If you want to write well, you have to read a lot. That’s been the advice to aspiring writers, for well over fifty years. Especially, they say, read in the area where you want to write.
“What you want to write” is a complicated concept. I just finished writing a book that I thought was going to be a murder mystery. Instead, it turned into a gentle, coming-of-age, straightening out family ties, sort of book. Evidently, I’m not entirely in charge of the writing. However, I am in charge of paying attention to what I am doing and trying to do it better. Hence, if I’m writing books with a Catholic point of view, then maybe I should study other Catholic books.
So, every now and then I look for recommendations from Various Influential People, and try some of the books. It doesn’t always work well. The books tend to be, by and large (buy and large?), expensive. Interlibrary loan around here costs $3 a book (?!). I found one highly recommended book second-hand, and hated it, so much so that I marked the recommender in my mind as not trustworthy for me. Important point there. Lots of other people like that book.
I suppose it makes me an idiot if I try again. Anyway, this time the list came from Catholic World Report. The editor asked a lot of Influential people what they read and enjoyed in 2023. I went through looking for recommendations. https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2023/12/15/best-books-i-read-in-2023/
One of the first books to catch my eye was Defining the World: The Extraordinary Story of Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary by Henry Hitchings. I guarantee, without peeking, that this book will be expensive, but coming from a family that loves words, it looks very enticing. Mindful of Aunt Mary’s dictum, ‘anticipation is the only part of an experience that you can be sure you will enjoy,’ I’m not currently considering purchase…
Anyway, I continued through the list looking for reasonably current Catholic authors who are writing novels. I found a few to look up, plus a lot of other alluring, seductive, beguiling, intriguing looking material. Once Upon a Prime by Sarah Hart is non-fiction but I love the title. Mixed in with lots of serious stuff, I found Murder in the 33rd Degree. How about The World, the Flesh, and Father Smith? **
The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens came up so I gave it a try. He wrote it at Christmas time after the success of A Christmas Carol. It isn’t remotely in the same league, but it is a peaceful bit of reading. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20795
An author from the early 1900’s, Josephine Ward, was on the list. Josephine was married to Wilfred Ward, a writer known for a biography of Newman, as well as a lot of Catholic philosophy of the late 1800’s. Their daughter was Maisie Ward, who helped found the publishers, Sheed and Ward, and married Mr. Sheed. Because she’s so early, I thought Project Gutenberg might have Josephine, and indeed they did have one book (out of eleven) of hers, Great Possessions. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17952 This book is not one of the ones recommended, but it was the only one available, quickly.
Great Possessions was … I don’t know what it was. Conflicted? I read it and something crystallized in me.
Among the conflicts, was a widow who struggled with the idea of remarriage. She also had to deal with ideas people had about her dead husband, but that was not her own conflict. She chose a position early, and held to it from beginning to end. A further conflict involved a young priest who was preaching and drawing people to the Church. He inspired jealousy among his superiors, and backbiting elsewhere, with a large helping of sheer calumny. This was quite surprising in its own way.
All the same, the largest character arc was the growth of a girl who (after she was dragged away from her Indian Ayah), was raised without love of any kind (that she understood anyway). The story includes her subsequent actions. I’m not sure I believe her as a character. BUT
What she represented to me was the idea that some Catholic fiction picks the most extreme situation it can and then resolves it with the application of faith. I can’t write those books.
I haven’t read certain modern “Catholic” books I found, because, using the Look Inside feature of Amazon, I could see where they started, and found it repulsive. Will this person be blackmailed by a Catholic priest, and how will it affect his belief? Not interested. What happens after Vatican IV guts the truths of the Church? Not interested.
It seems to me that people need something much more accessible to their own experience, in order to imagine change in their own lives.
**I forgot to mention up above that many of the Variable Instrumental People agree, that reading P. G. Wodehouse is a good idea.
Publishing news … All excerpts from Jessamyn have been removed from this blog. The book itself is finished and will be available on Amazon, January 2, 2024… if all goes well. I’m offering the book on Kindle Unlimited, as well as for permanent purchase… and the deal is, that the content cannot be available anywhere else on the web. J
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