooing, some kidnapping of underage girls who wanted to get abortions, some time warping back into the middle ages... I can't say anymore, lest I spoil things for you. And I wouldn't want to do that. In case someone out there has the urge to read this little anti-priest, anti-church nugget of a novel.All I can say is that, in the last -ohhhh- twenty pages or so, one of the characters puts the whole entire story into perspective, throwing you what SHOULD have been a curve ball, but actually fails, because it really doesn't make any sense to me at all, and then the last chapter... oh goodness to that last freakin chapter. Dude shoulda put down the pen and left well enough alone. That last chapter was just awful. Really. ugh.Don't get me wrong. I love me some church hatin'. I really do. But this was just poor. poor. poor.And I've read reviews where this book is considered an updated version of "The Monk" by Matthew Lewis. Pa-Tooie! That's what I say! Don't compare this novel to a classic gothic tale. Just don't. Like I said before.... this came across as soooooo something bigger than the writer ever could have made it.The Priest tryed. And failed.
-Historia: 5. Primero decir que entiendo que tenga tan poca puntuación global, pues le da caña a la religión cual martillo pilón. Mucha cantidad de creyentes lo habrán leído por múltiple razones y como no cabe duda le pondrán 1 estrellita (lo entiendo). La historia es muy atrayente: Un cura pederasta, borracho y homo sexual que se dedica a disfrutar de sus gustos, pero hay alguien que se entera y se la juega… a partir de ahí este cura viaja a la edad media mediante un tatuaje que se estaba haciendo. Como veis muy jugosa la trama, pero no nos dejemos engañar. Después se vuelve muy monótono todo, con un desarrollo que no pasa nada. Y el final de lo más previsible y facilón para el autor.Lo mejor: las primeras 100 páginas y como le da caña a la religión aprovechando cualquier momento e incluso sin venir a cuento. Todo sabemos que una novela es la plasmación de la personalidad, miedos y gusto de un autor. Queda claro que este es ateo.-Narración: 8. Muy buena traducción, de eso no cabe duda.-Ambientación: 2. No hay, la omite para esas palabras emplearlas en dar cañita.-Personajes: 5. Un cura así da mucha facilidades.-Acción: 0. -Terror: 0.-Edición: 7. Rustica con buena hoja, bastante robusto en general.
What do You think about The Priest (1995)?
Better than imitators, more [disjointedly, dream-disruptingly] populous than predecessors. This is the first Disch book I've put down before finishing, then half-heartedly picked back up to see how it all ended. Fundamental to the story is a visceral iconic trope, but the visceral bits are horribly misrepresented: it reads like sexist* shallow teenaged [tattoo] fantasy. Most Disch characters are wrought such that you might feel grateful or dirty for having tiptoed around in their shoes for a while; follow faithfully, here, and you might feel a bit dizzy. I just felt annoyed.*As always, though, the best-realized internal-dialog belongs to a geriatric female character.
—Jessica Donohoe
Reading through the Supernatural Minnesota series again, I was struck by how well they go together in spite of their different premises and contradictory events... and also by how incredibly much better this one book is than I remembered. Maybe it's that it feels less detached; Disch's irony is always ten feet deep, and so it is here too, but he's writing about the Catholic Church and he clearly had some very, very strong and complicated feelings about it, so there's a little more sweat visible. The horrible things are horrible, the love is real, and all of it is uncomfortable and hilarious. You'll need some extra-strong suspension of disbelief as it veers from one type of gothic tall tale to another, but somehow it all holds together, I think. (Speaking of which: if you get the new edition with an introduction by Gregory Feeley, read the intro after the book. It's interesting in a sort of dry theoretical way, but it gives away a big plot twist.) Also, I was just very happy to see Bing and Queen Mab from The Businessman again.
—Eli
1. Disch wrote some sci-fi during the New Wave 60s; also a collaboration or two with John Sladek (see review of "Tik-Tok").According to the Library of Congress data, this book contains...the catholic church, clergy, extortion, minnesota, minneapolis, child molesters, rehabilitation, minneapolis (again), and time travel. This...this dude also wrote, "The Brave Little Toaster" and "The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars". And dude has a livejournal.2. Half-way thru as of July 23rd. I suppose some of the suspense of a time travel novel is not knowing what time the book will leave you...at the end. 3. Finished July 28. A rollicking read, delightful ending. I was expecting something darker, along the lines of M. Lewis' The Monk which this book, obviously, nods towards (to the point of whiplash).The Priest is part of an unofficial series, "Meta-Minneapolis" which began with The Businessman and ended with The Sub. 4. According to his Livejournal, Disch has a book on the way in summer 2008..."Word of God: The Holy Writ Rewritten"...and, apparently, involves time travel, Philip K. Dick, alternate realities and etc.
—R.
