The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell > Reviews (3)

The front cover of the sparrow includes a quotation stating that the book is ‘compulsive reading and may be the year’s best science fiction novel.’ And declares that it is the ‘winner of the 1998 Arthur C. Clarke Award. This information would normally be quite enough to put me off reading it. I am not a SF fan at all. In fact I think I have only read a couple in my whole life and I wasn’t impressed. So although a friend gave me this book because he wanted to know what I thought about it. The book sat unread for rather a long time – another book on the ever growing heap and yet another task on my long list of things to do.

Yesterday, noticing for the first time that it is published by Black Swan, a publishing house I respect, I made the effort to read it and to be honest was quite pleasantly surprised that once I had got into the story I actually did find it compulsive reading (I read it in one sitting) and did not find my general dislike of the genre interfered at all with my enjoyment of this book. Interestingly, it would seem that a main theme of the book is in fact about perception and misconception so this admission is quite relevant.

The story is set in this century in the not too distant future. It opens in the year 2060 and introduces the main character Father Emilio Sandoz a Jesuit priest who is the sole survivor of a mission to Rakhat, a planet in Alpha Centauri. He has returned a broken man in a broken body accused of prostitution and murder. We are told only this much at the beginning of the book and have to read another 500 pages to discover the facts behind this tragic man.

In flashbacks we are taken back to the beginning of the story 2019 and the narrative alternates between Sandoz’s slow road to partial recovery and the story that led to his appalling state.

Although Sandoz is the focus he is just one of a fascinating group of characters who are involved in the expedition. The congenial catalyst couple George, a retired engineer, and Anne Edwards, a medical doctor, happily married for 40 years who welcome friends and colleagues into their home. Their friends include Jimmy Quinn and Sophia Mendes initially described as a ‘vulture’ turns out to be an attractive woman with a brilliant mind embroiled in a scaringly believable futuristic form of slavery.
After these friends have enjoyed a memorable evening which includes an inspiring and significant musical interlude Jimmy Quinn returns to his work on SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) at the Arecibo Radio telescope in Puerto Rico and picks up a signal which he realises is in fact exquisite choral music. He calls in his friends for their opinion and Sandoz, an outstanding linguist, is so moved by the music that he contacts his superiors. While the wheels of the scientific world continue to circle at their normal slow pace the Jesuits decide to finance a private mission to investigate the source of the beautiful and ethereal music ‘for the glory of God’.

To the five characters already introduced are added three more Jesuits with the necessary skills to accomplish the mission.

The portrayal of the Jesuits is good. In a sympathetic treatment of these scholastic Roman Catholics Russell explores and exposes the drives, innermost emotions and thoughts delving into desires. love, sex, and background influences of the Jesuits and indeed all the party. No one is put on a pedestal and no one is burned at the stake. At no point do you feel that the author has any kind of axe to grind but is merely telling it as it is. (Perhaps Russell’s academic background in paleoanthropology had some influence in her treatment).

On Rakhat they eventually come across two species of sentient beings, first the rural Juna and then the Jana’ata and the complex relationships and emotions aroused are challenging. Culturally formed perceptions are challenged, appearances prove to be deceptive, a few well intentioned words and actions have a far deeper impact than could possibly be imagined.

This book touches some very deep and disturbing themes above all perhaps the perennial question of humanity. One may assume that the title itself gives a clue to the main theme of the book and yet the title doesn’t get a mention until the end of the book. This rather annoyed me because I was on a constant lookout for a clue while reading and once it was disclosed I wondered if I had missed something along the way. I don’t think it would be a spoiler to disclose that the sparrow in question is a reference to the gospel of Matthew 10.29 and in the context of the story must surely refer to the broken Jesuit, Emilio Sandoz. Was this really God’s will?

The sparrow challenges the very foundations of faith or perhaps blind faith. We have to admire the dedication of the Jesuit, he is not really a saint as some think, but a real human just like us. His life is mapped out in part by his background, in part by his superiors and in part by his never ending quest to really meet and know this God he serves.

Sandoz eventually comes face to face with the source of the exquisite music.
The devasting and shocking end of the adventure will not be satisfactory to all readers although it might bolster the atheism of some.

This book is worth reading for the story and character relationships alone. In addition to this I think it is an excellent introduction into SF for those who, like me, have avoided it because they think they do not like it. Above all it goes to the very heart of some of the most difficult questions that affect humanity in a way that is not pompous, preachy, or academic and the ability to do this is, for me at least, an indicator of the art of good literature and storytelling and makes it thought provokingly memorable