Friday, October 21, 2005
The Mystery of Things
Debra Murphy's novel "The Mystery of Things" is a book that reminds me of Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh. The characters are deeply steeped in the world of Catholicism, and working out their salvations in fear and trembling. And sin. This may be the most compelling fictional exploration of sin written so far in our post-modern world. Where Tolkien and Lewis projected the inner battle of the spirit out on to worlds where good and evil are writ large on a fantasy background of black and white extremes, Murphy has her characters wrestle with themselves from within an enclave of Catholicism that itself is struggling to carve out an identity within a post-modern US society steeped in the culture wars. In other words, she writes about us. With great insight. I was initially put off by the presence of so many adjectives and adverbs in her prose, but now I wonder if that is deliberate, a conscious decision to buck the minimalist strain in modern fiction that strips sentences of everything but subject, predicate and object.

I have not become so involved in the struggle of characters since... well, I can't remember when. She is writing my life, and she is definitely not preaching. Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh. Debra Murphy.
Posts written by Rae



Name:Rae Stabosz
Location:Newark, DE
Email: rstabosz@gmail.com

Welcome to Confessions of a Cooperator.

A Pauline Cooperator is a layperson who follows Blessed James Alberione with his Pauline Family.

The Paulines are all about media.

We travel the world via airwaves and electrons telling stories of Christ to our wild, wounded world. A world that longs to find the Way, know the Truth and be given the Life.

I am wife & beloved to Bill Stabosz. We fell in love at 16, married at 19, and have traveled 37+ years through hell, high water, low water, no water, purgatory, clear water, and back to sweet Eden the garden of earthly delights.

I am the mother of nine fabulous offspring. Their names are David Ezekiel, Marguerite "Reetie" Louise, Gabriel Mary, Simon Andrew (of blessed memory), Michael Walter, Walter Andrew, Eric David (of blessed memory), Ishmael Matthew and Emily Rae. I adore my 7 grandkids: Ruth Olive Danyo, Wade Lewis Danyo, Ezekiel Crawford Norton, Owen Robert Stabosz Danyo, Amelia Thyme Norton, Donal David Stabosz and Simon Eric Gregg.

I have good friends, few enemies, and the coolest siblings, sons-in-laws, and daughters-in-laws around.

I have been a writer all my life, a published author now and then. I used to work a day job in computer support at the University of Delaware but I retired (REJOICE, O REJOICE!) in June of 2007.

Like Don McClean, the three Persons I admire the most are the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. They are maligned and misunderstood. I love them. The Trinity has never let me down. Ever. Or anyone else who trusts the Three-in-One. Anyone. You.

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