e time is 1940. Jonathan Darrow is an Anglican priest when he receives a shattering vision and knows he must leave the monastery that has been his home for seventeen years. As he plunges into the temptations of the real world, a crisis sends him into the labyrinth of his past to pluck out the buried truth beneath the deceptions he has been living through.

When I picked this up, I thought that there would be a certain approach taken on the narrator's psychic powers, and the initial scene, where he has a vision, added to my belief. How wrong I was!

The main character is a 60 year old widow and father of two who has spent the last 17 years in religious order. The first quarter of the book covers 2 months of discussions with his superior as he tries to leave the order. When he finally does, he travels around a bit, alienates his daughter and (let's face it) homosexual alcoholic son, then gets married to a woman half his age he's only known for 2 months, and gets set up as a local curate.

This book is very heavy on the Christian church process, very wordy, sometimes very heavy. Sometimes his very "deep" discources (e.g. on the afterworld/grief) appear more of a lecture to the reader, and makes his listener (in the above case, his wife), appear to be rather stupid.

I dont believe I completed it, as I struggled to get beyond halfway ( )

Both readable and completely interesting. Possibly, though, a dangerous subject. I'd like to know how much the author actually knows about her subject.

This is book two of the Starbridge series. I didn't enjoy it as much as Glittering Images / I got slightly muddled in the middle of this one, but upon finishing it, I went to the library and checked out the third book.

This book is narrated by Jon Darrow, the man who was Charles Ashworth's spiritual director in the first book. This more intimate portrait of Darrow reveals a man who is conflicted, proud, dishonest and concealing and self deluded. I think this is one of the reasons I found the middle of this book difficult. In Glittering Images Darrow was wise and insightful and always incisive in his analysis of others. A bit like Gandalf. This book his feet are more clay and his inner life is a mess.

However it is an interesting plot. Darrow turns sixty, has a vision, petitions to leave the monastery (which leads to a discernment process with his Abbot General which occupies the first third of the book. In the second part of the book, he acclimates to the outside world, falls in love, gets married, becomes a parish priest, starts on a career as a healer and an exorcist, has a spiritual breakdown where he thinks he's possessed. The conclusion involves him working through relational issues with his kids, and his wife and his past. He even has an interaction with the chief antagonist from the first book (and that sets the stage for book 3).

As an ecclesial fiction this is still pretty good. Darrow's mysticism is of a Neo Platonic variety (styled by Howatch after William Inge). In this novel the counterpoint of his Abbot-General's rationalism provides a nice balance. There thus for has been no intelligent low-church voice in Starbridge. ( )

If I could I would have given this book 2.5 stars. The second book in the Strabridge sereies it takes one of the characters from the first story and tells us his story.

Jon Darrow is an Anglican monk who comes to the realisation that it's time to leave the monastery and go into the world. It then tells of his trials and tribulations and his problems with reconciling his faith with what he finds there.

Although I enjoyed this book I think in many ways it would be enjoyed better by a non-Christian as a pure story rather than myself as a Christian who found some of it very hard to accept as portraying Christianity in any real way.

My main problem is Jon Darrow's use of his glamorous powers which seem to consist of such things as hypnotism and his belief that he alone can heal people. This is totally contrary to the bible and in fact hypnotism is specifically forbidden. It seems strange that someone so senior in the church would be led astray in this way.

I was also very uncomfortable with the whole Catholic input. I was aware of High Anglicans but not to the extent featured in the book and it seems very wrong for him to impose such alien practices into the small village church.

All in all a good book and I look forward to reading the next in the series. ( )

Second in the Starbridge series about the Church of England.

Another brilliant psychological novel featuring Jon Darrow as he leaves the monastic life and tries to follow God's will in the world. His insecurities and hangups gradually come to light, as he begin to accept healing.

Utterly enthralling, with totally believable people, situations and conversation. Wonderful.

Stands alone, but best to read after 'Glittering Images'. Eminently re-readable. ( )