The Enemy of the Good

A national newspaper review of 'The Enemy of the Good' by Michael Arditti, says that this is a story of faith in the 21st century. This is a simplification of the complex (and, at times, rather overworked) tale about a quietly disfunctional family. The story covers so many facets of religion, faith, homosexuality, sibling rivalries, bereavement, loyalty, relationships and society's ways of accepting or rejecting non-conformity, that it makes your head spin. And yet, while the reader is actually following the story, it seems entirely plausible that all these different issues and situations can, and do, occur within one family. A rather literate soap opera, in fact.

I enjoyed this book very much, even when I found it stretched my credulity to the limit. Probably because the devise of using 3 different voices to tell the story teases out levels of understanding the players much more fully than would using only one 1st or 3rd person narrator for the book's entirety. One of the central characters - homosexual artist Clement - explains his unconventional and, sometimes, challenging beliefs with such gentle and erudite conviction that one can't help but sympathise even when he talks of killing his father.  

Not the easiest of reads, especially for those of strong and narrow opinions based solely on the letter of Bible and the Torah, but well worth it.