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Conclave by Robert Harris - Oct 2020 Book Group discussion thread

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Peregrinator Oct 2020 11:57pm, 10 Oct 2020 705 posts	Quote Pin Peregrinator Conclave Amongst the interesting people that I work with, there's Sid who, when he's not working for us, dresses up and pretends to be someone else. Here's a picture of him with a couple of other people that he's worked with: Sid was in the film "The Two Popes" - which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was two old blokes talking about their lives (in an epic fail of the Bechdel test). But if the blokes are Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins, the result is very watchable, and actually quite touching and funny. The film gave me the visuals and the background for Conclave. Which is set in a religious C. P. Snow-land of men (inevitably) wrestling with conscience, morality, rules and procedures. Here crimson silk stoles and zucchettos replace Harris tweed jackets and Bowler hats. The grandeur of making judgements under Michelangelo's walls and ceilings, rather than the Senior Combination Room of a fusty Cambridge College. But ultimately it comes down to who is the right man for the job? Is he one of us, or one of them? What is the job anyway? Robert Harris writes with much more verve than Snow, and that does sweep you through the clouds of burning ballot papers. For good and bad, it does feel like a thriller: the processes of elimination of the various candidates driven by the need to keep a tension. But it does work and it’s a thriller in which no-one dies; apart from the Holy Father obviously. Hmmm, any other interesting elections coming up?
Peregrinator Oct 2020 12:30am, 11 Oct 2020 706 posts	Quote Pin Peregrinator I vote for the infallible Cardinal McGoohan, and pray that he can re-unite the different views of the thread. Although Dipps put it more succinctly, she can't be Pope.
Serendippily Oct 2020 12:34am, 11 Oct 2020 19,262 posts	Quote Pin Serendippily puts beard on and calls herself Bob
Diogenes Oct 2020 12:43am, 11 Oct 2020 53,719 posts	Quote Pin Diogenes Very interesting. I really enjoyed The Two Popes. I’ve also found C.P. Snow quite dull, like an drift
Peregrinator Oct 2020 7:06am, 11 Oct 2020 707 posts	Quote Pin Peregrinator I vote for Archbishop Bob.
Mouseytongue Oct 2020 8:46am, 11 Oct 2020 5,974 posts	Quote Pin Mouseytongue ^ Spoiler alert
McGoohan Oct 2020 8:58am, 11 Oct 2020 47,043 posts	Quote Pin McGoohan I don't even remember Dipps being in it... Goes for reread
Peregrinator Oct 2020 7:00pm, 11 Oct 2020 709 posts	Quote Pin Peregrinator Diogenes: 😊 - although CP is a third rate author, I have a soft spot for him - not least because he said that it was ok for scientists to read literature. For many years his "The Realists" (which covers biographies of Stendhal, Balzac, Dickens, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Galdos, Henry James, Proust) was the foundation of all my literary criticism. He was unfavourably depicted by Anthony Powell in Dance to the music of time as J G Quiggin. MT: 😊 McGoohan: Lucky if I remember the author of the last book I read, no chance of remembering the characters 😊
Columba Oct 2020 7:56pm, 11 Oct 2020 20,362 posts	Quote Pin Columba I loved this book, and got thoroughly drawn into it, until the final sting-in-the-tail last chapter, when I thought "Oh come on, this is going too far". But I can understand that it might not be gripping to anyone with little interest in / knowledge about the Catholic Church. There are biblical references too, which will have been missed by anyone not knowing the Bible. Will read back to see what everyone else thought, then may post some more.
Columba Oct 2020 8:04pm, 11 Oct 2020 20,363 posts	Quote Pin Columba Read back. Nothing to add, really. Glad McG liked it.