Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The Bishop's Man

3.64 of 5 stars 3.64 · rating details · 2,819 ratings · 318 reviews

Something about the boat, perhaps its name, and the posture of that boy caused me to defer my anxieties for the moment. It was so rare to see someone that age stationary, somber. I was more accustomed to a rowdy adolescent enthusiasm. This young man, I realized, was exceptional only because of time and place. Maybe any one of them in those circumstances would have been the...more Something about the boat, perhaps its name, and the posture of that boy caused me to defer my anxieties for the moment. It was so rare to see someone that age stationary, somber. I was more accustomed to a rowdy adolescent enthusiasm. This young man, I realized, was exceptional only because of time and place. Maybe any one of them in those circumstances would have been the same. Quiet. But he caught my attention nevertheless and linked the moment to tender places in the memory. Doomed boys and men: in retrospect they all have that stillness.
--from The Bishop’s Man by Linden MacIntyre

The year is 1993 and Father Duncan MacAskill stands at a small Cape Breton fishing harbour a few miles from where he grew up. Enjoying the timeless sight of a father and son piloting a boat, Duncan takes a moment’s rest from his worries. But he does not yet know that his already strained faith is about to be tested by his interactions with a troubled boy, 18-year-old Danny MacKay.

Known to fellow priests as the “Exorcist” because of his special role as clean-up man for the Bishop of Antigonish, Duncan has a talent for coolly reassigning deviant priests while ensuring minimal fuss from victims and their families. It has been a lonely vocation, but Duncan is generally satisfied that his work is a necessary defense of the church. All this changes when lawyers and a policeman snoop too close for the bishop’s comfort. Duncan is assigned a parish in the remote Cape Breton community of Creignish and told to wait it out.

This is not the first time Duncan has been sent away for knowing too much: decades ago, the displeased bishop sent a more idealistic Duncan to Honduras for voicing suspicions about a revered priest. It was there that Duncan first tasted forbidden love, with the beautiful Jacinta. It was also there that he met the courageous Father Alfonso, who taught him more about spiritual devotion than he had ever known back home. But when an act of violence in Honduras shook Duncan to his core, he returned home a changed man, willing to quietly execute the bishop’s commands.

Now, decades later in Cape Breton, Duncan claims to his concerned sister Effie that isolation is his preference. But when several women seek to befriend him, along with some long-estranged friends, Duncan is alternately tempted and unnerved by their attentions. Drink becomes his only solace.

Attempting to distract himself with parish work, Duncan takes an interest in troubled young Danny, whose good-hearted father sells Duncan a boat he names The Jacinta. To Duncan’s alarm, he discovers that the boy once spent time with an errant priest who had been dispatched by Duncan himself to Port Hood. Duncan begins to ask questions, dreading the answers. When tragedy strikes, he knows that he must act. But will his actions be those of a good priest, or an all too flawed man?

Winner of the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize, Linden MacIntyre’s searing The Bishop’s Man is an unforgettable and complex character study of a deeply conflicted man at the precipice of his life. Can we ever be certain of an individual’s guilt or innocence? Is violence ever justified? Can any act of contrition redeem our own complicity?

From the Hardcover edition.(less)

Paperback, 399 pages

Published August 3rd 2010 by Vintage Canada (first published July 28th 2009)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald

Canadian Fiction

63rd out of 379 books — 272 voters

The Colony Of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston

Newfoundland Reads

10th out of 88 books — 19 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Oct 21, 2010 Peachy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: abandonment, addiction, awards, canadian, disturbing, existential, family, loss-of-innocence, mental-illness, spirituality, catholicism

With Linden MacIntyre being one of my favourite journalists, I was thrilled to hear of his novel being honoured as the winner of the Scotiabank Giller prize for 2009. After reading the synopsis of the story, I knew it would be an uncomfortable read, but trusted in MacIntyre’s reverence and honesty to make it through. I was not disappointed.

The Bishop’s man is a story told in spirals, as we twist and turn through past and present fluidly, giving us a clearer picture of the events that can become...more

5 likes · like · see review

Jan 23, 2011 Jennifer (aka EM) rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: the-bandwagon, canlit, the-missionary-position, lonely-hearts-club, hidden-gems, on-da-rock-or-nearby, for-diane

A quick and gut-reaction 5 stars. It took me at least half-way through to figure out what he was doing, and to shed the preconceptions of what I thought this book was going to be. The last ~~100~~50 pages are masterful.

_______________________

[later]

This turned out to be a different novel, a better novel, than the one I was expecting. I know Linden MacIntyre as a journalist, and knew this was about the sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church. So I expected a journalistic exploration of that topic...more

6 likes · like · see review

Apr 08, 2013 Eleni rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Picked this up in the hotel reception area, which has a preponderance of books set in moody, remote parts of Canada and England, maybe because it's so hot in Nicaragua that these books count as weather porn. I really enjoyed it, and not just because of the descriptions of sweaters and hot tea and coffee. It's a murder mystery, sort of, although the murder doesn't happen until halfway through, but it's even more so a character study of a Catholic priest whose colleagues call him "The Exorcist"--w...more

like · see review

Dec 30, 2012 Shaun Bona rated it 4 of 5 stars

Linden MacIntyre expertly recounts essentials, leaving the reader to ultimately draw conclusions on a sombre subject. At the same time, he manages to discerningly enlighten us on the responsibilities of a priest, as well as their solitude and their challenges to being both a cleric and a man. It takes only a while to adapt to a narrative that sometimes lurches between time periods.

This book does not adjudicate or blame; it does not callously point the finger. From my read, it does reflect the Ch...more

like · see review

Jul 18, 2012 Lydia Laceby rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Originally Reviewed at Novel Escapes

The Bishop's Man is a shocking and disturbing read of one of the most despicable acts in the Catholic Church's history and although it seems like a heavy read, it wasn't as depressing as I was expecting. That's not to say it wasn't thought provoking and disturbing. It was, but this novel somehow found a balance that didn't cause me to abandon it with emotional fatigue.

The sensitive topic of The Bishop's Man was portrayed with just enough detail to be uncomfort...more Originally Reviewed at Novel Escapes

The Bishop's Man is a shocking and disturbing read of one of the most despicable acts in the Catholic Church's history and although it seems like a heavy read, it wasn't as depressing as I was expecting. That's not to say it wasn't thought provoking and disturbing. It was, but this novel somehow found a balance that didn't cause me to abandon it with emotional fatigue.

The sensitive topic of The Bishop's Man was portrayed with just enough detail to be uncomfortable, rather than outright description of the horrific events, invoking imagination instead of bombardment with details. I had worried about this before starting the novel, but was pleasantly surprised and found the lack of detail actually caused my imagination to run rampant where if I'd read multiple accounts of abuse, my sensitivity to the issue might have dulled or I might have closed the book.

The narrative was complicated with multiple stories and characters to keep straight via real time and flashbacks which grew tiresome. At times I had to reread passages to figure out where in the past we jumped to because there were multiple past events MacAskill has memories of throughout the novel. As much as this may be the way a person's mind works, I'm not sure it translates into writing and his jumbled thoughts and memories caused me more grief than I would have liked.

Seeing the priest as an actual man was eye-opening for me having grown up in the Catholic faith. Although not a practicing Catholic anymore, it was still interesting to catch a glimpse into the thoughts the priests my religious past held - the good, bad and the ugly. And there's a lot of ugly in this novel, so be prepared if you're highly invested in the faith and even if you're not.

I didn't love any of the characters in The Bishop's Man, but I didn't expect that I would and while I found myself sympathetic at times to MacAskill, it wasn't frequent. All of the characters were well drawn, and rendered so human with their imperfections, that without it, I'm not sure this novel would have worked. (less)

like · see review

Jan 22, 2012 Sheri rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In the midst of the clerical sexual abuse scandals, many bishops have made deniability an issue, rather like Sergeant Schulz in Hogan's Heroes: "I know nothing." Well, there's a reason for that. It's because they have underlings who do their bidding, who meet & speak with the accused priests directly & carry out the dirty work. This process leaves little in the way of smoking gun documents when the abuse victims speak up, because nothing's in writing, and no direct communications between...more In the midst of the clerical sexual abuse scandals, many bishops have made deniability an issue, rather like Sergeant Schulz in Hogan's Heroes: "I know nothing." Well, there's a reason for that. It's because they have underlings who do their bidding, who meet & speak with the accused priests directly & carry out the dirty work. This process leaves little in the way of smoking gun documents when the abuse victims speak up, because nothing's in writing, and no direct communications between the bishops and the perpetrators of such crimes. At the depositions when questioned under oath, the bishops have conveniently forgotten everything they learned indirectly -- think "I don't recall" as a convenient answer -- and the accountability of those accountable becomes difficult if not impossible to prove. Unless one of the bishop's underlings decides to go rogue and fess up.

This novel is about one such underling, the "bishop's man," the priest that all others hate to see at their door or to receive a phone call from, because it means they're in trouble & the bishop has sent his gunslinger to deal with the problem. The book is written in the first person, from the point of view of the bishop's man. As you might expect, a kind, concerned person who joins the priesthood to do good & encourage faith & good works by others can be insidiously corrupted in his own faith by serving as the bishop's man. McIntyre writes convincingly about how that much feel. Yet the bishop's man must continue to play-act his way through conducting worship services, taking confessions, counseling parishioners, and the like, all while seeming to believe wholeheartedly in the dogma of the religion.

As I read this book, I was reminded that I once knew such a bishop's man, although in social settings he made it sound like his job was merely helping irascible and/or lazy priests get along with their unhappy congregations. Now I know better.

I highly recommend this book, especially if you have any interest in the continued unfolding of the clergy abuse scandals. (less)

like · see review

Oct 16, 2011 Sam rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, library, literary-fiction, religion, christianity

Father MacAskill is known as 'The Exorcist' as it's his job to deal with instances of child-abuse and priests that break their vows of celibacy. Directed to keep such events hidden from the eyes of the media and the world, he becomes an expert in shunting priests sideways to other parishes and persuading victims to not seek retribution. But when he is hidden in a rural Nova Scotia parish to avoid a public scandal, he is forced to reflect on his life, his career and whether his faith can sustain...more Father MacAskill is known as 'The Exorcist' as it's his job to deal with instances of child-abuse and priests that break their vows of celibacy. Directed to keep such events hidden from the eyes of the media and the world, he becomes an expert in shunting priests sideways to other parishes and persuading victims to not seek retribution. But when he is hidden in a rural Nova Scotia parish to avoid a public scandal, he is forced to reflect on his life, his career and whether his faith can sustain him.

The Bishop's Man started out as a quiet, leisurely read with a pace that switched up several gears as events swirled out of Father MacAskill's control. I'm not a big fan of thrillers or mysteries, so wasn't interested in 'solving' the book, but I did think that MacIntyre cleverly weaved in deeper issues such as whether celibacy is a reasonable aim for priests and whether suicide is ever acceptable for Catholics. It was a book to make you think.

The topic of child abuse in the Catholic church was always going to be a sensitive one but I do think MacIntyre handled it sensitively; from the families who were angry but still do what MacAskill tells them to do, to the priests that offer their explanations, to MacAskill himself, who never gets the closures or reasons he is looking for. The Bishop was an especially interesting character, only interested in preserving the church from scandal and not in helping the victims he refuses to acknowledge;

"They'll get over it. They're young. If it wasn't this, it would be something else. The dope. The cars. The promiscuity. Life is damaging, but never forget the healing power of the Sacraments. The Sacraments mitigate the damage. We can't let a bunch of misfits and complainers undermine the Sacraments." p128

This novel was really my first experience of Canadian literature. It was recommended by a Canadian blogger friend (I wish I could remember who) and I was lucky enough to find a copy of it in my library. And aside from the themes of the novel, the Nova Scotia landscape was almost a character in itself in the book. I was swept away to the disintegrating fishing village full of men with nothing to do and the long, bleak winters where everyone knows each other.

Overall, I would recommend this book. It was a well written, sensitive examination of the topic of child abuse by Catholic priests. The mystery and thriller elements were perhaps not for me, but I could still appreciate the writing and the story.(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Jul 28, 2011 Mike Smith rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

This is a powerful story about Catholic priest Duncan MacAskill, who is dealing with personal and professional demons. Told in the first person by Father Duncan himself, this novel wanders back and forth in time as Duncan describes various key events in his life. The main story is set in the mid-1990s when Duncan is sent to a small parish on Cape Breton Island after spending the better part of the '80s shuffling pedophile priests around Atlantic Canada to avoid scandal for the Church. Given his...more

like · see review

Feb 13, 2011 Kimby Bogora rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Did not get very far into the book and then read an article in the paper that through me.
Someone saying that if it was not molestation it would be something else in this crazy world that would send us over the edge. Drugs, sex, cigarettes, alcohol are some of the things that a so called religious person says would be equal to the side effects of molestation.

If you want to ruin someones life Molestation is justified in this book. It is never acceptable in my eyes. Not a good read. If a religiou...more

like · see review

Feb 02, 2011 Christie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club-reads

The Bishop’s Man was the 2009 Giller Prize winner. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Giller, it’s Canada’s largest annual prize for fiction, netting the winner $50,000. McIntyre, a well-known Canadian journalist who has won nine Geminis for broadcast journalism, beat out Anne Michaels, Colin McAdam, Annabel Lyon, and Kim Echlin.

I’m not sure The Bishop’s Man is a book I’d pick up on my own. Still, the novel’s opening pages had me intrigued. Its narrator, Father Duncan MacAskill, is an...more The Bishop’s Man was the 2009 Giller Prize winner. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Giller, it’s Canada’s largest annual prize for fiction, netting the winner $50,000. McIntyre, a well-known Canadian journalist who has won nine Geminis for broadcast journalism, beat out Anne Michaels, Colin McAdam, Annabel Lyon, and Kim Echlin.

I’m not sure The Bishop’s Man is a book I’d pick up on my own. Still, the novel’s opening pages had me intrigued. Its narrator, Father Duncan MacAskill, is an interesting character, but then he starts to spiral out of control and so does the book.

MacAskill is known as the “Exorcist.” The Bishop sends him to clean up after fallen priests – men who have sullied the name of the priesthood by engaging in sexual relationships with – well – anyone. As we all know, celibacy is one of the tenets of the priesthood.

MacAskill isn’t without his own secrets, though. When the bishop decides to send him back to his childhood home, MacAskill is forced to confront his own demons. Isolated from the world in backwoods Cape Breton MacAskill suddenly realizes how lonely he is and he begins to drink heavily.

The Bishop’s Man is a page-turner. Lots of things are hinted at, enough to make the reader wonder: about the suicide of a young man and his relationship with a charismatic priest who has since left the order and married; about MacAskill’s time in Honduras, revealed in snippets from his diary; about where his relationship with Stella, a woman in the village, might be headed; about his childhood.

McIntyre juggles all these various threads and I guess this is where the book failed for me. I’m not a moron, but sometimes the out of sequence narration was really a pain-in-the-ass. I’m all for the elliptical, but I’m not sure it served the story in this instance (unless McIntyre was trying to mimic the disordered state of MacAskill’s mind.)

I haven’t read the other novels on the Giller shortlist and so I’d be curious to see how they stack up against this one. I guess the one thing The Bishop’s Man has going for it is a sense of immediacy. The Catholic Church has certainly had its share of troubles. Whether or not the novel’s verisimilitude is enough to overlook its other issues is up to the reader, I suppose.

(less)

like · see review

Oct 13, 2010 Mary Lou rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I avoided this book because of the repulsiveness of the subject matter and, were it not for book club, would probably have kept on avoiding it. That would have been a shame, as it’s turned out to be a good book. The main character struggles with guilt arising from many “sins” of omission and commission in his past, one of them being his role as the bishop’s go-to guy whenever it was time to move a troublesome priest to a place where he might not cause quite so much trouble. The book grapples wit...more

2 likes · like · see review

Apr 23, 2010 Aban (Aby) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It took me a long while to become totally involved with this novel and it's protagonist, Duncan MacAskill, but eventually I did. This is partly because Duncan is an introverted, reserved, man with many emotional issues from the past. These issues are revealed slowly, VERY SLOWLY, one tiny piece of the puzzle at a time. The same is true in relation to what happened to young Danny MacKay. There are sinister, dark, mysteries running through the book. At the same time, there's another thread interwo...more

like · see review

Jun 19, 2012 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I admit that because of the subject matter (sexual abuse within the Church)I was not comfortable to read The Bishop's Man, but after reading other reviews on goodreads I figured I would give it a shot.

First of all, the way that it is written reminds me of The Sound And The Fury in that it jumps in time from different moments in the past to the present. It felt like every other page where the time or place would shift without warning, but it really fit with the story. It was not difficult to foll...more

1 like · like · see review

Jul 14, 2012 Candice Holt rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Much of the story in The Bishop's Man centers around the tragic suicide of a troubled young man in the remote Cape Breton parish where Duncan has been sent by the bishop to keep him out of the public eye during the sexual abuse investigations. The priest who delivers the homily at the funeral says this of the boy's short suicide note -

"I'm told he wrote 'There is no future.' Think of that ... Think of where we have arrived as a society when those who shape the circumstances of our lives and comm...more

like · see review

Jun 14, 2010 Audrey rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I just finished reading The Bishop's Man By Linden MacIntyre. It was, and is, an absolute enjoyable read. This book offers a very dour subject matter. The entire book reeks of what is not said. The topic itself, is a subject nobody wants to speak of, yet, an entire book has been published on this ghastly and all too familiar devastating, dare not to speak of, life changing occurrence.

Many Roman Catholic fathers are currently under the microscope for just this sort of behaviour. I suppose that i...more

like · see review

May 18, 2012 Ian rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Linden MacIntyre's prize winning novel The Bishop's Man takes as it's starting point the sexual abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic Church. The action is set primarily in the early 1990s in and around Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and Father Duncan MacAskill is looking for answers. He is accustomed to viewing the seamy underbelly of the Church's affairs from years of acting as the local bishop's henchman--the one whose job it is to expel from the diocese priests whose indiscretions are coming home...more

like · see review

Sep 21, 2011 Susan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, favourite-books

I’m glad this book focused on the collective mental state of the Catholic hierarchy in their cover-ups, rather than making it about the victims of sexual abuse by priests. MacIntyre makes clear their attitude that the “Holy Mother Church was being scandalized by weak misfits” and they had to be rooted out. Not too dissimilar from other institutional rationalizations where justice for the victims is sacrificed for the public perception of the establishment – politics, armed forces, police, medica...more

like · see review

Jul 20, 2010 Shane rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A topical story for our times told by an insider, Fr. Duncan MacAskill, who is a "hit man" for his church, responsible for removing sexual predators from among his colleagues to safer grounds, (so that they are free to commit more crimes, it seems from the news reports these days).

The story focuses on Duncan's unravelling and descent into alcoholism from combinations of the guilt piled on during his childhood, his suppressed feelings towards the women in his life, the isolation of his office, an...more A topical story for our times told by an insider, Fr. Duncan MacAskill, who is a "hit man" for his church, responsible for removing sexual predators from among his colleagues to safer grounds, (so that they are free to commit more crimes, it seems from the news reports these days).

The story focuses on Duncan's unravelling and descent into alcoholism from combinations of the guilt piled on during his childhood, his suppressed feelings towards the women in his life, the isolation of his office, and the "sins of the fathers" that he has to clean up.

Three stories intersect: Duncan's father and his buddies' wartime "collateral damage" which result in later abuse and suicide, Duncan's sojourn in the Honduras during the "70's which also ends in tragedy, and his present story when he is sent as custodian of an isolated parish in Cape Breton (really intended to get him out of the way of a nosey press), not far from where he grew up and where his closet's skeletons are eagerly awaiting him. Bringing the three story lines into sharper focus and towards a painful resolution is the suicide of a young man in the parish community - by now, a recognized outcome of unresolved sexual abuse. Fr. Duncan is impelled to hunt down the perpetrator, despite having walked away from his previous job.

The author draws a sympathetic and haunting portrait of Duncan MacAskill, who seems to bear everyone's guilt, of victims and perpetrators alike. The sense of community in the parish is also evoked very well by people frequently bumping into each other or visiting the priest for a drink, and by illicit sexual couplings between parishioners from among the rather slim pickings available. Viciously guarded family secrets prove to be the only impediments to Duncan finding out "whodunit."

The author uses an economy of words, both in narrative and in dialogue to convey a lot. I particularly liked his short treatise on the Burdens of Priesthood (a.k.a. "what they don't teach you in seminary"): the struggle against idle speculation, the sterility of moral power in the age of secular celebrity, living alone without privacy, the burden of trust without intimacy, and struggling with fantasies about the ordinary - enough to make one take the cloth and shove it!

Despite this being a Giller winner, I couldn't help feel a bit lost in the rapid, and sometimes unwarranted, time shifts - some contrived for effect and pacing. I also felt that the tenses could have been better written and that it would have been okay once in a while to be a bit more direct about what was happening. There were words like "bum" "penis" and "anus" tossed out but the acts behind them were discussed in a roundabout fashion, as if there was fear of a lawsuit in an age when this subject is front and centre of the news.
(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Apr 09, 2011 Dot rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I found this book very intriguing both for its description of life in a small town in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and for its insights into the Catholic Church. The novel is set in the 1990s as the shocking news of widespread abuse of children by Catholic priests was just coming to light. The main character is a priest who is chosen as a 'fixer' by his Bishop whose mandate is to investigate allegations of abuse within the diocese with the aim of avoiding scandal so that the congregations do not lo...more

like · see review

Jun 30, 2010 Monica rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Though well written…with words and paragraphs that flow...I’ve named this novel “the joyless book”.

“Father Duncan is the bishop’s fixer, the guy called on to root out corrupt priests. For years he’s made sure sexual abusers get moved around with no public scandal or personal accountability. When he’s sent to his hometown in Nova Scotia to deal with a growing crisis there, it looks like his personal doubts – he has his own secrets – might threaten his professional duties.”

I was impressed with th...more

like · see review

Nov 03, 2010 Shirley Schwartz rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: prize-winners, my-5-star-reads

This book is very worthy of the Giller Prize that it won last year. Mr. MacIntyre does a remarkable job of characterization and of plotting. The book almost reads like a thriller, keeping the reader on the edge of their seat throughout. And although the subject that it deals with is an awful one, and uncomfortable to read about, I never once lost my enthusiasm for the story and for the wonderful characters. And it is such a wonderful story that it held me mesmerized throughout. Terrible secrets...more

like · see review

May 12, 2010 Jack7609 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Jack7609 by: Mom

Shelves: read-in-2010

Wow! i really loved this book! reading the summary you would think that it is all about perverted priests and the cover-up behind the deeds but it is so more than that. Duncan MacAskall is a Catholic priest and the Bishop of Nova Scotia’s number one “problem solver”. He is the one that has the demeanour and temperament to “relocate” wayward priests to rehab, another parish or in some cases out of the priesthood entirely– but he has his own past! He is from a small town on Cape Breton Island wher...more

like · see review

Nov 04, 2012 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Linden MacIntyre’s The Bishop’s Man is a good read. Also timely. It came out just after Nova Scotia priest Raymond Lahey was arrested on allegations of sexual abuse. Unfortunate circumstances for a novel to be timely to be sure, but it certainly gave the reading an added resonance and urgency.
The novel’s first person protagonist, Father Duncan, is a “fixer.” He arrives in towns with a “wayward” priest and deals with the situation. To this primary narrative is added the flashbacks of Duncan’s tim...more

like · see review

Jul 18, 2010 Lorraine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Lorraine by: Giller Prize

Shelves: canadian, i-own-it, giller-finalist, z2010

This book demonstrates the power of subtlety. Nothing is overt, everything is implicit. It's so much more reflective of life -- how often do we name horrors, but instead we speak in code and leave ugliness unspoken, partly as a way of dealing with it?
This book does not condemn or blame, it simply acknowledges that ugly things happen(ed) and people try to deal with those realities in the best ways they can, not sure if they're right or wrong. Especially when there is no right action. I love that...more

like · see review

Jul 24, 2011 Shirley added it · review of another edition

Shortlisted for the Giller Prize, Linden MacIntyre's The Bishop's Man deals with the timely subject of abuse on the part of Catholic priests. This is a complex novel that drags somewhat at the beginning, but becomes increasingly more compelling. The central character, Father Duncan MacAskill, for many years had the difficult task of dealing with priests accused of abuse, by moving them to other communities thereby minimizing the possibility of scandal. As his awareness of the suffering of the ab...more

like · see review

Mar 01, 2010 Bonny rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Read this for my book club in February. Told from the POV of a Priest who has to discipline other Priests who have had adulterous relations or who have developed drinking problems as well as ther social problems. At the same time his own problems with drinking and relationships slowly comes to the surface the more you read.
The book reinforces the difficulties of being in a society where the image and necessity of the role of Priests are changing and yet their almost plastic like lifestyle and r...more

like · see review

Aug 20, 2011 Carolyn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

The Bishop's Man",
"This is a wonderfully written book..very evocative of the settings in small towns and villages of Cape Breton. The atmosphere drew me right into the story of Father MacAskill, a priest struggling with his role as bishop's man, Exorcist or Purificator as he is dubbed by others.
He seems to think at first that his role is to comfort family's of victims abused by priests, but soon finds his role is to cover up the impending scandals and assist the bishop in sending the wayward...more

like · see review

Jun 08, 2010 Cameron rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book would have gotten 4 stars if the storyline was changed to be linear, or possibly if I was able to read it in one sitting. The story jumped around so much, between 3 or 4 different time periods in the protagonist's life, that I was constantly wondering where I was in his story. It seems like these days you can't write an award winning novel without using non-linear storytelling. Everybody's doing it! I think it has its place, but not all stories need to be that convoluted. Some just nee...more

like · see review

Apr 12, 2010 Jim Labelle rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The book is about an RC priest in Nova Scotia used by the bishop of his diocese for "delicate" assignments requiring a perfect balance of firmness and tact. He does the job well and is held in the highest esteem by the boss. He is in his 50's and is suffering a crisis of conscience due to events coming to a head. There is a back story about another priest in Latin America as well as a past love affair with a woman. I didn't get it. But I liked the main story. It held my interest and the characte...more

like · see review

Aug 12, 2011 Stacy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I guess I was hoping for more of an insight into the character of child abusers, but was left with that uncovered. I do think the book was sensitively written, but since it went in and out of time, it was hard to follow at times. Because the narrator is the Bishop's man, we can see how he was manipulated to hide the clergy crimes from the public and we feel his pain as a cleric who is adrift. However, I am still left with the feeling that I should have been able to read peoples' minds. Perhaps t...more

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
CBC Books: The Bishop's Man by Linden MacIntyre	41	41	Oct 31, 2012 12:30pm

combine
Other Editions (14)

More editions...

Genres

Cultural > Canada

60 users

Book Club

30 users

Literature > Canadian Literature

8 users

Religion

7 users

Adult Fiction

5 users

Contemporary

5 users

Literary Fiction

4 users

Literature

4 users

Novels

4 users

Christianity > Catholic

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Linden MacIntyre

Linden MacIntyre is the co-host of the fifth estate and the winner of nine Gemini Awards for broadcast journalism. His most recent book, a boyhood memoir called Causeway: A Passage from Innocence won both the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction and the Evelyn Richardson Prize for Non-Fiction.

More about Linden MacIntyre...

Books by Linden MacIntyre

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The Bishop's Man

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

title link	preview: The Bishop's Man
avg rating	preview: The Bishop's Man Goodreads rating: 3.64 (2819 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7146234-the-bishop-s-man?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320396687l/7146234.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7146234-the-bishop-s-man?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Bishop's Man by Linden MacIntyre[/url]

The Bishop's Man

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website