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Summary
Summary
In a pitch-perfect, deeply satisfying work of fiction selected as a New York Times Notable Book, a Publishers Weekly Best Book, and recipient of the gold Medal for Fiction from the Commonwealth Club of California, master storyteller L'Heureux enters the world of an unorthodox young priest whose faith is put to the test. Father Paul LeBlanc is young, handsome, and charismatic, but he has dangerous ideas on sex, marriage, and birth control -- and he just doesn't uphold the decorum expected of a young priest. When, for no reason, a miracle occurs -- a dead girl is brought back to life before his eyes -- Father LeBlanc finds his faith, his vows, his reason, and his life itself called into question, leaving him with nowhere to turn. Witty, profound, and deeply moving, The Miracle explores the way God meddles in our lives and to what end. It is John L'Heureux's best, most daring novel to date.
Author Notes
John Clarke L'Heureux was born in South Hadley, Massachusetts on October 26, 1934. He received a bachelor's degree from Weston College in 1959 and a master's degree in theology from Boston College in 1963. He attended the Woodstock College in Maryland, where he was ordained into the priesthood in 1966. He received a second master's degree in English from Harvard University in 1968. He became a staff editor at The Atlantic and remained a contributing editor there for the next 11 years. He decided to leave the priesthood and was laicized in 1971.
He held teaching jobs at Boston College High School, Georgetown University, Tufts University and Harvard University before joining the faculty of Stanford University in 1973. He was a professor of English there for 36 years. He spent more than 12 years as director of the creative writing program. He received the Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1981 and in 1998.
He wrote more than 20 books and numerous short stories and poems. His books included Picnic in Babylon: A Jesuit Priest's Journal, 1963-67; Tight White Collar; A Woman Run Mad; An Honorable Profession; The Shrine at Altamira; and The Medici Boy. Many of his short stories appeared in The Atlantic, Esquire, and The New Yorker. He died from complications of Parkinson's disease on April 22, 2019 at the age of 84.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
L'Heureux (An Honorable Profession, etc.) takes a wry but revelatory look at the connection between faith and love in his latest novel, about a charismatic, self-absorbed, 34-year-old priest named Paul LeBlanc who gets transferred out of his South Boston parish for challenging church doctrine. LeBlanc finds himself adrift in his new assignment at a tiny New Hampshire seacoast parish, but once he settles in, he develops a close relationship with the erstwhile pastor, Father Moriarty, who is dying from ALS, and also with Moriarty's caretaker, an attractive, 30ish woman named Rose. The parish is rocked when Rose's wild teenage daughter, Mandy, is pronounced dead of a drug overdose, only to wake up suddenly. LeBlanc sees the incident as the miracle that represents the hidden reason for his move to New Hampshire, but everyone else remains skeptical, and the debate is rendered moot when Mandy subsequently dies in a motorcycle accident. Grief soon turns the attraction between Rose and LeBlanc into a physical affair, and while LeBlanc instantly regrets his lapse, he continues to drift from his clerical duties when he begins seeing a beautiful, troubled parishioner named Annaka Malley. L'Heureux's strength is his ability to expose the all-too-human foibles and flaws of his outstanding ensemble cast, as he connects the dots with short, punchy scenes that instantly get to the heart of the matter. As usual, L'Heureux also looks unflinchingly at a variety of tough moral issues, balancing the serious stuff with humor in a deceptively light style that makes this book entertaining as well as challenging. The formulaic resolution to the subplot involving Malley and LeBlanc is the one minor misstep here, but, overall, this is a balanced, wise book built around the life of a priest in a time when the clerical profession is under attack from a wide array of critics. Agent, Noah Lukeman. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
A finely crafted story of a young priest's crisis of faith (and love) is the latest success from novelist (and ex-priest) L'Heureux (Having Everything, 1999, etc.). Anybody who was ordained in the 1960s faced pretty stiff casualty rates from the start, and Father LeBlanc-idealistic, intellectual, liberal, and more than a tad naive-is the sort who is bound to find Church life hard going at the best of times. Assigned as the curate to a large working-class parish in South Boston, he alienates his superiors (and not a few of his parishioners) by preaching and counseling against the Vietnam War, segregated schools, and the pope's condemnation of birth control. Reassigned to a small parish in an out-of-the-way resort town in New Hampshire, he is forced to cultivate the virtue of solitude as well as humility. His pastor, Father Moriarity, is an invalid dying of Lou Gehrig's disease, lovingly tended by Rose, the parish housekeeper. Rose's teenaged daughter Mandy is somewhat wild in the manner of teenaged girls, and one day she overdoses on cocaine. Pronounced dead by the doctor, she regains consciousness after Rose prays over her. A miracle? Just good fortune? Father LeBlanc (who was present at the scene) is in no doubt whatever and becomes more and more obsessed with Rose, whom he believes to be a saint. Around the same time, Annaka (a somewhat disturbed woman from the parish) develops an obsession of her own-with Father LeBlanc. Eventually, Father LeBlanc gets himself into trouble with both Rose and Annaka, and the miracle turns out to be much more problematic than it first appeared. Father LeBlanc has to decide whether he should remain a priest-and what he wants to do if he leaves-and, more importantly, whether he still believes in God. Deeply moving and personal, told with restraint and great skill.
Booklist Review
In the 1970s in South Boston, handsome young Father Paul LeBlanc is a troublesome priest. He blatantly protests the Vietnam War, discusses busing publicly (despite being admonished that "there is no theology of busing"), and is broad-minded about birth control and sex, endearing him to his confessors but not to his superiors. Banished to a New Hampshire beach parish to learn at the feet of saintly, dying Father Tom Moriarty, LeBlanc misses working with the poor and homeless and wrestles with matters of faith and his desire for sanctity. Then rectory housekeeper Rose Perez's 16-year-old daughter Mandy overdoses; Rose pleads to the Virgin Mary and Mandy awakens. Obsessed with Rose as the maker of what he considers a miracle, LeBlanc commits a mortal sin, starts dreaming of Rose and of attractive parishioner Annaka Malley, and begins to question his vocation, even without knowing that both women are in love with him. There is great humanity in this well-crafted story, expressed largely through the appealing characters, and a final message: choose life. --Michele Leber
Library Journal Review
It takes a miracle to shake the faith of young Father LeBlanc, who has stirred up the hierarchy with his worldly ideas. Poet/novelist L'Heureux is a former Jesuit. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
