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Frances Fyfield gives me everything I need
Book Review
By Derryll White
Fyfield, Frances (2003). Seeking Sanctuary.
Let the hound of heaven bite at your heels for a long time before you turn and feed it.
– Frances Fyfield
Frances Fyfield always serves up a different mix of characters – sometimes a lawyer turned hooker, in this case two young women in a convent. On opening ‘Seeking Sanctuary’ the reader is immediately led to question the veracity and intent of lawyers (Fyfield herself is a criminal lawyer). The reading of Theodore Calvert’s will indicates the frightening ability of the barrister to look after himself while subtly altering the intent of the dying Calvert.
Fyfield sets up a wonderful rhythm, a form of ‘Upstairs-Downstairs’ with the old nuns, inhabitants of the Convent, and the younger support staff who all have their peculiar quirks. It provides for a quick, witty repartee spiced with moments of deep personal contemplation. Definitely a writing voice of note!
What is faith? What faith is right for you? Accepting that the present is a frail construct, what is required by you to make sense of it all? Fyfield prods these hidden recesses that we tend to ignore. “You write to clarify your emotions,” she says.
‘Seeking Sanctuary’ is a slow read. Fyfield demands a lot of the reader – consideration of God, determining the need or viability of religion, the functioning of family. She even throws in the “nature vs. nurture” question for those sociologically schooled or of an inquiring nature. Good writing, reflective reading – Frances Fyfield gives me everything I need.
Monotheism is what makes for wars. – Frances Fyfield
****
Excerpts from the novel:
PRIEST – If the rich were in spiritual need, he was rarely the only source to which they looked. They looked also towards doctors and psychiatrists and new age gurus, or they cured themselves, while the poor of parish sometimes reached towards him, like drowning men and he the only one to save them from hell. The only one who could fill in a form, contact a relative, claim housing benefit and tell them how to get legal aid and avoid deportation, or evict a violent husband while he, so often, would have to shake his head and say, I cannot do all that. I cannot keep you alive. It is the lot of a priest in a secular society to have responsibility without the power to influence events, let alone pull strings down at the Department of Health and Social Security.
GOD – “Once you start to realize the possibility that man made God for his own convenience, rather than the other way round, you’ve got Him on the run. Let in the light of logic and He goes to ground. As unreliable as anything else synthetic and man-made.”
– Derryll White once wrote books but now chooses to read and write about them. When not reading he writes history for the web at www.basininstitute.org.
