The Undoing of Saint Silvanus

 

The Undoing of Saint Silvanus by Beth Moore

I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that I enjoyed so much for the first two-thirds, and then felt I was reading a different, much worse, book during the last third.  This book had so much potential. Part of my enjoyment was that I had no idea that Beth Moore had ever written a novel. If you don’t know, Beth Moore is one of the more well-known Bible teachers and authors in the world. Just about every women’s group in every protestant denomination across the country has, at one time or another, had a “Beth Moore” Bible study.  She’s even been more in the news as of late for having courage to speak out against (and eventually leave) the Southern Baptist Convention for now worshipping Donald Trump instead of Jesus as God.

Beth Moore proves she can write very well and does have the ability to tell a unique, well-articulated story.  A strange death in New Orleans occurs; the victim is a street vagrant with seemingly no ties to anyone, so the investigation almost ends as soon as it begins. Well, it turns out that the victim has a well-known mother in New Orleans, and a daughter in San Francisco who never even knew him. The daughter, Jillian, comes to New Orleans and has an uncomfortable meeting with her grandmother (who she has never met either).  The grandmother, Olivia, is a well-respected citizen who has turned an abandoned church (Saint Silvanus) into an apartment that houses four or five tenants that she also manages.

Jillian has an uncomfortable union and relationship with Olivia, but she wants to try to put the puzzle pieces together of her lost, forgotten family. In addition to an investigation, there is also plenty of sudden, weird goings-on at Saint Silvanus and Moore does an excellent job telling this straight-forward, yet somewhat spooky tale.  Why are these weird, somewhat supernatural, things happening, and how to they connect?  So far, so good.

As great as Moore is, there were still some minor squabbles I had with the story at first. The tenants at Saint Silvanus seem to warm up to Jillian awfully quickly. You would think they had known her for sixty years as opposed to six weeks.  Even the four or five police officers who are always making appearances at the complex seem far too chummy with these people who they are supposed to be serving and protecting. I would have also liked to have read more about Jillian’s friends and relationships back in San Francisco that the author seemed to completely forget. But these are minor transgressions.

Well, about 300 pages or so into this 450-page book, we encounter a big “ah-hah” within our story.  A big revelation happens that should floor the gas pedal of this tale and propel us to a high level of intensity that you have come to expect in books such as this. It never happens. I’ve never felt so let down in the middle of such an engrossing tale.  Moore simply lets the story die and instead focuses on Jillian’s state of mind and eventual redemption. The book soon became a slog to wade through.  Instead of progressing with the story, we’re pulled kicking and screaming into an introspective story and are forced to read about things like endless episodes of cooking and eating recipes and laborious descriptions of clothes bought for one of the characters while they’re in the hospital.

Being such a prominent Christian, I guess Beth Moore feels like the story itself isn’t important, and wants to instead shift gears and tell us about her broken characters and how they find Christ.   Note that I don’t mean to minimize such an event, but this was too “in your face” for my tastes.  I felt Moore could have accomplished her goal without dropping the original story and abrasively shifting gears.  It kind of reminds me of stories I’ve heard with some church youth groups that invite their friends to their church for a “Pizza Party”, but once the guests arrive, they lock them in the church and force them to listen to the gospel before they’re allowed to eat.

Again though, Moore proves she can write good fiction. It’s just a shame she got so distracted along the way.  If she ever tries again, I’ll definitely give her another shot.  This was a book that I had trouble putting down for the first 300 pages yet had trouble picking it pack up for the last 150. Let’s hope that if there is ever a “next time”, it will be a lot better.