Morris L. West (1916–1999)

El autor, en esta novela, se adentra en los espacios más recónditos y contradictorios del alma humana, utilizando, para ello, los recursos estructurales de la narración policíaca. West plantea la eterna paradoja del cristianismo: la constante tensión entre la fe y la flaqueza humana. Novela audaz e intrigante, testimonio del catolicismo conflictivo de nuestros días.

Meredith va a morir pero ha sido elegido como Abogado del Diablo para que actúe como fiscal religioso contra un hombre al show more que todo un pueblo quiere beatificar. Pero Giaccomo Nerone no era tan beato, había dejado a una mujer embarazada y además no se había casado con ella. Y encima se había creado enemigos. Meredith, antes de morir, busca un milagro. Nina y Paolo Sanduzzi se lo ofrecen, y él, por su cuenta, logra realizar otro milagro. show less

What is the difference between people who claim to be doing violent things "for the good of society" and those who do things for terrorist reasons against certain groups in society. this book poses this but doesn't really answer it. Leaving it for the reader to decide the moral and ethical arguments. Still relevant today over 30 years after it was written.

I've just re-read this book for the first time in perhaps twenty years. I've had a copy on my physical bookshelf all this time, carried it to college and through numerous moves, even though it took me this long to come back and read it again.

It's an intense and challenging story of a hodgepodge of modern people shipwrecked on an uncharted island, led by a half-Polyneian/half-caucasian man who is the descendent of a line of navigators, inheritor of the mana of his ancestors.

Morris West is a show more fine writer who seems to tell two kinds of stories. He is best known, I think, for novels about the Catholic hierarchy, but "The Navigator" is one of what I call his pagan novels: stories of people rooted in and driven by older, more primitive codes. He acknowledges the spiritual power that lies outside modern religion, and respects it.

The book is as powerful as I remembered it, but I was not prepared for its old fashioned sexism. Traditional gender roles are taken for granted, never questioned, even when every other convention is held up for scrutiny.

This is an excellent book, one I will continue to keep on my shelves. show less

This was well written & read, but I just couldn't work up any empathy for the characters. They're Catholics & most of the story hinges on their beliefs, which are also warring with reality in the form of modern medicine. If the Pope is the God's voice on Terra, what happens if he's a mindless vege? Of course, that tossed a monkey wrench into their laws & politics, but the more they struggled with their religious beliefs, the more ludicrous the whole plot became. The enormity of their egos & show more their tiny sense of racial & self esteem reminds me of a bunch of alcoholics. Instead of alcohol, they're drunk on their own philosophy, though.

It's pretty amazing that people can base their world view on such nonsense, but a neighbor recently stopped by to ask us if we knew anything about horse hair snakes. According to him, these are snakes born of horse tail hairs sitting in stagnant water that spontaneously come to life. Wow. He said he graduated high school & belongs to the Baptist church just down the street. That new preacher stopped by & told me the world was only 5,000 years old just a month or so ago. It's pretty incredible & very sad to think there is such intentional ignorance in the world. show less