One novel on the list:Saint MaybeRead about another book on Firth's list.
by Anne Tyler
How do you evaluate a deed that has brought catastrophe? Tyler writes about Ian Bedloe, who thinks he's doing his brother a favor by telling him that his wife is unfaithful, and the brother subsequently drives a car into a wall and dies. Ian is 17 and said something stupid and, as it turns out, incorrect. I'm not a great believer in sitting cross-legged on a mountaintop throughout your life as a spiritual quest. What I find interesting is how an enormous spiritual journey unfolds in the banality of life. When Ian asks a minister how he can redeem himself, the minister replies, "You can raise the kids." It means throwing away college, throwing away his girlfriend, throwing away everything in order to be a father to these kids. At no point is it ever considered a noble thing, but he takes it on. He lives for something other than himself.
--Marshal Zeringue
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