This was my 2nd Hamill book and just reinforced what I thought after reading the other one, he's not an author for me. Can't pin down what it is that pushes me away, is it plot? characterization? language? flow? Could be a combination of any of the above. For this particular novel there wasn't a character I liked and it's difficult to "like" a book when there is no one you actually want to read about. ( )

The 50th anniversary reissue of this book transports us back to 1968, a time when male authors referred to their female characters as either whores or "girls," and the pope had some relevance in people's lives. The best part of this new edition is Pete Hamill's well written introduction, where he describes his writing process and give some insight into the otherwise wooden characters. ( )

I started it but couldn't get into the storyline. I will try again another time.

This book was Hamill’s first novel, originally published in 1968 and now being re-released for its 50th anniversary. I guess publishers don’t get this kind of opportunity very often—to release a 50th-anniversary edition while the author is still alive—because there doesn’t seem to be any better reason to republish this painfully dated novel.

In places, Hamill’s prose reads like he just escaped from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and raced to write down some thoughts and phrases before he forgot them. The descriptions feel like he is exercising a newly-discovered muscle on elements that don’t gain from a poetic description. In fact, the language just jars against the raw, unpolished, stream of consciousness thoughts that we get from several of the characters.

The story is ostensibly about a plan to assassinate the Pope on Easter Sunday. In actuality, it is Hamill’s unsubstantiated rant against the Catholic Church. The main character, a cynical American priest working in the Vatican (cleverly named Malloy) is disillusioned about just about everything, with only some vague references to the then-raging Vietnam war and his experience there as a chaplain to explain his beliefs and actions. Malloy is already a lost cause when we meet him, and he doesn’t seem to mind—he doesn’t really wrestle with anything in life, he merely endures it.

The characters are flat, the storyline is now lost in a sea of assassination stories—this is not The Day of the Jackal—by a long shot, and the descriptive details seem misplaced and pointless. Comparisons to John le Carre are a stretch at best and an insult to le Carre at worst.

If you hate the Catholic Church or want to, then you’ll probably enjoy this book. For the rest of us or those who want a thoughtful exploration of how one can lose their faith—Hamill’s ostensible theme for the book—we’ll have to look elsewhere for an intelligent or even entertaining read. ( )

Thanks to the publisher, Akashic Books, via LibraryThing, for an early review copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is the 50th Anniversary Edition of Mr. Hamill's debut novel and has a new author introduction. Since I had never read anything by him, I was anxious to see what kind of a writer he is. The publicity stated that this was a fast-paced thriller but I can't agree. I thought it moved slowly and was not suspenseful. There were no likable characters, the settings were mediocre and the content was dated since it was first published in 1968.

In his introduction, Hamill says he now considers the primary theme of this novel to be loss of faith. It's about a Catholic priest named Malloy, working in the Vatican and suffering from PTSD from serving in Vietnam. He suffers from flashbacks while putting in his time working and living/sleeping with a young Italian woman who has problems of her own. He discovers a plot to assassinate the Pope on Easter Sunday. The characters involved in the assassination plot are boring and disgusting as they try to get their act toether to accomplish their task. It seemed as though every paragraph reminded us of how hot, sticky, and sweaty the weather in Rome was during the days leading up to Easter Sunday.

I doubt that I will read any of Mr. Hamill's other novels but I am sure that, over the years, his writing and story lines have improved. ( )