Francesca Kay

While browsing my local bookstore, I ran across The Translation of Bones . I knew that it was a 2012 long - listed Orange Prize contender, but it takes more than that to get me to read a book. Flipping through the pages of the book, I quickly realized that one of the character's, Mary -Margaret O'Reilly , a slow -witted but devoted parishioner of a Catholic Church in South London, believes that while dusting a plaster depiction of Christ, she has seen blood flow from from his crown of show more thorns.

Like most of us, and as author Francesca Kay acknowledges in her novel, I felt both great curiosity and skepticism about this event and wondered where the author would go with this. As it turns out, the bleeding of the plaster Christ remains a shadowy happening. Parish Priest Father Diamond discourages discussion about the event, and blocks off that area of the church . As the Diocese office replies to Father Diamond " The Face of Our Lady on a pizza, Our Lord on a Slice of Toast! Outbreaks of hysteria are to be discouraged." p. 62.

Whether one is a believer or a vigorous atheist, this is the most interesting and thought - provoking look at faith, why we believe what we do, and the ambiguity of it all.

Stella Morrison is the married mother of ten year old Felix, who she misses dearly because her husband has insisted that Felix attend a Catholic Boarding school . Alice Armitage is in a relatively happy marriage , but is counting the days until her soldier son returns from Afghanistan. Fidelma is the obese, agoraphobic , single mother of Mary- Margaret, still suffering anxiety from her days as a Catholic boarding school student.

Mary -Margaret, and fellow parishioners Stella Morrison , Alice Armitage and non - believers alike serve as an intriguing vehicle for author Francesca Kay to explore the ambiguity of faith. Stella Morrison ponders on Mary - Margaret's happening, telling herself that" we accept all sorts of things on other people's say so . The way the Internet works, or that there was once water on Mars." p.139

Weeks after Mary - Margaret is convinced that she has seen the blood of Christ, she discovers that she is a " child of sin" (quotations mine), and sets off to prove herself worthy of the Jesus' love. Inadvertently she sets off a tragic chain of events.

Later, as psychiatrist Dr. Azin Qureshi examines Mary- Margaret , even he is left with questions. He spends time reflecting on the secular and sacred in his life. He concludes that " people like him had no use for supernatural solace" p 211, but goes on to remember the Muslim faith of his grandparents, and reflects to himself " who are the arbiters of what is true and what is not?" p.212 .

The only fault I could find with the book was the slow moving nature of the first 2/3 of the book. After that, I could barely stop turning the pages.The novel is beautifully and profoundly written and I was left with much to reflect on. Francesca Kay writes beautifully, and the novel is full of humanity , as well as questions of faith.


4.25 stars show less

This novel which was longlisted for the 2012 Orange Prize is ostensibly about the effect of a supposed miracle on the members of a Catholic church in London. But it's about so much more than that: motherhood, suffering and the desire of human beings to belong. In fact I would say that it captures the emotion of motherhood better or at least as well as any book that I've read.

Mary Margaret, a devout woman with learning disbilities who helps with the cleaning of the Church of the Sacred Heart show more in Battersea, decides to give the statue of Jesus in the chapel of the Holy Souls a special clean. While balancing on a chair she thinks she sees tears from the eyes and blood from the wounds and that she hears the voice of Jesus speaking to her, and the shock causes her to fall and break her arm. But this is London in the twenty-first century where the diocesan office's view is that 'outbreaks of hysteria are to be discouraged. They are not healthy and do not give glory to God. The face of Our Lady on a pizza, Our Lord on a slice of toast! Such a load of hocus-pocus, with no place at all in the contemporary world.' But the effect of the miracle works out in unexpected ways: on Mary-Margaret herself; on her hugely overweight mother Fidelma, imprisoned in her flat by her bulk and her own childhood ghosts; on Stella Morrison, the wife of an M.P. who desperately misses her son away at boarding school, on Mrs Armitage worried for her adult son serving in Afghanistan; and on the parish priest himself Father O'Connell.

This is a beautifully written book - Kay can write just a couple of sentences that set out everything you need to know about her characters. Mary Margaret decides on buying materials to clean the statue at the Body Shop on the King's Road. 'The mingled scents she found there befuddled her a little, and she wasn't sure what to say to the powdery lady who bore down on her with an offer of help and a sample of glow enhancer. But she stood her ground and found the shelves of brightly coloured bottles arrayed under the heading Body Care. ... The containers came in two sizes; she chose the smaller. It was still expensive.' Someone who finds a Body Shop shop intimidating (a shop which is ubiquitous on British high streets) is clearly placed on the margins of society. And everything you need to know about Stella's relationship with her husband is in this paragraph: 'Stella did not tell Rufus anything of this because she knew he would not be interested. And he would not have time in any case to listen. He didn't get back from the House that night until eleven o'clock, and he was hungry. Stella was hungry too but Rufus expected her to wait for him; he disliked eating on his own. She cooked fillets of trout with tarragon and crushed potatoes and she listened while Rufus talked about the crisis over the MP's expense claims.

Altogether a lovely book although very sad. show less

The Book of Days is fabulous historical fiction. The start of the book is quite slow, and reading on my kindle, I did not become fully engaged with the novel until about the 50 % mark. But once I did, I could not put the book down.

In a village, north of Oxford , 1546 , the tale begins to unfold. Alice is a young woman , married to a much older man, Richard, who is very ill and is dying. Alice would very much like to have a child. Richard's first wife died, and left behind a now teen aged show more daughter, Agnes. Richard is obsessed with building a chapel where he plans to be buried, and prayers said for his soul. Alice has already lost a 3 day old baby, and mourns her loss.

Though not specifically mentioned, the Protestant Reformation has begun. The Catholic Chapel where Squire Richard and his family and the town worship, is threatened. A commissioner arrives, and the chapel is to dismantle all things Catholic. Meanwhile, daughter Agnes grows restive, and becomes interested in a man named Henry Martyn. When Richard dies, his manor and fortune will go to Agnes, unless a male heir is born. Alice wonders what will become of her when her husband dies.

Many of the townspeople begin to follow a firebrand Protestant preacher, and turmoil and tragedy result.

A fascinating tale from a very personal perspective, but one that has made me seek out more information on the Protestant Reformation, and the reign of King Henry V111

A couple of quotes

48% " I have been a man's possession since the day I was born" - Alice.
55% " was it right to liberate a church from Rome to enslave it to another throne ? " show less

I’d seen mixed reviews of this one even before I read it, and although I’d have to agree that it is a novel with many flaws, I personally really liked it, enough to pick up the author’s earlier book.

The story is centered around a Roman Catholic church in Battersea, London and unfolds over five weeks leading up to Easter. There are multiple characters who are loosely connected by the church, and the narrative switches from one to the other.

Mary-Margaret O'Reilly, a mentally show more handicapped woman who is a parish member and volunteers as a cleaner weekly, takes it into her head to clean the statue of Jesus in the church’s side chapel and waits for an opportunity to be alone for this purpose. While she is reaching up to clean the statue’s head, she believes the statue comes to life, bleeds, and moves—however, she then falls and is hospitalized with a minor head injury.

While book blurbs tend to suggest that this perceived miracle is the subject of the novel, it really isn’t—it is more like a stone thrown into a pond that sends ripples outward in multiple directions, ultimately leading to a great tragedy. Kay does not really dwell much on whether the miracle is real or not, and offers ample alternative explanations. While some of the characters do wonder about it a little, for the most part they don’t.

Father Diamond has been in charge during his senior colleague’s six-month absence, and is struggling with aspects of his calling. The capable and reliable Mrs. Armitage turns up every Thursday to clean and manage, while anxiously awaiting the return of her son from military service in Afghanistan. Stella Morrison arranges flowers for the church, is in a lukewarm marriage to a recently-turned Member of Parliament, and misses her children so much it hurts, especially her youngest, Felix, who is away at boarding school (clearly his father’s idea and not hers).

Other characters, each of whom has a voice, include Fidelma, Mary-Margaret’s mother, a literal prisoner in her 19th floor tower block flat, who hides deep scars from her own childhood; Felix, Stella’s youngest son, who is miserable at boarding school, misses his mother, and is counting the days until the end of spring term; Kiti Mendoza, a nurse and the only one to take Mary-Margaret’s story at all seriously; Azin Qureshi, a community psychiatrist who evaluates Mary-Margaret in the hospital and muses on the boundary between religious vision and psychosis requiring medication.

This book was so sad I had to stop and cry at one point, even though I think I knew what was coming. It’s not altogether bleak—there are second chances as well as losses here. Kay beautifully captures the aching love of mothers for children, how childhood scars can linger, the power of reaching out a hand to those in need, the consequences of not doing so. The writing is lovely (although I have to ask: what is wrong with using quotation marks?)

On balance, I think the author was trying to do too much in a relatively short book—there are so many characters and points of view, that it is impossible for them to be fully developed. Her characters have interesting thoughts—and it is a shame thay aren’t given more scope to connect the dots between the various narrative strands. The end result is more loose ends than I would have liked, and an overall messiness, but a book I continue to think about.

A few quotes:

Stella and Felix

He nodded quickly and turned back to his team, now streaming off toward the changing rooms. She watched him go, yearning after him, the mud-stained hollows behind his fragile knees.

Fidelma

Diet, diet, diet, she was sick of the stupid word. It was not by chance that if you took the t off, you’d get its close relation. show less