Oh my people why have you abandoned me

SHERIDAN GRISWOLD
Correspondent | Friday January 9, 2009 00:00

Thomas Keneally is an award-wining Australian historical novelist. He is best-known for his 15th novel, Schindler's Ark (1982) that won the Booker Prize and was made by Steven Spielberg into an award-winning movie in 1993. He has written effectively before about the impact of the organised church on Australian society. In Mmegi reviews have appeared of American Scoundrel: Love, War and Politics in Civil War America (2002) and Bettany's Book (2000) about a development worker in the Sudan. His other famous African-based book is To Asmara: A Novel of Africa (1989). I like his classic work, The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith (1972) that was made into a widely acclaimed film in 1980. Keneally has also published six works of non-fiction including The Great Shame on the loss of half of the Irish people in the 19th Century,

 'An Angel in Australia' begins in 1939. Frank Darragh, a curate in a Sydney neighourbhood, was in turmoil about whether he should be a volunteer if Australia went to war. His father had been one in 1915 and conveyed the idea that this experience had been the true measure of him as a man. Frank would soon be a priest, but he feared he would be judged a military service evader. He was passing an ancient monsignor who was deep in thought when he suddenly roared a message as if from God 'You, son, you must be a merciful confessor!'  Frank felt it as a revelation; it was the most exalted message he had received in all his preparation for the priesthood.

Darragh was ordained in 1941 and indeed became an enthusiastic merciful confessor and his monsignor at St Margaret's has less penitents than he outside his confessional box. Men troubled by war came to Darragh wondering, should the Japanese come, did they have leave to kill their wives and daughters to save them from violation. He would comfort them: 'In these times when we can predict nothing, the safest road is blind faith. It will give us all more light than any prediction will ...You must depend on God to save you from such terrible acts. He understands why you are tempted. But He wants you to be hopeful! It's not as if the Japanese have captured Singapore' (page 7). Then he would think about what he should have said. Experienced priests mocked men who attracted too many penitents, yet they liked to ask him to do extra services for them, especially the early morning ones; 'you'll have to put in for overtime' said Monsignor Carolan, who believed him to be too young, too innocent and too serious. This is a powerful tale of how earnest Father Darragh is about to helping his parishioners.

There is a young Brother who touched a boy in the parish who comes to confession. 'Darragh had never expected to find such a viper sliding under the confessional veil. It was now he knew for certain that every strange extremity of guilt was determined to beat its way to his ear. For a time Darragh found it a test to articulate. He had no idea why a young man, a contemporary would harbour that desire, and then honour it in practice. For it destroyed the core of his vocation; the shepherd became the wolf' (page 50). 'Mercy was slipping from Darragh. Abhorrence and severity reigned in his heart'  (page 51).

Mrs Kate Heggarty, wife of a captured prisoner who had been dragging an anti-tank gun around the African desert, comes to Darragh wanting to talk with him at the presbytery. He feels needed and his conversations with her bring him a kind of solace, while she seems to appreciate his prayers for her.

They argue about religion and about Kate's relationship with a man she mentions is helping her survive the rationing and who brings sweets for her son Anthony. Darragh feels more than just concern for her; he wants her soul, her submission, yet everything he says is rebuffed. He suspects it is one of the Americans stationed in Sydney, Master Sergeant Fratelli, who is bringing her supplies, as he made presents to the presbytery as well. Darragh suspects Fratelli motives as he suspects his own motives in being so protective of Mrs Heggarty. He finds excuses for going round to see her after she commended him a funeral service he gave. We follow his inner turmoil and his rationalisations.

All the Catholic rites are described in great detail and one senses Darragh's love of the whole process: 'The Lenten fast would end at noon on Easter Saturday. And then the Resurrection would bring joy. So Darragh hoped. He loved the liturgies of Holy Week, and looked to them to restore him to his former self by their manifold mysteries and wonderfully engrossing rites. Since it might be the last Easter of Christian Australia, Darragh had resolved to observe it thoroughly. On Wednesday night the Lamentations of Christ were sung in the cathedral, Darragh catching a train to take part. As each lamentation was concluded-Oh my people why have you abandoned me-one more candle was doused, to leave the great nave of the cathedral in deeper darkness' (page 137).
Darragh consistently works for the safety of the black soldiers, knowing that often there are 'suicides' in prison, until he is assured that the soldier has been taken to safety.

When Sergeant Fratelli comes to get his help with an AWOL Creole soldier missing from the company for two weeks, who is hiding out with a white woman, 'a wave of Raphaelite ruthlessness passed over Fratelli's eyes. The courtier or the angel in Fratelli was merciful but all the time held a sword behind his back' (page 140). The Americans' racial bigotry is brilliantly exposed in this incident in which they drive the coloured soldier out of the house into a back shed and let Darragh go in to save him. Their purpose is to shoot, nearly killing both men. We learn that it was Fratelli who started the firing and he is court-martialed, but not before a tragedy of greater proportions has occurred.

Keneally skillfully weaves the story around these trigger-happy Americans and the falling of Singapore, the military losses in the Pacific and the Southeast Asian region, and the terror of the Japanese. 'A crucial confrontation was brewing in that theatre of lethal blue called the Coral Sea. This wing of the Pacific was hemmed in on three sides by the Solomons, Papua and Australia's north coast. It was believed that the Japanese Admiral Inouye was on his way across the huge arena of the Coral Sea to capture Port Moresby in New Guinea ... then Australia would in short order be invaded' (page 167).

The last chapter takes place on Papua New Guinea's northern coast near Popondetta, where Frank Darragh has taken on duties of medical orderly. He had been through suspicion of having a liaison with Kate Heggarty, being sent on a retreat while things simmered down and a reprimand from the Bishop. Finally he stays with his mother and Aunt Madge, a spicy character also, who softens, with her stories, his shame. She recognizes his attraction to Kate as does Frank finally admit it to himself. This is a beautifully written and engrossing tale throughout! You should look for the nice large print edition.
sheridangriswold@yahoo.com