The Vicar of Sorrows

By A.N. Wilson

Book Overview

In this powerful novel that will confirm his reputation as one of Britain's brightest literary lights, A. N. Wilson recounts the downward spiral of Francis Kreer, a clergyman who does not believe in God and whose life starts to come apart at the seams. When his mother dies, Francis is shocked to discover that she had a lover and that he must share his inheritance with this (awful) man. Then Francis falls in love-painfully, absolutely-with an irresistable but most unsuitable young woman.A. N. Wilson traces Francis's descent through various circles of the English establishment, a tragi-comic journey that takes the hapless hero to the outer edges of both absurdity and despair.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393036103
• ISBN13: 9780393036107
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 391 Pages
• Weight: 1.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.6" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

A holy fool in an un-Godded age

A.N. Wilson's The Vicar of Sorrows is an extraordinary novel. On the most obvious level, it's the story of the decline and fall of Francis Kreer, a middle-aged Anglican clergyman who tumbles into a life crisis after the death of his mother. Francis has long since ceased to believe in God, but hangs onto his parish largely out of inertia. Ditto with his marriage to Sally. The only thing that seems to enliven him is his relationship with his thirteen year old daughter Jessica. But then Mummy dies, and the life of denial Francis has been living catches up with him. He loses his parish, his family, his reputation, and eventually his sanity, and then, with "no further boundaries to be crossed" (p. 383), Francis becomes something very much like the Holy Fools found in the Eastern Orthodox tradition--but with the qualification that Francis' holy foolishness is an ungodded one. And that's what takes the story away from Francis and, at a deeper level, makes it a reflection on life in post-Christian culture. Arnold's "Sea of Faith" lament is just as appropriate today as it was in the 19th century. In reading the story of Francis Kreer's decline and collapse--or is it resurrection?--one is given the opportunity to reflect on how to cope in a culture in which the centre hasn't held. But I don't want to give the impression that the book is a gloomy piece of postmodern philosophy. It's hilarious, as well as heartbreaking (more and more of the latter as the book progresses). Wilson has a Dickensian gift for creating wonderfully funny characters: Terry Widger, the evangelical Anglican priest who makes faith 'relevant" by delivering sermons accessorized with balloons; Damian Wells, high-churched Anglo Catholic priest who also frequents public lavatories; Jay, the young hippie musician who proves to be Francis' femme fatale; and Lindie Spittle, sexually frustrated parishioner who's convinced that every priest she encounters is hitting on her. A wonderful novel. Six stars.

The Wages of Sin?

In this novel we visit an England where bishops are bureaucrats and the parish priests seem to be atheists. Author A.N. Wilson is not new to witnessing the decline of the Anglican Church. A few years back he wrote "God's Funeral", the informative and witty history of the decline of religion in Victorian England. Things don't seem to have changed much in modern day Britain. Our protagonist is the Vicar of St. Birnius church, a small parish in a small town. The Rev. Francis Kreer stopped believing in God many years ago, roughly about the same time that he stopped loving his wife. He still likes his job though; it's easy, and there is some good to be accomplished in ministering to the faithful. His wife is another matter. He can't stand the sight of her. To make matters worse his mother has just died, and he has become quite depressed. One day a group of hippies squats down on the town's edge and Francis meets a young girl from the group. One thing leads to another and our pastor has fallen in love with her.Francis runs off with the young lady, and ultimately loses his parish. What follows is a rather bizarre tale of mental deterioration. Author Wilson tells this story through moments of hilarity followed by sequences of sadness. Although the Reverend Kreer has had a succession of traumas in his recent life it is sometimes hard to understand the serious mental imbalance that results. Be that as it may, this book may be considered a delightful tragedy. If "delightful tragedy" fits a category that piques your interest do, by all means, pick up a copy.

Great British Writing

I'm a huge fan of British literature and comedy, and this book is no exception. Funny, when I mentioned to my Mum that it was by A.N. Wilson, she swore she couldn't believe I liked it at all, because she absolutely ABHORRED his biography of Lewis Carroll. (I never read it.)However, I shared VICAR with her and she enjoyed it much. I love the protagonist's personality, and the writing is fluid, never disjointed, and has a great, almost prosaic/lyrical style (if that makes any sense).

Wickedly funny yet infinitely sad story of faithless priest

A.N. Wilson's The Vicar of Sorrows is the wickedly funny, yet infinitely sad, story of an English country rector who has lost his faith. Francis Kreer starts this novel as the "perfect" priest, able to generally satisfy the various factions in his parish, saying a good mass, cutting a good figure. His marriage, however, is loveless, and Francis makes the unfortunate mistake of falling in love with a young "hippie" squatting nearby. From this point, Francis' life tumbles inexorably into the abyss, and the descent is both mortifying and a masterpiece of dry wit. Wilson treats Francis, and other of his characters, with a certain affection but does not allow this regard to spare anyone from the most awful of fates. There is no mercy in Francis' descent, or in Wilson's telling about it. As a member of the Episcopal Church of America, I saw and enjoyed many of the somewhat precious characters and stock situations of this book. I wonder how much of Wilson's scene would be lost to the unchurched or the Pentecostal.

This comedy of Anglican manners grows ever sadder: worth it.

Read The Vicar of Sorrows. It's about an Anglican vicar who goes off the deep end when his mother perversely leaves half her estate to an old flame (the mother's). The novel begins in a Barbara Pym vein--comedy of Anglican manners, characters amusingly high and low, in both the Church and class sense--but as the vicar looses his faith, his family, and finally his mind the going gets sad and even, in the word of one reviewer, "harrowing." Both the funny and the not-so-funny parts are done well. A.N. Wilson has a knack for catching the odd things that go on in peoples' minds while they appear to be blandly living their social lives. There's even a gay Anglo-Catholic in a minor part (always a plus in this genre). Wilson's bestseller about Jesus (really a book of lit. crit. applied to the gospels, but how are you going to sell That?) is also worth a try.