The Variations
A Novel
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3.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A compelling sympathy of the faiths that fill the gap between who we set out to be and who we ultimately become
A powerful debut novel about a priest who has lost his church, his mentor, and, most upsetting, his ability to pray. How can Father Dominic protect or guide his parish when everything he loves falls away? How can he counsel Dolores, a troubled teenager prone to emotional panic and spiritual monomania? Or James, a promising African American pianist, struggling to realize his artistic ambitions by bringing his own voice to a piece that has been played by the world's most brilliant pianists, Bach's Goldberg Variations.
Into this malaise comes Andrea, a sophisticated New York editor attracted at first by Dom's blog and then by the man himself. Dom's journey from the cloth into the secular world will offer carnal knowledge, but also something deeper, a more resistant knowledge as life fails to offer happiness or redemption. In prose both searching and muscular, John Donatich's The Variations has located the right metaphor for our spiritual crisis in this story of one man's spiritual disillusion and ache for self-knowledge.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This dour but richly layered debut novel by Donatich (after the memoir, Ambivalence, A Love Story), the director of Yale University Press, probes the troubled life and ministry of a middle-aged Roman Catholic priest who has lost his spiritual compass. Father Dominic, a pastor in a decrepit neighborhood in New Haven, Conn., spends his time blogging his "contentious" ecclesiastical opinions, driving without a license after a DWI, and seriously questioning his faith. Though complex debates about celibacy and the modern Catholic Church are well articulated through Father Dominic's frequent ruminations, he still manages to counsel Dolores Alfano, an emotionally disturbed 16-year-old high school dropout allegedly impregnated by the former pastor, the late Father Carl. Father Dominic hires James, a talented African-American classical piano student, as church organist, but soon learns that his sparsely attended church, hurt by the economy, is slated for closure. Distraught, he consorts with local prostitutes, accepts a contract to write magazine articles, and hooks up with his hard-charging editor, Andrea, losing his parish and church, and generally running off the rails. He does seek a measure of peace with Andrea by attending James's recital, where they hear a moving rendition of Bach's "Goldberg Variations." Though the heaviness of Donatich's setting and characters could have been lightened with a touch of humor, this is a solid debut.
