July 15, 2019
Wall’s sensitive, deliberate debut examines the intersecting lives of two couples through years in which they alternately clash and support each other. In the politically volatile 1960s, reserved upper-class Charles and streetwise Chicagoan James are selected to be co-pastors at a Presbyterian church in New York. Like it or not, their wives are thrown together as well. While the two men complement each other, their wives often clash. Charles’s wife, Lily—a feminist, atheist academic who was orphaned as a teenager—shuns both the church and the company of James’s wife, Nan, a sociable Mississippian who was raised as the daughter of a minister and with a strong faith of her own. Rather than simply throwing all these strong personalities together, Wall slowly and carefully builds the history and point of view of each individual and then each new couple. By creating such well-defined characters, she is able to all the more effectively explore the role of faith, or its lack, in dealing with the pressures of marriage, child-rearing, and work, as one couple faces the fact that they may not have the children they want and the other deals with a child with special needs. This is a story in which religion is central to the plot and the actions of the characters, but in which the author stands back from taking sides in the battle. It’s a rare and intellectually stimulating outing.
Starred review from August 1, 2019
DEBUT In her literary first novel, author Wall explores the twin issues of faith and cultural change through the copastors of a New York church and their wives in 1963. Charles is an intellectual who finds that God answers the questions that he didn't know he had. His love of God is profound and devout; his wife, Lily, however, is an atheist who gives no quarter to thoughts of the divine. Charles loves her, though, and she has willingly married him, though she is uncomfortable with the role of "pastor's wife." James, the other copastor, is a skeptic who isn't sure of God, but he does understand that religion is one of the ways that people can change the world, and in the 1960s, he knows the world has to change. James's wife, Nan, grew up the daughter of a Southern pastor. Her faith is sure, but she isn't all that sure the world does need to change. VERDICT This story will be beloved by book clubs and fans of literary fiction. The characters are finely drawn and written with compassion and care, and every word is precisely chosen.--Jennifer Mills, Shorewood-Troy Lib., IL
Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
July 1, 2019
Wall's generation-spanning debut novel of faith and fellowship begins with two 1950s love-at-first-sight story lines. Charles is instantly smitten by Lily when she answers his simple question, firmly and directly, in a Harvard library. Meanwhile, at the University of Chicago, James attends a weekend recital and decides he must meet the unassumingly beautiful piano accompanist, Nan. Within each pair, there is at first a believer and a nonbeliever, a dynamic that shifts in shades before and after the four become linked for life, when Charles and James are hired in 1963 to lead a Presbyterian church in Greenwich Village. Socially gifted Charles and activist-minded James complement each other as one well-balanced, co-ministering force, while their wives' differences more often keep the women apart. The surprises children bring, or don't, will challenge them all. Underlying the very readable, honestly human propulsion of her characters' lives in their near-entirety, Wall does a tricky thing quite well, exploring the facts of faith and love at both their most exalting and most trying. This has broad appeal for book groups.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)
Starred review from June 1, 2019
Molded by their backgrounds and childhood experiences, the individual members of two couples adopt beliefs which will define them--until they are confronted by a heart-wrenching challenge. Writing with restrained lyricism, Wall's debut--15 years in the making--offers a kind of literary chamber music, combining the viewpoints of a quartet of characters across multiple decades and events. Charles, the son of a Harvard professor, is a man reliant on research and insight. James, whose drunken father was broken by war, will grow up to be full of impatience and the urge to action. Nan, the daughter of a Southern minister, has learned patience and generosity while Lily, orphaned at 15, is happiest when withdrawn. Charles' unswerving love for Lily is matched by James' determination to marry Nan even though neither couple seems a natural fit. When both men opt for a life in the church, Nan is better equipped for the role of clergyman's wife than independent, brittle Lily, who feels no obligation to conform. The four eventually connect when Charles and James are offered the joint ministry of Third Presbyterian Church in Greenwich Village. Old-fashioned in tone and subject matter, the story is set in the mid-20th century and evokes some of the stifling social norms of the era. Wall has a very precise sensibility, and there is no escaping the sense of tidy predetermination in the clear, fixed positions of her four figures and their various oppositions, seen through the debates, struggles, rejections, and consolations that arise among them. Finely drawn and paced and written with intense compassion, the novel shifts ground with a late development that will test and push forward each of the four, leading to a conclusion consistent with Wall's grace and control. A moving, eloquent exploration of faith and its response to the refining fire of life's challenges.
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