Still Life, by Ralph McInerny.
New York: Tekno Books, 2000.
$23 - 255 pages.

Confessions of a College Freshman, by Zach Arrington.
New York: River Oak Publishing, 2001.
$12.99 - 253 pages.

Ralph McInerny’s novel, Still Life, introduces 64-year-old Egidio Manfredi, a detective on the verge of retiring from the Fort Elbow police force. His sidekick is a much younger cop named Noonan, whose relative youth proves a perfect foil to Manfredi’s age and experience.

Called on to reopen an old case of disappearance and possible murder, Manfredi finds himself confronted by a group of retired academics, all friends, who knew Lilian Bauer, the missing woman. Lilian, an acclaimed poet, continues to haunt her husband Basil; another professor, Ambrose, who was her lover; and a colleague who is convinced that Lilian was murdered.

Still Life has some wonderful moments. There is much amusing repartee between Basil, the history professor who was Lilian’s husband and is soon to be wedded again to a graduate student researching Lilian’s work, and Ambrose, the English professor who, as we soon learn, was once involved with Lilian. McInerny uses these two men as a way of discussing everything from canonical law on divorce to the works of James Joyce.

Several of the main characters, indeed, overshadow Manfedi, who acts more as a goad to both conscience and the plot whenever he appears. Virginia, the graduate student, is skillfully portrayed; she is intriguing in her affection not only for Basil, who is of course many years older, but also in her feelings toward Lilian. Virginia falls in love with Basil by first falling in love with Lilian’s poetry, a love that not only carries her into Basil’s affections, but leads her to become a sort of second Lilian. It also leads to her murder.

McInerny ends his story in an interesting fashion. There are actually two murderers, acting from entirely different motives, and while one of them ends by serving a long prison sentence, the other ends the book sipping wine and possibly contemplating still another murder. As in the real world, justice is only partially served.

Although I have read only a few of McInerny’s essays and two of his Father Dowling mysteries, he is a prolific writer. He has written the Father Dowling mysteries, the Sister Mary Teresa Dempsey mysteries, and numerous works on philosophy and literature. He has taught philosophy at Notre Dame for years, has edited Catholic Dossier, and has written many articles for various magazines.

One final note: readers of the Father Dowling mysteries may be somewhat disappointed in Still Life. The beginning of the novel is confusing for the first thirty pages I had as much trouble keeping track of the characters as I’ve had when reading Russian novels and the characters seem somewhat flat compared to the characters of the Father Dowling mysteries. Immediately after reading Still Life, I picked up a copy of Judas Priest, a Father Dowling tale from 1991, and quickly read it. It seemed to me that both the plot and the characters were richer in their dimensions than those in this latest story.
Nevertheless, Still Life brought some weekend enjoyment. Retirees should especially enjoy the book for its cast of older characters and its insights into retirement and aging.

Sending someone off to college this fall? Looking for a gift for that graduating high school senior? Confessions of a College Freshman is Zach Arrington’s humorous look at his freshman year at Baylor University. Now a sophomore at Baylor, Arrington came up with this idea and sold the book proposal before ever starting class as a freshman.

Arrington gives us a fact-filled, fun look at what awaits freshmen college students, challenges ranging from registration to financial aid and loud roommates to social events. Besides giving anxious freshmen practical advice, Arrington also reminds them, mostly by way of example, to keep a sense of humor about their first year in college. Subtitled “A Guide to Surviving the Freshman Year-with Faith and Humor,” Arrington’s book will be a boon to students wondering what college holds for them.

(Jeff Minick owns Saints and Scholars Bookstore in downtown Waynesville.)

 

Back to Top

The Smoky Mountain News