A book group I’m in is going to read Arditti’s The Celibate, but when I went to purchase that book I saw his book The Enemy of the Good had just come out in paperback, so I purchased it as well. (By the way, Amazon.com dicked me around for a couple weeks on getting The Enemy of the Good, not mentioning that they didn’t have it in stock when I ordered it and taking a few weeks to say they were still trying to get it, upon which time I canceled my order with Amazon and bought a used copy via half.com — that’ll teach me to violate the #amazonfail boycott.)

At any rate, back to the subject at hand, The Enemy of the Good, I really enjoyed this book. It has four parts, each told in third person but from the point of view of a member of the Granville family, the father of which, Edwin, is a retired Anglican bishop who retained his office despite revealing publically his loss of faith. The first part is told from the point of view of Edwin’s son Clement, a gay painter who, despite his father’s agnosticism or atheism, is still a believer and considers himself Christian, although in the same liberal kind of way that I consider myself Christian. The second part focuses on Clement’s sister Susannah who decides to convert to Chassidic Judaism. The third part of the book deals with Clement’s and Susannah’s mother Marta, who was the sole member of her Polish Jewish family to survive the Holocaust, as she struggles with the illness of her husband and their father (Edwin). The fourth part returns to Clement.

In some ways The Enemy of the Good is kind of soap opera-ish, dealing with family drama and with spectacular cliff hanger-ish endings to each part (although, unlike actual cliff hangers, you can simply start reading the next section right away if you like), but I found the writing quite enjoyable and most of the situations depicted not too contrived as to be unbearable. I did find myself not liking the situation that ended the third part and started the fourth part of the book, but as I got into the fourth part of the book, I understood why Arditti set the situation up, so it was okay. Of the four parts, the first part, focusing on Clement’s completion of a work commissioned by a cathedral and the controversial reception his work receives, was my favorite.

Despite the family drama, or perhaps because of it, Arditti is able to incorporate quite a bit of theological and philosophical thought and debate into the book, giving voice to many viewpoints. Whether you think there’s nothing worthwhile to be gained these days from religion and you think people who believe in God and the “literal truth” of the Bible to be fools, or whether you’re one of those paradoxical people who’ve combined Christianity and liberalism to make up your world view, I think you’ll find the perspectives contained in The Enemy of the Good make for good reading and good thought.