Strangers and sojourners.

San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1997, pp. 571, $25.00 US.,

REVIEWED BY DAVID DOOLEY

This book is another in a series O'Brien calls Children of the Last Days; but it is not really a sequel to its remarkable predecessor, Father Elijah. That book dealt with the Mediterranean world; this one is set very firmly in a remote valley in British Columbia. In Father Elijah religious intervention was very explicit; heavenly voices, including those of the three archangels, gave guidance to the priest in the title. In Strangers and Sojourners, the religious theme is again dominant, but it is played out chiefly in the minds of the central characters, without such direct heavenly guidance.

Alfred "the Fool"

The novel opens upon a seance held near the White Horse at Uffington in England in which the famous spiritualist Annie Besant and Anne Ashton's father try to conjure up the spirit of his dead wife. Anne, who is only a child at the time, is terrified, especially when a preternatural event does occur--an evil spirit, identified as Merlin, declares that in this place "the army of Alfred the Fool did beat back the forces of the Danes," putting an end to the glory of ancient Britain and eclipsing temporarily the forces of the earth. But soon, the spectre predicts, the Christianity which replaced paganism will be blown away and become as nothing.

Years later, when shown a picture of the great white horse made by scraping the topsoil off a chalk hill, Anne remembers the reference to Alfred as a usurper and a fool, and has to be corrected by the man who shows her the photograpsh:

"Wasn't there somebody named Alfred connected with it?"

"That's right. Alfred fought the battle of Ethandune on the valley floor just below the horse."

"I remember. A usurper, wasn't he? Alfred the Fool, they called him."

"You mean Alfred the Great, don't you?" he said looking at her strangely.

"Oh, yes. Of course that's what I meant." She rubbed her brow. "I wonder why I said that?"

"He was no usurper. He was the Christian king who defeated the pagan Danes when they invaded England. He won against overwhelming odds. That victory preserved civilization in England. It's quite a story."

So the author summarizes the story told by G. K. Chesterton in his Ballad of the White Horse. Not for nothing did O'Brien call his publishing company the White Horse Press. Undoubtedly he shares Chesterton's perception that the struggle is never-ending; the barbarians must be fought again and again. His own writing is obviously an attempt to show his fellow Christians the need for a vigilant defence of Christian values, and for the creation of what the Holy Father calls the civilization of love.

Spinster and bushman

The novel is a chronicle, telling the story of two exiles - Anne Ashton from England and Stephen Delaney from Ireland - and carrying the narrative on to their children and their children's children.

The story of how "a lonely spinster meets a solitary bushman," in the pioneer town of Prince George, B.C. is very well told. Anne comes into close contact with Stephen when he is sick with a fever and lying in filth; when he is well, he does little to ingratiate himself with her, since he spends half the time they are together railing at the English oppressors of Ireland. She is attracted to him in spite of herself but fearful that her own personality will be subdued.

"Life is a transformation," says the priest who marries them, "and you are entering into it with the person chosen for you from all eternity." But she enters it with a mixture of joy and lamentation, and when the wind seems to say, "It is good that you have come empty before the Presence," she answers, "But I do not believe in the Presence." For years she and Stephen are going to remain two solitudes.

What the bear did

This is a very complex novel. The theme announced in the series title - Children of the Last Days - is virtually parodied here; an eccentric Pole, Jan Tarnowski, who lost his family during the Nazi persecutions, builds a bell tower, which he calls an enduvdevorldkluk - perhaps to announce the end of the world, at least to warn of the approach of fire. One of the most important episodes in the novel concerns the Delaneys' eldest son, Ashley, being mauled by a bear. The horror of this accident brings out all the bitterness Anne feels about the cruelty of this environment and her isolation from civilization: her son, nearly dead, has to be taken through the Rockies in a railway caboose to get him to a hospital in Jasper, Alberta.

Strangers and Sojourners is a very moving and readable novel; and while it is very different from Father Elijah, it resembles its predecessor in being frankly, unashamedly imbued with religious feeling. With this new book O'Brien certainly consolidates the reputation which Father Elijah gave him.