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Office of Innocence: A Novel
Marshalling the vast powers of narrative and historical re-creation that he brought to his international bestseller Schindler’s List, Thomas Keneally has created a moving and provocative novel about a headstrong young Catholic priest in World War II Australia. As Sydney braces itself for a Japanese invasion, Father Frank Darragh finds his pastoral duties becoming increasin...more
Paperback, 336 pages
Published
June 8th 2004
by Anchor
(first published March 18th 2003)
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Frank Darragh's tale is an ancient one dealing with the perils of innocence in a society where paradise is not only lost but long gone. He is a priest living in rural Australia trying his best to be ethical and human at a time when it appeared that the Japanese were about to invade Australia during World War II. It's painful in places to see where Darragh takes his good faith and how the world and his church make him pay for it. Keneally weaves the tale artfully and takes the big questions head-...more
This book is set in 1942 Sydney, from the perspective of a young, and "idealistic (?)" priest. Father Darragh is a man whose religious ideology makes him likeable. He struggles to make sense of what's going on without losing his faith. In a sense, it seemed he wanted to remove the barrier between Christian faith and traditional morality. Remove hypocrisy from our lives. I found myself cheering him on.
Office of Innocence is one of those rare books that explores the dilemmas on the boundaries between moral systems and real life. It does so fittingly though an impressionable man of faith - a priest at that.
There is a wry humor in the conflicts between faith and action;duty and conscience. When you put yourself in the shoes of the protagonist, every incident poses the same questions to you!
You realize it is applicable to every one who has ever felt such conflict in our everyday mundane battle ca...more
There is a wry humor in the conflicts between faith and action;duty and conscience. When you put yourself in the shoes of the protagonist, every incident poses the same questions to you!
You realize it is applicable to every one who has ever felt such conflict in our everyday mundane battle ca...more
Like Keneally's earlier book, Schindler's List, this is another account of a heroic but flawed character (an Australian priest during WWII) who faces a series of difficult moral choices, with strong support from his faith but lack of support from the church. It reminded me strongly of Graham Greene's best novels.
A wonderful book. I loved it.
Sep 07, 2011
Maggie
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
multiple-reads,
literary-fiction
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Apr 01, 2008
Marguerite
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Travelers
Recommended to Marguerite by:
Can't remember
Shelves:
contemporary-fiction
This wasn't what I expected, but was a nice period piece from a faraway land (Australia braced for a Japanese invasion in World War II). The insider view of the Catholic church rang true, and the plot wasn't bad, either.
Set in Austrailia, heavy on morality (not a book to take to the beach for a day of light reading) with some interesting insights on the thoughts of Aussie's during WWII and on possible invasion by the Japanese.
May 18, 2013
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Thomas Michael Keneally, AO (born 7 October 1935) is an Australian novelist, playwright and author of non-fiction. He is best known for writing Schindler's Ark, the Booker Prize winning novel of 1982 which was inspired by the efforts of Poldek Pfefferberg, a Holocaust survivor. The book would later be adapted to Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
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