| Original Message |
justine Lutzel (no login)
Posted Apr 11, 2007 8:59 AM
I think that one thing "The Good Priest’s Son" did was comment on our ongoing question: Who has the right to talk/write about 9/11? On page 213, the narrator thinks “By then they all knew that Miles had prior rights here.” Because Miles had lost his boss, he had “prior rights” on the subject, even though Malc was working at ground zero and Charlotte and Mabry were both from NYC.
Also – the novel does, like other novels we’ve read (and will read), highlight the importance of guilt/shame in a character’s life. Mabry is guilty/ashamed (we can have the battle about the differences between guilt and shame in another post – for now, I’ll inappropriately collapse them) about many things: his treatment of his wife and his relationships with Charlotte and his father. I think this “guilt” is the most important theme of post-9/11 fiction and, even though I did not really like the novel, I appreciated Price’s thematic elements and adherence (?) to the genre.
The novel also dealt with ideas of “infection.” There was the father’s sickness, the inhalation of the dust &c. at Ground Zero, and, most importantly, Mabry’s own possible illness. I think this novel could really be about Mabry searching for someone to take care of him – which is another theme of this post-9/11 genre.
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