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The Mackerel Plaza
An irresistible comedy about faith, desire, and middle-class morality from the man described by Kingsley Amis as “the funniest serious writer to be found on either side of the Atlantic.”Pity the poor reverend Andrew Mackerel of the People’s Liberal Church of Avalon, Connecticut. His is the first split-level church in America, a bastion of modern thought and sophisticated virtue, yet even his prosperous parishioners are not immune to the backsliding evangelism infecting other parts of the country. One misguided congregant wants to sing hymns to hospital patients. Another goes so far as to put up a billboard with the message “Jesus Saves” written in phosphorescent green-and-orange letters. How is Mackerel supposed to write sermons with a vulgarity like that staring him in the face?Worse yet, the recently widowed pastor has fallen in love with Molly Calico, a former actress turned city hall clerk, well before the church is ready to stop mourning Mackerel’s saintly wife. Plans are under way for a shopping mall and memorial plaza commemorating the dear departed, and Mackerel must go to ever-greater lengths to keep his new romance a secret and his new paramour happy. Meanwhile, it is becoming clear that his devoted sister-in-law, Hester, has plans of her own when it comes to the reverend’s matrimonial future.As Mackerel twists and turns to get what he wants and avoid what he does not, the plot of this rollicking portrait of suburban piety kicks into high—and hilarious—gear.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
About the author
Peter De Vries
55 books166 followersPeter De Vries is responsible for contributing to the cultural vernacular such witticisms as "Nostalgia ain't what it used to be" and "Deep down, he's shallow." He was, according to Kingsley Amis, "the funniest serious writer to be found on either side of the Atlantic." “Quick with quips so droll and witty, so penetrating and precise that you almost don’t feel them piercing your pretensions, Peter De Vries was perhaps America’s best comic novelist not named Mark Twain. . .” (Sam McManis, Sacramento Bee).
His achievement seemed best appreciated by his fellow writers. Harper Lee, naming the great American writers, said, “Peter De Vries . . . is the Evelyn Waugh of our time". Anthony Burgess called De Vries “surely one of the great prose virtuosos of modern America.”
Peter De Vries was a radio actor in the 1930s, and editor for Poetry magazine from 1938 to 1944. During World War II he served in the U.S. Marines attaining the rank of Captain, and was seconded to the O.S.S., predecessor to the CIA.
He joined the staff of The New Yorker magazine at the insistence of James Thurber and worked there from 1944 to 1987. A prolific writer, De Vries wrote short stories, reviews, poetry, essays, a play, novellas, and twenty-three novels, several of which were made into films.
De Vries met his wife, Katinka Loeser, while at Poetry magazine. They married and moved to Westport, Connecticut, where they raised 4 children. The death of his 10-year-old daughter Emily from leukemia inspired The Blood of the Lamb, the most poignant and the most autobiographical of De Vries's novels.
In Westport, De Vries formed a lifelong friendship with the young J. D. Salinger, who later described the writing process as "opening a vein and bleeding onto the page." The two writers clearly "understood each other very well” (son Derek De Vries in "The Return of Peter De Vries", Westport Magazine, April 2006).
De Vries received an honorary degree in 1979 from Susquehanna University, and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in May 1983.
His books were sadly out of print by the time of his death. After the New Yorker published a critical reappraisal of De Vries’ work however (“Few writers have understood literary comedy as well as De Vries, and few comic novelists have had his grasp of tragedy”), The University of Chicago Press began reissuing his works in 2005, starting with The Blood of the Lamb and Slouching Toward Kalamazoo.
His achievement seemed best appreciated by his fellow writers. Harper Lee, naming the great American writers, said, “Peter De Vries . . . is the Evelyn Waugh of our time". Anthony Burgess called De Vries “surely one of the great prose virtuosos of modern America.”
Peter De Vries was a radio actor in the 1930s, and editor for Poetry magazine from 1938 to 1944. During World War II he served in the U.S. Marines attaining the rank of Captain, and was seconded to the O.S.S., predecessor to the CIA.
He joined the staff of The New Yorker magazine at the insistence of James Thurber and worked there from 1944 to 1987. A prolific writer, De Vries wrote short stories, reviews, poetry, essays, a play, novellas, and twenty-three novels, several of which were made into films.
De Vries met his wife, Katinka Loeser, while at Poetry magazine. They married and moved to Westport, Connecticut, where they raised 4 children. The death of his 10-year-old daughter Emily from leukemia inspired The Blood of the Lamb, the most poignant and the most autobiographical of De Vries's novels.
In Westport, De Vries formed a lifelong friendship with the young J. D. Salinger, who later described the writing process as "opening a vein and bleeding onto the page." The two writers clearly "understood each other very well” (son Derek De Vries in "The Return of Peter De Vries", Westport Magazine, April 2006).
De Vries received an honorary degree in 1979 from Susquehanna University, and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in May 1983.
His books were sadly out of print by the time of his death. After the New Yorker published a critical reappraisal of De Vries’ work however (“Few writers have understood literary comedy as well as De Vries, and few comic novelists have had his grasp of tragedy”), The University of Chicago Press began reissuing his works in 2005, starting with The Blood of the Lamb and Slouching Toward Kalamazoo.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
June 2, 2019
Small-town American satire from the 1950s.
Andrew Mackerel, widower and jaded clergyman, wants to take a second wife while the Connecticut town of Avalon is still busy commemorating his first. Increasingly frustrated on the physical front and suffering a cooling towards the Christian faith as practised by a religious rival, Andrew embarks on a course of drastic action.
Peter de Vries, termed by Kingsley Amis, ‘the funniest serious writer to be found either side of the Atlantic’ never reached the success he deserved, or at least, not in the UK. He died in 1993. I was a huge fan and when the opportunity came my way to read The Mackerel Plaza (one I hadn’t read before) I jumped at it. The satirical side is masterly and the plot starts well but unfortunately, at about the three-quarter mark, it takes an odd turn and I’m afraid I ended up a little disappointed with this one. 3.5*
Andrew Mackerel, widower and jaded clergyman, wants to take a second wife while the Connecticut town of Avalon is still busy commemorating his first. Increasingly frustrated on the physical front and suffering a cooling towards the Christian faith as practised by a religious rival, Andrew embarks on a course of drastic action.
Peter de Vries, termed by Kingsley Amis, ‘the funniest serious writer to be found either side of the Atlantic’ never reached the success he deserved, or at least, not in the UK. He died in 1993. I was a huge fan and when the opportunity came my way to read The Mackerel Plaza (one I hadn’t read before) I jumped at it. The satirical side is masterly and the plot starts well but unfortunately, at about the three-quarter mark, it takes an odd turn and I’m afraid I ended up a little disappointed with this one. 3.5*
July 21, 2022
This is one of my favorite DeVries novels, after The Blood of the Lamb. It is the story of Andrew Mackerel, a young widowed liberal minister in suburban Connecticut who is fighting on two fronts. On the one hand, he rails against fundamentalists; the story opens with his complaint to the municipal zoning board about a "Jesus Saves" sign in his neighborhood (later he learns to his horror that one of his own parishioners erected it), and late in the novel he is found heckling a street corner evangelist one Saturday night. His sermons draw as much from (then) modern psychology and sociology as they do from the Scriptures. And DeVries is slyly but cleverly and consistently mocking him the entire time.
On the other front, he wants to get out from under the rose-colored perception everyone seems to have about his late wife and he wants to remarry, but wants to do so in what would be a socially acceptable time frame. His efforts in that regard are what largely drive the narrative.
The novel harkens back to Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter in some ways: set in New England, a minister as a central character, the woman who lives in his house as his housekeeper (coincidentally his late wife's sister) is named Hester Pedlock. With Hawthorne you had a minister and Hester who had sex but did not live together; here you have the opposite.
As always with DeVries, the puns are frequent and enormously clever. The man had a tremendous vocabulary and a way with words. He might have been one of the greatest punsters ever. One of my favorites from this book is his terming rainfall "Jehovah's wetness". By the end of the novel Rev. Mackerel (and I'm half convinced DeVries gave him that name just so he could give him the nickname of "Holy Mackerel" in his seminary days) does get a bit tedious and over the top with his persecution complex. But DeVries wraps up the tale nicely in the end. As he himself said in one of his novels, all stories must have a beginning, a muddle, and an end.
On the other front, he wants to get out from under the rose-colored perception everyone seems to have about his late wife and he wants to remarry, but wants to do so in what would be a socially acceptable time frame. His efforts in that regard are what largely drive the narrative.
The novel harkens back to Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter in some ways: set in New England, a minister as a central character, the woman who lives in his house as his housekeeper (coincidentally his late wife's sister) is named Hester Pedlock. With Hawthorne you had a minister and Hester who had sex but did not live together; here you have the opposite.
As always with DeVries, the puns are frequent and enormously clever. The man had a tremendous vocabulary and a way with words. He might have been one of the greatest punsters ever. One of my favorites from this book is his terming rainfall "Jehovah's wetness". By the end of the novel Rev. Mackerel (and I'm half convinced DeVries gave him that name just so he could give him the nickname of "Holy Mackerel" in his seminary days) does get a bit tedious and over the top with his persecution complex. But DeVries wraps up the tale nicely in the end. As he himself said in one of his novels, all stories must have a beginning, a muddle, and an end.
January 20, 2021
“It is a community where tired successes flee to enact the old charade
of seeking roots, knowing they will never have them but must and will,
like the fabled mistletoe, live and die without them, suspended
between the twin oaks of home and office” (6).
“It consists of a slab of marble set on four legs of four delicately
differing fruitwoods, to symbolize the four Gospels, and their failure
to harmonize” (7).
“I watched him hang my hat on a peg under an elk’s head with one eye
missing, a fact which gave the remaining one a look of baleful
awareness it might otherwise have lacked” (15).
“He took a few puffs and emitted a cloud of smoke, which he dispersed
with a wave, as though from some points of view he deplored his habit”
(16).
“The story flowed and the cigar wore down” (19).
“I realized how much I hated his woolly Mama Bear Reader’s Digest
optimism” (28).
“But I believe that a faith is a set of demands, not a string of
benefits…” (30).
“At that he was better than Robert, painting his damned unicorns,
with flies on them for realism” (36).
“ ‘Oh, all right I guess. He has this terrible Weltschmerz.’
“ ‘Is he taking anything for it?’” (95).
“…I wiped my brow. Russian roulette with teacups. Add to which the grim detail that the whiskey might now have cream and sugar in it. I closed my eyes and waited” (156).
“I stood there letting melancholy roll over me like a breaker” (164).
“Meesum raised and tightened his grip on his lapels, as though in his rage he had only himself to cling to for support” (173).
“...supplying a dash of irony we all needed, a bit of the garlic of parody rubbed on the strong meat of these proceedings” (177).
“ ‘Where did Cain get his wife? Did you ever stop to think of that, if the Bible is literally true?’” (194).
“ ‘That Americans mumble correct pronunciations while the British clearly articulate faulty ones’” (208).
“You can bore all of the people some of the time, you can bore some of the, et cetera” (215).
of seeking roots, knowing they will never have them but must and will,
like the fabled mistletoe, live and die without them, suspended
between the twin oaks of home and office” (6).
“It consists of a slab of marble set on four legs of four delicately
differing fruitwoods, to symbolize the four Gospels, and their failure
to harmonize” (7).
“I watched him hang my hat on a peg under an elk’s head with one eye
missing, a fact which gave the remaining one a look of baleful
awareness it might otherwise have lacked” (15).
“He took a few puffs and emitted a cloud of smoke, which he dispersed
with a wave, as though from some points of view he deplored his habit”
(16).
“The story flowed and the cigar wore down” (19).
“I realized how much I hated his woolly Mama Bear Reader’s Digest
optimism” (28).
“But I believe that a faith is a set of demands, not a string of
benefits…” (30).
“At that he was better than Robert, painting his damned unicorns,
with flies on them for realism” (36).
“ ‘Oh, all right I guess. He has this terrible Weltschmerz.’
“ ‘Is he taking anything for it?’” (95).
“…I wiped my brow. Russian roulette with teacups. Add to which the grim detail that the whiskey might now have cream and sugar in it. I closed my eyes and waited” (156).
“I stood there letting melancholy roll over me like a breaker” (164).
“Meesum raised and tightened his grip on his lapels, as though in his rage he had only himself to cling to for support” (173).
“...supplying a dash of irony we all needed, a bit of the garlic of parody rubbed on the strong meat of these proceedings” (177).
“ ‘Where did Cain get his wife? Did you ever stop to think of that, if the Bible is literally true?’” (194).
“ ‘That Americans mumble correct pronunciations while the British clearly articulate faulty ones’” (208).
“You can bore all of the people some of the time, you can bore some of the, et cetera” (215).
June 11, 2014
“It is the final proof of God’s omnipotence that He need not exist in order to save us.”
The Reverend Andrew Mackerel wakes one morning and looks out of a window to see that a billboard with the message 'Jesus Saves'. Upset by this evangelical zeal he sets off to the town planning office to put his complaint into writing whereupon he manages to fall in love at first sight with the clerk there. This is complicated by the fact that he has been recently widowed by a tragic accident and is worried how his parishioners will take his new romance especially as his ex-wife is revered within the town. Thus begins a sometimes comic sometimes banal set of occurrences.
Mackerel in many ways a 'too open minded minister', he hates piety and prefers to visit parishioners at home to try and dispel them from visiting hospitals saying prayers for others but he is also very shallow, egotistical and sees some Machiavellian hand, in particular that of his housekeeper who also happens to be his late wife's sister,in every event within his parish. Mackerel is also portrayed as 'libidinous' and has one of his elderly parishioners constantly regaling him with stories, some imagined, from his own racy past.
The minor characters are generally only sketchily drawn, although this is no doubt down to Mackerel's own self obsession rather than a defect in the author, but what does come through is that this is also a critique of American middle-classes prejudices and failings.
On the whole this book did not make me laugh out loud but I did at least read it with a smile on my face at the absurdities within which can be no bad thing.
The Reverend Andrew Mackerel wakes one morning and looks out of a window to see that a billboard with the message 'Jesus Saves'. Upset by this evangelical zeal he sets off to the town planning office to put his complaint into writing whereupon he manages to fall in love at first sight with the clerk there. This is complicated by the fact that he has been recently widowed by a tragic accident and is worried how his parishioners will take his new romance especially as his ex-wife is revered within the town. Thus begins a sometimes comic sometimes banal set of occurrences.
Mackerel in many ways a 'too open minded minister', he hates piety and prefers to visit parishioners at home to try and dispel them from visiting hospitals saying prayers for others but he is also very shallow, egotistical and sees some Machiavellian hand, in particular that of his housekeeper who also happens to be his late wife's sister,in every event within his parish. Mackerel is also portrayed as 'libidinous' and has one of his elderly parishioners constantly regaling him with stories, some imagined, from his own racy past.
The minor characters are generally only sketchily drawn, although this is no doubt down to Mackerel's own self obsession rather than a defect in the author, but what does come through is that this is also a critique of American middle-classes prejudices and failings.
On the whole this book did not make me laugh out loud but I did at least read it with a smile on my face at the absurdities within which can be no bad thing.
March 21, 2017
This is the second De Vries book I have read (The Blood of the Lamb being the first) and it has done nothing to quell my passionate heralding of the greatness of a man so unexplainably excluded from the copious lists of excellent literature. His command of language is perfectly astute (perhaps ever more impressive due to his Dutch nationality) his handling of character perspicacious and his telling of a tale masterful.
A Mackerel Plaza is a farce, eruditely suffused with divine and mythological reflection. It is the story of a widowed pastor, who unwittingly falls for another woman a few months after the accidental death of his wife. Particularly scrupulous as to how his parish may perceive a new love interest, Andrew Mackerel makes great pains to nurture the budding romance with Molly Calico whilst keeping up appearances of widowhood and grievance before the church’s parishioners.
Throw into this his live-in housekeeper who is the sister of his deceased wife, adamant on infinitely observing a vigil of respect to her sibling that borders on martyrdom and a brooding bureaucracy chomping at the bit to use any excuse (say, a sprawling memorial plaza in dedication to the town’s recently lost heroine) to capitalise on the burgeoning business flirting with their potential suburban cash cow and you have a holy headache.
It is all a little much for our innocent protagonist, already wrestling tenets of his belief and religion (and unwanted ‘Jesus Saves’ signs which disturb his creative flow whilst attempting to write his sermons) never mind anything else.
Read De Vries.
A Mackerel Plaza is a farce, eruditely suffused with divine and mythological reflection. It is the story of a widowed pastor, who unwittingly falls for another woman a few months after the accidental death of his wife. Particularly scrupulous as to how his parish may perceive a new love interest, Andrew Mackerel makes great pains to nurture the budding romance with Molly Calico whilst keeping up appearances of widowhood and grievance before the church’s parishioners.
Throw into this his live-in housekeeper who is the sister of his deceased wife, adamant on infinitely observing a vigil of respect to her sibling that borders on martyrdom and a brooding bureaucracy chomping at the bit to use any excuse (say, a sprawling memorial plaza in dedication to the town’s recently lost heroine) to capitalise on the burgeoning business flirting with their potential suburban cash cow and you have a holy headache.
It is all a little much for our innocent protagonist, already wrestling tenets of his belief and religion (and unwanted ‘Jesus Saves’ signs which disturb his creative flow whilst attempting to write his sermons) never mind anything else.
Read De Vries.
February 12, 2008
Making fun of horny fundamentalist preachers could be such a national sport, if only we lived in less humorless times. De Vries grew up in the Dutch Reformed church in Chicago and yea those strictures give a guy a real cramp in the you-know-where, so painful it's funny.
All the recently widowed Reverend Mackerel wants to do is remarry. Nothing shameful, right? And after a suitable cooling-off period, he might get away with it--if the congregation weren't trying so hard to set him up with the woman he's already seeing!
All the recently widowed Reverend Mackerel wants to do is remarry. Nothing shameful, right? And after a suitable cooling-off period, he might get away with it--if the congregation weren't trying so hard to set him up with the woman he's already seeing!
August 20, 2016
Really good! Surprising it was written in the 50's, it had such a contemporary sensibility. Really enjoyed the perversity of Turnbull, good character there. Very funny and thought-provoking.
December 15, 2025
I give up.
As much as I like De Vries,
both his suburban comedies of manners and his intense cry of anguish in The Blood of the Lamb,
this is not only dated but unpleasant. The protagonist is a preacher who not only believes but disbelieves according to the prevailing pseudo liberal philosophy of the moment. As a mark also of the author's apparent ambivalence towards his his hero, the mode switches several times from the first person singular to the third person often within the same paragraph.
As much as I like De Vries,
both his suburban comedies of manners and his intense cry of anguish in The Blood of the Lamb,
this is not only dated but unpleasant. The protagonist is a preacher who not only believes but disbelieves according to the prevailing pseudo liberal philosophy of the moment. As a mark also of the author's apparent ambivalence towards his his hero, the mode switches several times from the first person singular to the third person often within the same paragraph.
January 19, 2026
Nice to read a book by De Vries that he wrote before “The Blood of the Lamb,” when his humor turned bitter. He gets a few digs in at his Dutch Calvinist roots, but surprisingly his main character, Rev. Andrew Mackerel, is a minister in a very liberal church. De Vries pokes fun of liberal religion even more than he does of Calvinism.
August 18, 2019
Delightfully old-fashioned story of a widowed reverend who tries to convince his parish to forget his saintly late wife, in order for him to be able to remarry. His own fabrications make everything fall apart. Very witty and exquisitely written.
March 2, 2024
had on my bookshelf for a long time via clr but never took any interest in it. i actually REALly enjoyed it, like a bit all over the place but an easy read with sections that were stressedful/ sections that made me laugh.
July 28, 2025
Andrew Mackeral, the pastor of Peoples Liberal church in Connecticut, faces a number of issues in the year following his wife's death, though grief doesn't seem to be one of them. I was five when this book was published.
June 9, 2021
I liked it well enough, but I can't shake the feeling it would be better as a short story.
June 9, 2021
Written in 1958, it was probably funnier then than now. Still a good read.
February 24, 2024
I read Reuben, Reuben many years ago and thought I would try this - the humour felt very dated to me and I did not finish, which is rare for me
October 4, 2024
Peter De Vries is one of my go-to authors. When I am despairing over not finding a book to love I can always go back to him and he never disappoints.
December 31, 2017
DeVries tells a subtle tale of moral virtue and its appearance, camouflaging it with a running satire on the collision of prosperity and religion. I was reminded in its gentle satire of JF Powers' novels, in particular Wheat That Springeth Green and Morte d' Urban, which also aptly skewer the cliches and cant that mask an inability to grapple with what lies behind moral, spiritual, and religious matters.
April 28, 2025
A great comic novel about an atheistic preacher whose desire to remarry is complicated by, among other things, the sainthood his small town wishes to bestow upon his recently departed wife. As other reviewers have noted, the plot takes some odd turns and the whole things threatens to topple into a potential mess, but De Vries manages to land things alright in the end.
March 6, 2013
This book was recommended by ministerial colleagues who said it gave a pretty accurate (humorous, biting) look at liberal ministry of a certain time. I enjoyed it. It was not the laugh-out-loud variety for me, but some insightful descriptions of people and places and attitudes, as well as some so-bad-they're-good witticisms voiced by the main character (often delivered in my favorite form, the bad pun, e.g. hearing the thunder of a prayed-for rain and calling it "Jehovah's wetness.") It had an underlying sadness in its courageous exploration of death and suffering, which I find to be a trademark of some of my favorite "humor" writing. I look forward to reading "The Blood of the Lamb."
September 26, 2014
This is not a laugh out loud novel – sure, there are times when you might smile, but mostly de Vries builds his comedy on satirizing the most liberal of liberal ministers, a recent widower, and his ironic dilemma when he falls in love but feels he has to wait a sufficient amount of time before his congregation will accept him marrying again.
This is mighty thin stuff to build a satiric novel and frankly it grew tiresome for me; this might have made a first rate long short story, but as a novel it just seemed too much and thus became dull and boring.
Still, there is some very fine satire here and that deserves at least a let-me-see-if-I-like-this read
This is mighty thin stuff to build a satiric novel and frankly it grew tiresome for me; this might have made a first rate long short story, but as a novel it just seemed too much and thus became dull and boring.
Still, there is some very fine satire here and that deserves at least a let-me-see-if-I-like-this read
May 25, 2011
I read a review saying this book was laugh out loud funny. Didn't feel it to that extent myself. Some amusing moments that were smile worthy but not so hilarious. You know those times when you recognize a joke but it just doesn't do it for you? Yeah, there were a few like that in this book. But on reflecting those moments they brought a smile to my face so was still a good read. The theology was funniest for me, watching a liberal preacher crash and burn of his own doing and analyzing it as he went in terms of his worldview. Very insightful.
October 23, 2014
I've scoured used bookstores for years to track down Peter De Vries books so it is truly amazing to have them suddenly popping up as e-books. I don't know how he ever fell out of fashion, but his books are sharp funny satires of suburbia with a serious edge. The Mackerel Plaza is a treat--a tale of faith and desire and calculation involving a minister to a community living in "hand to mouth luxury." These books are not to be missed. Should definitely appeal to anyone who likes Thomas Berger or Joseph Heller, but De Vries is an original. Thanks to the publisher for my advance copy.
December 27, 2012
One of the funniest books I have ever read, but in a very New Yorker style. Not for those who don't find that magazine's cartoons funny, I would guess. And definitely a more subtle style of humor, not what many people find funny today.
June 12, 2014
This felt like an American answer to P.G. Wodehouse but with a little more aburdist irony thrown in. It's a 3 rather than a 4 for a few instances of fat that could have been trimmed. Still succeeded in making me laugh.
October 21, 2015
I really did enjoy this book. I am not normally a big fan of 'satire' novels but this one seemed to grab me. Maybe it was because it seemed quite old fashioned. I found it really funny that poor old Rev. Andrew Mackerel life seems to be completely run by those around him
October 14, 2014
All his books could probably be considered variations of each other, but he's one funny dude, and a taut stylist to boot.
January 2, 2016
Funny, sometimes very funny, over-the-top satiric tale set in a fictional town in 1950's Connecticut, featuring a questing, well-meaning, iconoclastic but also clueless pastor. 3.5 stars
December 28, 2022
2 1/2 stars for this one. Some books seem to age well, this one however, written in 1958,seemed to harbor some misogynistic tendencies. Some witty passages make it worth while however.
Want to Read
February 8, 2018Why I Want to Read this Book
"He [the author] also has something that Updike lacks: genuine comic talent."
A Commonplace Blog post 28-Oct-2008
"He [the author] also has something that Updike lacks: genuine comic talent."
A Commonplace Blog post 28-Oct-2008
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews