Review: Very interesting
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 16, 2013
Disclaimer: I feel that I should note, because of the ongoing scandal and corruption in the Catholic church, that this book does NOT feature a situation that is abusive in any way, nor is the relationship depicted here in any way illegal. Oh, in the early stages this romance is ill-advised, certainly! But it's not against the law.With that out of the way, the first thing that came to mind as I started this book was, wait a moment, this seems terribly familiar... Sure enough, the plot of this novel is pretty much EXACTLY the same asMe and Mineby Sarah Goodwin, a book I had read (and enjoyed) last year, and which I reviewed at that time. Each book has its own strengths and weaknesses, but for all intents and purposes they are telling the same story in an extremely similar fashion.So, which one is better? It's difficult to say, and I don't think either is clearly superior to the other. "The Time of the Singing" is a bit more polished in style, a bit more lyrical in its descriptive prose. And it has a much better sense of place. That is, the church rules and rituals which form a backdrop to the story are much more skilfully described, and depicted in a realistic manner. I'll admit that the sense of a priest's place in the hierarchy of the church was lacking in "Me and Mine." And through a few conversations between the protagonists, this book brings up some theological questions that really do need to be addressed in a story like this---this aspect of the plot was also lacking in the former book.On the other hand, the characters are a bit more sympathetic in "Me and Mine," and I think character development is greater and more fully explored in that book as well. Plus, while (as noted above) the beginnings of both relationships are extremely ill-advised, the characters in "The Time of the Singing" rush ahead much more quickly in an extremely foolhardy manner, which made me want to shake some sense into them!My only reservation about this book is I wanted just a bit more information at the end---I wanted to know how Israfel's family (his parents and brother, sister-in-law and niece) reacted to his new life.I don't know that either "The Time of the Singing" or "Me and Mine" would be everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoyed both of them and will recommend the pair equally. I certainly do plan to look up more of Louise Blaydon's work.