Eminence

West, Morris

ISBN 10: 1585470449 ISBN 13: 9781585470440

Publisher: Center Point Pub, 2000

Synopsis

Few novelists have written about the Catholic Church with more drama, insight, and prophecy than Morris West. In this powerful novel of Vatican intrigue, a Pope dies and a flawed man holds the key to the election of his successor.

About this title

Review

Morris West, author of the bestselling novel The Shoes of the Fisherman, manages in many of his books to balance a steadfast Catholic faith with a razor-keen perception of the flaws of the Church. Eminence begins with Monsignor Jorge Novak's 1995 admonishment of the Church's "complicities [in respect of] illegal repression" in Argentina and a short citation from William Pitt (1770): "Where law ends, tyranny begins." West uses these political statements as the launching point for his very personal story of Cardinal Luca Rossini. Luca is a compelling character--a haunted man who offers the world a stern visage to cover a deeply troubled soul. As a young and outspoken priest he was brutally tortured in an Argentine military prison and was then nursed to health by the beautiful Isabel, wife of an Argentine diplomat. To cover the scandal of his unacknowledged treatment, he was recalled to Rome and exiled to the Vatican. As the novel begins, Rossini is now the confidante of the reigning pope. He is admired and feared by his colleagues, for Rossini (like his creator) understands the Church, speaks frankly, and knows how to present his ancient faith to the late-20th-century media. When the pope becomes gravely ill and a successor must be chosen, Rossini takes a central role in the process. In the midst of the political intrigue that surrounds the selection of a new pope, however, Isabel arrives in Rome--along with Luca's daughter. Luca must suddenly confront old and painful memories of Argentina and the scandalous passion of his long-suspended love affair.

Eminence is a brisk thriller and simultaneously a very relevant examination of the byzantine Vatican City; but the ultimate pleasure of the book, as with the best of West's writings, derives from his complex and very human portrait of a modern man of the cloth. --Patrick O'Kelley

About the Author

Morris Langlo West (26 April 1916 - 9 October 1999) was an Australian novelist and playwright, best known for his novels The Devil's Advocate (1959), The Shoes of the Fisherman (1963), and The Clowns of God (1981). His books were published in 27 languages and sold more than 60 million copies worldwide. His works often were focused on international politics and the role of the Roman Catholic Church in international affairs. One of his most famous works, The Shoes of the Fisherman (1963), envisioned the election and career of a Slavic Pope, 15 years before the historic election of Karol Wojtyła as Pope John Paul II. He was born in St Kilda, Victoria and attended Christian Brothers College, East St Kilda. He graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1937, and worked as a teacher in New South Wales and Tasmania. He spent 12 years in a monastery of the Christian Brothers, taking annual vows, but left in 1941 without taking final vows. That same year, he married (this first marriage did not survive), and enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force. He was seconded from the RAAF to work for Billy Hughes for a time. After making a name in producing radio serials, he left Australia in 1955 to write, and lived in Austria, Italy, England and the United States, finally returning to Australia in 1980. During this time he had a stint as the Vatican correspondent for the Daily Mail. His son, C. Chris O’Hanlon, said that he spent his first 12 birthdays in 12 different countries. Morris West died while working at his desk on the final chapters of his novel The Last Confession, about the trials and imprisonment of Giordano Bruno, who was burned at the stake for heresy in 1600. Bruno was a figure with whom West had long sympathized and even identified. In 1969 he had published a blank-verse play The Heretic on the same subject. He wrote The Last Confession in the form of the diary that Bruno might have written knowing that execution was approaching. The diary was intended to cover the period 21 December 1599 to 17 February 1600, however it covers just 14 days; the entry West was writing when he died was dated 4 January 1600, and he had written only about half as much as he had intended. Nevertheless, the last paragraph he ever wrote was poignant: I can write no more today ... who knows to what nightmares I might wake. West himself had had several severe heart attacks, and had undergone double-bypass surgery. Murray Waldren writes: "This is a book written by a man aware death is imminent about a man aware execution is near". West’s family decided to publish it in 2000, in an incomplete form and without any editing, leaving readers free to imagine how the story might have ended. It has a foreword by Thomas Keneally, an editor’s note by his publisher Angelo Loukakis, and an epilogue co-written by his assistant Beryl Barraclough and his widow Joy West.

About this edition

• Publisher: Center Point Pub
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1585470449
• ISBN 13: 9781585470440
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 424