Faith in Fiction

What makes Catholic fiction Catholic? Stories set in rectories, convents, and schools? Novels about martyrs and miracles? Maybe, but also alcoholism, ambition, envy, revolution, betrayal and murder. We asked James T. Keane ’96, who writes a weekly column on Catholic books for America magazine, to answer the question. His reply: He knows it when he sees it. Here’s his syllabus.—The Editor

Kirstin Valdez Quade

“The Five Wounds” 

Developed from a New Yorker short story, this 2021 novel gives us a year in the life of a New Mexico family trying to reassemble their relationships the way you might glue together shattered pottery. Valdez Quade has said she’s not much for organized religion, but this novel, from the unexpected Jesus figures to the deeply sacramental moments, is as Catholic as they come.

Alice McDermott 

“Charming Billy” 

Another National Book Award winner, this 1998 novel begins with the world’s most perfect short story … and then you realize that McDermott’s characters and scenes are going to be that meticulously well drawn in every single chapter. The plot centers on an Irish American man whose lifelong love is dead back in Ireland — “Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling” — after he himself dies of, well, the drink. “Charming Billy” includes a few surprises and a lot of heartbreak. Don’t read this one if you’re prone to melancholy. Or do.

J.F. Powers

“Wheat That Springeth Green” 

Why not “Morte d’Urban,” Powers’ classic that won the National Book Award in 1963? That is a great read, too, but his second novel from 1988 (yes, it took him a quarter-century to write a follow-up, the poor guy) is to me the more satisfying, compelling read. The story of Father Joe Hackett, an ambitious and just a bit too-worldly parish priest with designs on becoming a bishop — or at least getting a fancy parish assignment — before life reminds him of his true vocation, reads as an honest, unmannered account of priestly life. And it’s funny as, well, hell.

Walter Miller Jr. 

“A Canticle for Leibowitz” 

This curious 1959 novel never got the audience it deserved, in part because it appeals mostly to church nerds and science fiction aficionados, not the sexiest audiences out there. But give it a chance! It’s three short stories stitched together, really, all set in a desert monastery in the centuries after a nuclear apocalypse. The characters are compelling, the setting is unique, and the overarching allegory about humanity’s foibles concerning knowledge and faith that began in the Garden of Eden and never really changed will leave you thinking. 

Ron Hansen

“Mariette in Ecstasy” 

The most beautifully written book you’ll ever read. Young Mariette Baptiste wants nothing more than to enter the convent where her sister is prioress and to spend the rest of her life in prayer, but God and God’s enemies (or is it the vagaries of the human mind?) have other plans for the 17-year-old. In the meantime, the reader is immersed in a world where the church calendar, as full of feasts and pleasures as it is replete with penances and fasts, reigns supreme. Think of the film “Of Gods and Men,” but a thousand times more engrossing.

Mary Gordon 

“Final Payments” 

This 1978 novel, Gordon’s first, is the tale of a young(ish) Catholic woman trying to reinvent herself after years spent caring for a controlling and needy father. Gordon’s eye for the little details makes her protagonist, Isabel Moore, a sympathetic and nuanced character. I don’t know if Sally Rooney ever read “Final Payments,” but fans of Rooney will recognize a kindred soul. And if you grew up Catholic, you will wince with recognition at some of the rest of the cast. Right, you’ll think, I remember that guy, and that lady, from my own parish growing up …

James T. Keane, a frequent contributor to LMU Magazine, is the literary editor of America magazine and the author of “Reading Culture Through Catholic Eyes: 50 Writers, Thinkers & Firebrands Who Challenge & Change Us.” Keane’s writing has appeared in Philadelphia Weekly, U.S. Catholic, Busted Halo, and elsewhere. His “Hunting Demons” appeared in the winter 2023 (Vol. 11, No. 2) edition of LMU Magazine. Follow him @JamesTKeane.