Histoire divertissante qui marie la philosophie et la satire. ( )

What if there is real tangible proof that God exists? How would that impact society? That is the major premise of Cosse's novel. A priest, Father bertrand Beaulieu, receives such a document. The illumination proof changes each person who reads or hears of it. Steadily progressing through church hierarcy it affects people personally and theorectically. Would widespread knowledge capsize the balance between good and evil, collarpse economies or eliminate free will? Would people cease working? These are explored in beautiful language with humor and intelligence. Highly Recommend. ( )

A Corner of the Veil was sitting on the "Returned Today" trolley at the library last week. I'd never heard of it but picked it up because of its lovely cover - the vault of a cathedral. It turned out to be an unputdownable satire about an order of French priests closely modelled on the Jesuits, the French government, and God. It was published in French in 1999 and translated into English by Linda Asher.

The story takes place over 8 days in 1999, and there's plenty of plot and well-drawn characters. In the first chapter we meet Father Beaulieu, a Casuist priest who edits the Casuists' theological journal, as he goes through his mail. A crank has sent him yet another proof of God's existence - only this one turns out to be right. Beaulieu is bowled over by the truth and rushes off to tell Herve, one of his friends who's a professor of theology. Then the fun begins. We see the reaction of the Casuist provincial, Father Dangeolet, and various senior government ministers.

The satire is more about the reactions of the church's institutions and the government to God's existence than the proof itself - we don't learn much about it, except that it's 6 pages long and everyone who reads it is instantly convinced, and knows that everyone else who reads it will be too. All doubt in God will vanish once news of the proof gets out. The world will change dramatically, and several of the main characters will be out of a job.

I think your reaction to this book would depend on what you think about organised religion, God, and Catholicism. I read it as an ex-Catholic with a bit of background about church structures, which might've made it funnier.

I can see other good reviews here on LT but was amused to see that the New York Times reviewer back in 1999 trashed it! ( )

This was a fun book to read. Members of the Society of Casuists are the first to deal with Maudit's (cursed) proof he discovered of God's existence. The names of chractes have double entendres, and it is fun to try to figure some of them out. The first person we meet is Fr. Bertrand Beaulieu, who is indeed in a beautiful space in his ife with a happy routine. It is Father DAngeolet who recognize the danger in reading the proof, so secretes it away. The prime minster, Petitgrand, who after reading these great words of the proof than goes back to dealing with the small things his life (being with his wife). This book deals with the wranglings of the ecclesiastical and political hierarchy, but sidesteps much of what the proof actually is. Laurence Cossé does show us that she believes it is difficult to live out Christ's words in their full measure. And the novel ends with a kind of whimper as this reflects humanity at its safest when it is not over-agitated on things it can't deal with in a smooth way. ( )

A Corner of the Veil is a delightful satirical novella in which God is indisputably proven to be real - and almost everyone who knows goes to the greatest lengths they can to deny and suppress this proof.

The government and the Catholic church become unlikely allies against this information, because giving God to the masses would invariably put all of the officials, religious and secular, out of a job. Their concerns are identical: "My function makes sense only in a world that's in the clutches of evil. In a world devoted to good, I no longer exist."

It's a great, hilarious look at secularism, that as soon as it's clear God exists, those in power try to neutralize his existence into a tedious bureaucracy so that they retain control even over God himself. ( )