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labingiThe Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell -- Jesuits in Space!
Rarely have I encountered a book so schizophrenic in quality. Its highs are very high, and its lows border on sub-professional. The novel, published in 1996, concerns a mid-21st-century Jesuit space mission to make first contact with an intelligent alien species and how this goes horribly wrong: no spoiler--we know from the get-go that the ending is not rosy. The premise is outstanding and kept me reading for the whole book despite some considerable disappointments.
The Good
* The premise: Jesuits in space, the continuity of their historical tradition of exploratory evangelism. A neat idea.
* Priests are people. This is difficult for most our literature to grasp. The usual tropes reduce them to saints pure as driven snow, dirty old men, or sexually repressed prudes in need of therapy. This book has several different characters who are Jesuit priests, and they are all clearly individualized with their own personalities, backgrounds, nationalities, pastimes, problems, etc.
The novel probes the fact that many come to religion through paths of great hardship: three of our priests come from rough neighborhoods, one is a widower, and one is connected by family to organized crime. Points, too, for recognizing that it is highly likely (certainly in the 21st century) for priests not to be virgins, whether via youthful experience, previous marriage, or failure to uphold their vow of celibacy.
* The anthropological work on the aliens is excellent. (The author is a biological anthropologist.) In a lifetime of reading science fiction, I have never seen exactly this scenario. It is well thought out and makes evolutionary and social sense.
* The presentation of trauma and the process of healing from trauma is well done. Our protagonist, the priest Emilio Sandoz, returns as the sole survivor of the mission (again, this is revealed very early) utterly screwed up psychologically, physically, and spiritually. His agony is believable as is his slow journey toward healing. His crisis of faith is well depicted as a logical culmination of his lifelong relationship with his religion.
The So-So
* Apart from the anthropological work done on the aliens, the science/social science in the series is so-so. It's carefully thought out in many ways (I like making a ship in an asteroid), but the mission's lack of any reasonable first contact protocols can only partly be explained by this being a fast-tracked, private mission. These people are scientists, too, after all. Concerns about ecological contamination (ex. in planting a garden) are glossed ineffectively. And the assumption that it's "okay" to start killing and eating animals almost as soon as you arrive on an alien planet is surprising coming from an anthropologist. Leaving aside health concerns (moderately well addressed) and, as a friend noted to me, the concern that you might be eating the offspring of the people you want to contact, the lack of concern for how protected or sacred these creatures might be among people you wish to make friends with is glaring gap in cultural sensitivity.
* The religious discourse has its moments, mainly in Sandoz's crisis of faith, but for a book about Jesuits, there's actually surprisingly little about religion. The Bible is rarely mentioned and Jesus almost never. I can't figure out if this is an oversight or a statement about the Jesuit institution. The main question seems to be whether or not God exists and is guiding our path. This is a decent question--it's central for Sandoz--but it seems rather a reduction of the full complexity of a life immersed in religion.
The Bad
* One review (quoted in the book, interestingly enough) described the human characters/interactions as "contrived," and I couldn't put it better. With the powerful exception of most of the Sandoz material, the characterizations are all pretty shallow and paint-by-numbers.
A partial exception is Sofia Mendes, a brilliant polymath and Sephardic Jew, emotionally scarred by a war-torn childhood. The problem here is that her journey is not so much Sofia-healing-and-opening-up and Sofia-turning-into-mini-Anne. (Anne is an extremely outgoing, positive, jolly middle-aged lady.) The text notes that Anne becomes a role model--fair enough. But Sofia's eventual turn from extreme reserve and rationalism to hugging, sobbing, hiding in people's arms, cracking bad jokes, etc., in a junior-version-of-Anne-manner is simply not good character evolution.
* And speaking of bad jokes, I don't think I have ever read a professionally published novel that handles humor worse. The jokes are almost universally stupid or appear stupid in the light of every character's heavily overwrought response of guffawing for half a page until tears run. A majority of the jokes--or at least it feels like it--are based on sex, and the overall effect is of a room of thirteen years olds who think they have just discovered the world's greatest, dirtiest secret. Then, there is the character--usually the naïve Jimmy--who "doesn't get it," however painfully obvious "it" is, thus leading to more prolongation of implausible thigh slapping.
All in all, I do recommend the book to fans of sociological science fiction with a religious twist with some tolerance for ham-handed characterization.
Rarely have I encountered a book so schizophrenic in quality. Its highs are very high, and its lows border on sub-professional. The novel, published in 1996, concerns a mid-21st-century Jesuit space mission to make first contact with an intelligent alien species and how this goes horribly wrong: no spoiler--we know from the get-go that the ending is not rosy. The premise is outstanding and kept me reading for the whole book despite some considerable disappointments.
The Good
* The premise: Jesuits in space, the continuity of their historical tradition of exploratory evangelism. A neat idea.
* Priests are people. This is difficult for most our literature to grasp. The usual tropes reduce them to saints pure as driven snow, dirty old men, or sexually repressed prudes in need of therapy. This book has several different characters who are Jesuit priests, and they are all clearly individualized with their own personalities, backgrounds, nationalities, pastimes, problems, etc.
The novel probes the fact that many come to religion through paths of great hardship: three of our priests come from rough neighborhoods, one is a widower, and one is connected by family to organized crime. Points, too, for recognizing that it is highly likely (certainly in the 21st century) for priests not to be virgins, whether via youthful experience, previous marriage, or failure to uphold their vow of celibacy.
* The anthropological work on the aliens is excellent. (The author is a biological anthropologist.) In a lifetime of reading science fiction, I have never seen exactly this scenario. It is well thought out and makes evolutionary and social sense.
* The presentation of trauma and the process of healing from trauma is well done. Our protagonist, the priest Emilio Sandoz, returns as the sole survivor of the mission (again, this is revealed very early) utterly screwed up psychologically, physically, and spiritually. His agony is believable as is his slow journey toward healing. His crisis of faith is well depicted as a logical culmination of his lifelong relationship with his religion.
The So-So
* Apart from the anthropological work done on the aliens, the science/social science in the series is so-so. It's carefully thought out in many ways (I like making a ship in an asteroid), but the mission's lack of any reasonable first contact protocols can only partly be explained by this being a fast-tracked, private mission. These people are scientists, too, after all. Concerns about ecological contamination (ex. in planting a garden) are glossed ineffectively. And the assumption that it's "okay" to start killing and eating animals almost as soon as you arrive on an alien planet is surprising coming from an anthropologist. Leaving aside health concerns (moderately well addressed) and, as a friend noted to me, the concern that you might be eating the offspring of the people you want to contact, the lack of concern for how protected or sacred these creatures might be among people you wish to make friends with is glaring gap in cultural sensitivity.
* The religious discourse has its moments, mainly in Sandoz's crisis of faith, but for a book about Jesuits, there's actually surprisingly little about religion. The Bible is rarely mentioned and Jesus almost never. I can't figure out if this is an oversight or a statement about the Jesuit institution. The main question seems to be whether or not God exists and is guiding our path. This is a decent question--it's central for Sandoz--but it seems rather a reduction of the full complexity of a life immersed in religion.
The Bad
* One review (quoted in the book, interestingly enough) described the human characters/interactions as "contrived," and I couldn't put it better. With the powerful exception of most of the Sandoz material, the characterizations are all pretty shallow and paint-by-numbers.
A partial exception is Sofia Mendes, a brilliant polymath and Sephardic Jew, emotionally scarred by a war-torn childhood. The problem here is that her journey is not so much Sofia-healing-and-opening-up and Sofia-turning-into-mini-Anne. (Anne is an extremely outgoing, positive, jolly middle-aged lady.) The text notes that Anne becomes a role model--fair enough. But Sofia's eventual turn from extreme reserve and rationalism to hugging, sobbing, hiding in people's arms, cracking bad jokes, etc., in a junior-version-of-Anne-manner is simply not good character evolution.
* And speaking of bad jokes, I don't think I have ever read a professionally published novel that handles humor worse. The jokes are almost universally stupid or appear stupid in the light of every character's heavily overwrought response of guffawing for half a page until tears run. A majority of the jokes--or at least it feels like it--are based on sex, and the overall effect is of a room of thirteen years olds who think they have just discovered the world's greatest, dirtiest secret. Then, there is the character--usually the naïve Jimmy--who "doesn't get it," however painfully obvious "it" is, thus leading to more prolongation of implausible thigh slapping.
All in all, I do recommend the book to fans of sociological science fiction with a religious twist with some tolerance for ham-handed characterization.
