Belief

by Stephanie Johnson

Book Overview

It is 1898. On a remote farm in Northland, William McQuiggan experiences an epiphany. His wife Myra is too tied up in the death of their first child to listen, and William goes across the world in search of understanding and union with God. His union with Myra is at the heart of the novel.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1869414365
• ISBN13: 9781869414368
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 485 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Despair and defeat

This novel, which takes place mainly in New Zealand and America, details the story of two characters who travel down self-destructive paths. William, after believing that God revealed Himself to him while on a drunken night on his farm, obsesses over finding God and embarks on a spiritual journey that eventually drains him of his sanity. Myra, William's wife, who despite the abuse she consistently suffers from her husband, always finds a way to love him again. The author takes you into the mind of each of the characters to know why they choose their paths as such, though readers may grow weary of the suffering that Myra and her children repeatedly have to go through with William. Although mostly depressing, the novel has its small bright moments with other characters who serve as friends to Myra. As an American who has lived in New Zealand, I found the author's descriptions were able to paint a very detailed picture in my mind of what life was like in both of these places 100 years ago. Through occasional flashbacks, Stephanie Johnson creates a large detailed world geographically and chronologically.

dark historical fiction

In late nineteenth century New Zealand, William McQuiggan, a victim of child abuse, strikes out at those who love him such as his wife Myra. William finds solace only in alcohol. However, while working in the hated fields, a drunken William sees a vision. He decides to go on a quest in search of God.William leaves behind his pregnant wife and journeys across the Pacific to Utah where he joins the Mormons. When he concludes that religion as bogus, he tries the Jehovah's Witnesses, but feels that movement is a sham. He next heads to Illinois to join Dr. Alexander Dowie's Zion City utopia before souring on that faction. While on his American adventure, his wife and twin children finally join him and soon more children follow. He becomes further unhinged until he returns home in a last ditch effort to reach God through his own church.Stephanie Johnson paints a dark work of historical fiction in that there is little hope beyond bleakness even for those who believe in God. The story line is vivid as it describes several locales, the era, and religions with clarity and depth. William is a wonderfully drawn character whose slow descent into a self-made hell makes BELIEF work though readers will tire of the abused Myra traipsing after her man.Harriet Klausner