Brian Moore: A Critical Study

Thomas M.F. Gerry is an English professor at Laurentian University.

This book surveys Moore’s work chronologically, attaching thematic
labels to time periods and the novels. “Beleaguered Catholicism,”
“Religion Without Belief: Judith Hearne,” “The Making of an Ulster
Catholic: The Feast of Lupercal,” and “Conclusion: Victims of
Religion” make up the first section (“The Early Belfast Novels”).
In Section 2 (“Novels of Exile and Escape”) are “The Search for
the Self,” “The Giving of Voice: An Answer from Limbo,” “The
Fixed Centre: I Am Mary Dunne,” “The Multiple Perception: The
Doctor’s Wife,” and “Conclusion: Liberty or Banishment?” Section
3 (“Belief in a Secular World”) contains “The Quest for a Higher
Belief,” “Creating a God: The Temptation of Eileen Hughes,” “The
Temptation of the Unbeliever: Cold Heaven,” “The Cruelty of Belief:
Black Robe,” and “Conclusion: The Silence of God.” Finally, in
Section 4 (“Politics as Morality”) is “A New Engagement with the
Actual.”

I do not list the contents merely because I admire Moore’s titles.
Nor do I wish entirely to deride the unimaginative approach O’Donoghue
takes in this study. But the chapter titles indicate that the book does
follow in what the author apparently recognizes as the dull and
inadequate tradition of Moore commentary, which, as O’Donoghue writes,
tends “to concentrate on the themes and the moral preoccupations of
his novels rather than attempting any artistic evaluation of his
work.” At no point does this book go beyond that tradition. In fact,
O’Donoghue’s bibliography, “Criticism of Fiction: A Selection of
Works Cited,” may explain the antediluvian quality of this study:
nothing from the 1990s; one work from the 1980s (Ernest Hemingway on
Fiction[!]); five from the 1970s; and the rest from the 1920s to the
1960s (13 items). McGill-Queen’s ought to leave this sort of book to
the vanity presses.