Rating: 
Summary: A quietly magnificent exploration of faith and doubt
Review: "Morte D'Urban" belongs to a long list of unfairly neglected works of the last century. As the Amazon review notes, perhaps anonymity is inevitable for a book whose cast is comprised 75% of Catholic priests and brethren. The book's jacket describes "Morte D'Urban" as a comic masterpiece, which I feel does some disservice to both the reader and the book. The book *is* funny, yes. But it's funny in a very dry and very subtle (for the most part) and ... very Midwestern way. Though Powers does, on occasion, paint his characters with too broad a stroke, they are by no means caricatures. Urban is a wonderfully complex title character--simultaneously worldly and devout, well-meaning but sometimes weak, humble yet proud. And the events of the book, though they occasionally have a slapstick feel (I won't, like the book's Introduction, spoil anything for the reader), the plot is really a series of well-crafted scenes building up to the final epilogue. Poor Father Urban. One cannot help but rue his fate, even as one can see it coming down the pike. I couldn't help but compare this book to the numerous others I've read which (supposedly) take as their theme religious hypocrisy--particularly Sinclair Lewis's "Elmer Gantry." This book is infinitely better than any I've read so far. Powers humanizes his characters--he reveals their many flaws without condemning them; he does not stack his deck against religion, but shows how difficult it is to be truly devout in a world such as ours (and this book was written in the 1950s!). Check it out and let's keep this book in print!
Rating:
Summary: A quietly magnificent exploration of faith and doubt
Review: "Morte D'Urban" belongs to a long list of unfairly neglected works of the last century. As the Amazon review notes, perhaps anonymity is inevitable for a book whose cast is comprised 75% of Catholic priests and brethren. The book's jacket describes "Morte D'Urban" as a comic masterpiece, which I feel does some disservice to both the reader and the book. The book *is* funny, yes. But it's funny in a very dry and very subtle (for the most part) and ... very Midwestern way. Though Powers does, on occasion, paint his characters with too broad a stroke, they are by no means caricatures. Urban is a wonderfully complex title character--simultaneously worldly and devout, well-meaning but sometimes weak, humble yet proud. And the events of the book, though they occasionally have a slapstick feel (I won't, like the book's Introduction, spoil anything for the reader), the plot is really a series of well-crafted scenes building up to the final epilogue. Poor Father Urban. One cannot help but rue his fate, even as one can see it coming down the pike. I couldn't help but compare this book to the numerous others I've read which (supposedly) take as their theme religious hypocrisy--particularly Sinclair Lewis's "Elmer Gantry." This book is infinitely better than any I've read so far. Powers humanizes his characters--he reveals their many flaws without condemning them; he does not stack his deck against religion, but shows how difficult it is to be truly devout in a world such as ours (and this book was written in the 1950s!). Check it out and let's keep this book in print!
Rating: 
Summary: Human is connected with holy
Review: Actually 3.5 stars. I am a tough customer, and grade harshly. The characters of the work make up the book: Wilf; Mrs. Bean; Billy; Msgr. Renton; etc. I can find similarity with people I have met here in the east, so the mid-west setting is not a dominant factor. The characters are more dominant than the plot, even though the description on the book jacket of the old Image-Doubleday edition of the work put more emphasis on the plot. However, reading about Fr. Urban's travels reminded me a little bit of what little Walker Percy I have read thus far. This little novel is a great human story. The foibles of all the characters are made visible in a way that points to them as human, wonderfully human! The Clementines (and the Dalmatians and Dolomites) are just like any Catholic religious community. Yes, they are human, and in their humanness is their holiness. I do agree with the reviewer that says that Fr. Urban seemed to outshine the other characters in a way that diminishes them. The narrator is a bit kinder to Fr. Urban. I also see this as a weakness in the novel. I was shocked at the event that brought on the end of the relationship as it was between Fr. Urban and Billy. Change is prominent. But the humor is a big hit, the dry satire and irony, brought on many smiles and chuckles. It is a novel that touches the heart. I pass it on to a friend from Ilinois, and I wonder what he will say.
Rating: 
Summary: Coming back into fashion subject matter
Review: I discovered this book after reading the recent obituary on J.F. Powers. Now I'm recommending it to everyone. Father Urban is a priest who sounds more like a rotary member, a fund-raiser, a PR man. When the powers that be send him to the hinterlands, he bows to the inevitable. Other victories seem to turn on him at the same time. Hob-knobbing with the weathly, which at first seemed to benefit his order, turns into a nightmare in which he remembers his duty at just the last minute. This prose is so dryly humorous you must read it carefully to catch it all. You will become enchanted with Father Urban and sorry to leave him at the story's end. I wanted this story to go on and on.
Rating:
Summary: READER BEWARE! Don't read introduction first!
Review: I was stunned (and then just plain angry) when I discovered (too late) that Hardwick's "introduction" was little more than a synopisis of the novel's plot. Why do publishers insist on including these dopey intros anyway? By unveiling all the susrprises contained in the novel's plot before the novel begins, the publisher ruins an otherwise fine book for a generation of readers yet to discover it. And it is a great book, though I would have enjoyed it far more had I not, thanks to Ms. Hardwick, seen every plot twist coming from a mile away.
Rating:
Summary: READER BEWARE! Don't read introduction first!
Review: I was stunned (and then just plain angry) when I discovered (too late) that Hardwick's "introduction" was little more than a synopisis of the novel's plot. Why do publishers insist on including these dopey intros anyway? By unveiling all the susrprises contained in the novel's plot before the novel begins, the publisher ruins an otherwise fine book for a generation of readers yet to discover it. And it is a great book, though I would have enjoyed it far more had I not, thanks to Ms. Hardwick, seen every plot twist coming from a mile away.
Rating:
Summary: All-too-comic consequences of the religious-secular clash
Review: If only each priest of the Clementine order would pay as much attention to the condition of their worshippers' bank accounts as he does to the status of their souls, then the organization's needless poverty and lowly status would vanish. That is the comic premise of "Morte D'Urban," which portrays the priests of a fictional order in the Midwest who are challenged by a man of the cloth via Madison Avenue: a priest who pays as much attention to public relations and material wealth as he does to the spiritual good of his Catholic flock.
Father Urban is the go-getter with high hopes for his order. A popular preacher--the type of priest with whom you can have a beer (or something stronger)--Urban is on the constant lookout for potential donors and is quite willing to overlook a little vice among his flock in exchange for higher congregational participation and the greater financial good of his organization. The problem, however, is that the Clementine headquarters in Chicago and its Father Provincial share one intractable quality: bureaucratic inertia. Urban's grand plans to secure his order's economic well-being, increase its visibility, and transform its old-fashioned torpor to a flashier modernity are stymied by his fellow priests' contentedness with their lowly standing.
For his efforts, Urban is soon sent packing to the Protestant backwaters of Minnesota, to a decrepit retreat house run by a penny-pinching and somewhat incompetent rector. Making the most of a bad situation, Urban applies his charm to the local Catholic population, to a new group of potential donors, and, eventually, to the refurbishment of the retreat itself, including the addition of a nine-hole golf course. As his goals become grander, however, his transgressions and indulgences multiply, and the result is a series of hilarious episodes that teach Urban that being a faithful Catholic and being an American materialist, more often than not, are difficult to reconcile.
Powers's humor takes many forms: dry wit, social satire, situation comedy, and even slapstick. The result is a brilliant morality tale describing the daily challenges that a 2000-year-old religious institution faces in a 200-year-old secular nation. "Morte D'Urban" is a loving portrait of Catholics and Americans and of the unintentional comedy created by those who try, in good faith, to be both.
Rating:
Summary: Bless me, father
Review: One of the best books I read in 2000. "Morte" takes apart the pre-Vatican II Catholic church and puts it back together, complete with a compelling hero. Father Urban, exiled to Garrison Keillor's prairie,takes his lumps and does the best with what he's dealt. And in two courageous acts late in the novel, he discovers, almost by accident, the meaning of Christianity and of his priesthood. It's hard to figure out quite where Powers stood on the Roman church, but he certainly creates a world where any believer can find delight and meaning. It's a great dynamic read.
Rating:
Summary: Bless me, father
Review: One of the best books I read in 2000. "Morte" takes apart the pre-Vatican II Catholic church and puts it back together, complete with a compelling hero. Father Urban, exiled to Garrison Keillor's prairie,takes his lumps and does the best with what he's dealt. And in two courageous acts late in the novel, he discovers, almost by accident, the meaning of Christianity and of his priesthood. It's hard to figure out quite where Powers stood on the Roman church, but he certainly creates a world where any believer can find delight and meaning. It's a great dynamic read.
Rating:
Summary: Vatican rag on the prairie
Review: The brilliance of this narrative is that it's hard to tell where J.F. Powers stands in his opinion of the Roman church. Our lead character, Father Urban, is a smooth operator, at once completely faithful and compellingly human. There's rich religious satire as he heads to a run-down retreat in Minnesota run by his order. He's a snob, but a lovable one. Then he has two wonderfully heroic moments,and you start to see him as a martyr. An extremely well-written novel, impossible to put down, especially if you're religious.
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