“This is something I can’t not do, for reasons I’m unable to explain to anyone else and don’t fully understand myself but that are nonetheless compelling.” Parker Palmer
Ben and Harriet have always known each other and have been best friends throughout their lives, in the best and the worst of times. But what happens when they begin to contemplate different paths and realise that their friendship may have morphed into something much stronger? Ben can’t see that Harriet is in love with him. And Harriet has no idea that Ben is going to make a life choice that will take him away from her.
Long-listed for the SI Leeds Literary Prize in 2022, it was lucky for me that a friend sent me a copy of this self-published debut novel, because I really enjoyed it. Amos writes well and the story drew me in. Short snappy chapters alternate the two main voices of Ben and Harriet. This book moves along at a good crisp pace even though the topics it deals with could be considered more contemplative and relationship oriented–faith, friendship, love, romance, creativity, vocation, grief, and conflict to name a few. Novels of faith can sometimes be tedious in their attempt to solve everything or be prescriptive or even evangelistic, but this book is none of those. I applaud the author for being open to a messy kind of faith that is not static or rule oriented, but gets at heart and soul and is open to questioning, doubt, and a searching for God.
The characters felt real to me and I enjoyed reading the discoveries that Ben makes when he enters the monastery. Even though he’s been studying law at Oxford, working in the kitchen opens up his eyes to the connections that can be made between the physical and the spiritual. “Nothing is insignificant. It’s not just food prep; we’re sustaining life. It’s not just washing dishes; we’re bringing order to chaos.” That passage made me think of The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection by Robert Farrar Capon, a longtime favourite of mine. There are also echoes of Parker Palmer (Let Your Life Speak) in Amos’ understanding of vocation at its deepest level which is much more far reaching than work or study. The characters Ben and Harriet both have authentic vocation seeking, each in their own way.
Liz Amos is Black British of Jamaican heritage and writes stories about people who carry multiple labels. A former lawyer, she lives with her family on the south coast of England.
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This sounds really intriguing. You had me at Parker Palmer!!
Yes, she echoes ideas of Palmer and Norris (The Quotidian Mysteries) in this fiction which is really a romance, but the conflict comes from them finding the right path for themselves in the midst of it.