BOOKS

Late Jesuit priest’s novel unravels abortion, murder plot

Reviewed by Andrew Junker | Sept. 3, 2009 | The Catholic Sun

“Cold Comfort,” a mystery novel published in 2005 by the late Jesuit Father John Becker — who for years taught at Brophy College Preparatory — is a book of juxtapositions.

The subject matter couldn’t be more serious — murder and abortion — but the writing style and disposition of many of the book’s characters are so sunny, happy and humorous that the novel simultaneously entertains as it disquiets.

Like most good mysteries, “Cold Comfort” begins with a murder, the murder of a senator’s pregnant wife, to be exact. Jesuit Father Luke Wolfe stumbles into her frozen and bloody body when he’s rummaging for a midnight snack in the rectory’s walk-in freezer.

For most people, that would be a strange and unsettling event enough to last a lifetime, but for Fr. Wolfe, it’s only the start of truly bizarre week.

All while teaching his English students the difference between “less than” and “fewer,” and cajoling them to unwrap the confusing jealousy of Iago, the old priest is nearly attacked by the senator, taken hostage in his classroom by a bank robber, and sought out for advice by all sorts of troubled men and women.

Meanwhile, two of his students — a pair of twins who have gotten wrapped up in unraveling the murder mystery — have disappeared and are leaking information about the murder to Fr. Wolfe.

It’s really a great, convoluted plot filled with chance meetings and overheard conversations, larger-than-life figures and desperate moments. Throughout it all, Fr. Becker peppers the text with bons mots and cringe-inducing puns, literary allusions and a compulsion for correcting the grammar of others.

It’s all just what you would expect from a good English teacher.

The way he counsels everyone in the novel and manages to maintain his equanimity is also something you’d expect from a great teacher and — more importantly — a great priest.

Fr. Wolfe really cares for souls. In the way he interacts with everyone, in his thoughts for them, the reader sees that he views people differently than most.

His view is so spiritually centered, so hopeful in the Christian sense. And it’s juxtaposed so strikingly against the often dark, murder-filled plot that the experience of reading the book is often unsettling.

It’s a bit like the feeling a reader can get when reading Flannery O’Connor. Her stories can be dark, weird, violent, funny and — ultimately — more revealing of Christianity than any pious or maudlin novel.

That’s not to say “Cold Comfort” is very similar at all to a Flannery O’Connor book. It’s really not. Fr. Becker’s novel is analogous only in the fact that it may offer insight into grace, providence and redemption in surprising ways.

His book is also unwaveringly mischievous, even to the end. I won’t spoil the final revelation, but I think it’s clear that Fr. Becker is playing with the notion of a Deus ex machina often appearing at the end of a mystery by having two of his heroes use a machina to produce the voice of Deus, which ultimately — you may have guessed — reveals the murderer.

It’s a good read, filled with memorable characters and a protagonist who is both inspired and inspiring.

Although I never had the good fortune of being taught by Fr. Becker when I attended Brophy, I couldn’t help reading the book and picturing his face on Fr. Wolfe.

From what I understood from my peers who had Fr. Becker, the similarities between the priests are striking. Both were excellent teachers — combining enthusiasm, erudition and just the right amount of eccentricity — and both were very concerned with the care of souls.

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Media critic Andrew Junker is a staff writer for The Catholic Sun. Comments are welcome. Send e-mail to letters@catholicsun.org.