Book Review: Eclipse of the Sun by Michael D. O'Brien

Eclipse of the Sun by Michael D. O'Brien

In a sprawling narrative, the lives of several Canadian conservative Catholics are thrown into chaos by government interference. The State has clamped down on education, news, and civil liberties. After lethal raids on a commune and a cloister, Father Andre (chaplain for the slaughtered nuns) is on the run with Arrow (son of a woman killed at the commune). Their efforts to avoid the authorities brings them into contact with a variety of friendly and hostile people. Father Andre realizes that Arrow is the great-grandson of Thaddaeus who lives way in the backcountry. The journey takes a while (850 pages!) and has lots of reverses, setbacks, and moments of grace along the way.

The core story is very interesting and moving emotionally. Arrow is a tough kid and a survivor, though he does not develop a whole lot as the story proceeds. The other characters around him, both immediately and tangentially, make a lot of difficult and impactful choices that move the story along and develop their characters a bit better than Arrow gets developed. 

The story moves very slowly and becomes a showcase for everything that could go wrong with a government that opposes committed Catholics. The government covers up their attacks at the beginning, blaming the violence on far-right conservative militants. The government actively undermines parents' rights over their children throughout the story. The one good representative in the central government is barely effective in trying to save a woman who intervened on Arrow's behalf and was subsequently captured, hidden, and tortured. This side narrative takes up a substantial part of the book, reinforcing how bad the government has gotten. The detail of this and other side narratives is unnecessary and slows down the story (though, the main narrative has the same problem with overdescription of moving from one place to the next).

While a lot of the political complaints are legitimate, everything is taken to an extreme that gets less plausible as the story goes on. The writing almost revels in the oppression imposed on the characters, intended as a prophecy about the real world. In an afterword, the author says he will be happy if it turns out wrong. This novel seems like the right-wing equivalent of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, another narrative that wallows in the victimhood of its protagonists. While I enjoy a good, paranoid thriller, getting too far into the weeds turns the work into a laundry list of complaints, almost like getting lectured. The narrative just goes on too long and down too many rabbit trails. O'Brien's earlier novel Plague Journal managed to get the paranoia and thrills of running from an oppressive government without getting mired in excessive descriptions or piling on other characters' stories. 

It's a shame because O'Brien manages to weave in a lot of solid theology and beautiful moments, but then we get stuff like the politician going from his office to the parliamentary chamber to a pub where he meets with a journalist to an office meeting with other opposition party members and back to the chamber to make a speech. O'Brien needed some heavy editing for this book. Or maybe splitting it into two or three separate novels.

Not recommended--the good stuff gets buried in a lot of other stuff.