About

Welcome to the University of St. Thomas Doherty Library blog on Catholic fiction.  This blog is directed mainly to the students to encourage the reading of good Catholic fiction during their time here at a Catholic university.  Hopefully, instilling such a habit will lead to a life-long appreciation of the subject.  Therefore, I hope that the faculty will recommend some of their favorites although I wouldn’t be surprised if the undergraduates could also teach a thing or two.  It is hoped that by reading the same or similar books we will create conversation both online and in person.  Your host and moderator for this conversation is myself, Mary Kelleher, Periodicals/Reference Librarian at Doherty Library.  I have BA in English from UST, a MA and PhD in English from New York University and a MLIS from the University of North Texas.  Before coming to Doherty Library I have been an adjunct professor of English and a public and high school librarian. 

Let me admit right up front, I have not yet read a great deal of Catholic fiction myself.  One of my goals with this blog is to find out more about Catholic fiction from other readers, to read more, to reread old favorites and to go back and pick up on those classics I have missed out on.  In each entry I intend to present a book of Catholic fiction and give a short synopsis of it which I hope will entice others to read the book.  Occasionally I will recommend a reference book that will lead readers to more information about Catholic fiction or Catholic authors.  I ask that comments to the blog be similar synopses of  books that the poster would like to recommend.  Comments on the recommendations of others will be posted only if they contribute to the details of the previous post and indicate further why someone should read the book.  Disparaging comments about the orthodoxy or the literary merit of the book will not be posted.  For example comments such as “no one with taste would read that book” or “no decent Catholic would read this book” will be ignored.  This site is meant to encourage reading not to discourage it.

 

Certainly Catholic fiction is not the only good kind of fiction.  It’s not the only fiction that deals with issues of great spiritual depth.  What exactly constitutes Catholic fiction is difficult to define.  Of course there are the classics that everyone considers great Catholic fiction:  works by Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy, Evelyn Waugh, etc. Flannery O’Connor said that Catholic fiction is a “Catholic mind looking at anything.”  I tend to interpret the concept of Catholic fiction rather loosely.  In general then books by authors who are practicing Catholics or were raised in a Catholic culture even if they might no longer be practicing will be considered Catholic fiction.  Authors who may disagree or dissent with certain individual Church positions will also be considered as one of the most beneficial elements of reading good fiction is watching a character struggle with difficult questions.  Fiction is not the same as Theology although it can be used to help us live more human and compassionate lives.  Books that may not look at spiritual issues but are set within a Catholic culture, such as mysteries set in a medieval monastery, will also be included.  Light, escapist literature is as necessary as profound fiction.  However, authors who are virulently anti-Catholic or who merely use the trappings of Catholicism in order to titillate or who sensationalize Catholicism beyond anything recognizable (e.g. Dan Brown) are not considered Catholic for our purposes.  

     

Here’s an excellent definition from the website www.catholicfiction.net/catholic-fiction-reading-list/