The Faithful Narrative of a Pastor's Disappearance

by Benjamin Anastas (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2002

  $5.71

  In this irresistible satire, adultery, real estate, religion and intrigue collide in suburban New England. Reverend Thomas Mosher, the young black pastor of the Pilgrims' Congregational Church in W-------, Massachusetts, has vanished without a trace. Does the rumoured affair between the pastor and Bethany Caruso, unhappily married mother of two, provide an explanation? Did Thomas's final sermon, 'The Shapes of Love', contain a clue? Did the congregation's white, liberal parishioners drive him away? Can people just - disappear? Bethany and the rest of the parish grapple with the ensuing crisis. Chief among them: Artemesia Angelis, a pious housewife; Margaret Howard, the imposing matriarch of a thriving real estate business; and Bobby Caruso, Bethany's husband, whose lack of interest in church affairs is matched only by Bethany's disdain for his 'fornicatorium', a hapless attempt to save their marriage. Benjamin Anastas examines the tensions between liberalism and provincial small-mindedness, and sketches the passions and prejudices of his characters with a playful but ultimately sympathetic eye, leaving us with a thoughtful, bittersweet portrait of the modern American soul. The Faithful Narrative of a Pastor's Disappearance is a bold, blisteringly funny and ultimately haunting satire of modern materialism.