The Vicar of Justin by Louis Auchincloss
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

His best, although the title on my copy includes Rector not Vicar. Perhaps a more Anglican tone is suggested by the latter. In any case this is a book about the fate of all human endeavour: ultimate failure no matter what the motivation. But under Auchicloss's direction this isn't depressing, merely human. The society we inhabit is unavoidably political and draws us all into political compromise incrementally. Our ideals are transformed in the process, often paradoxically to precisely those they opposed. Disaster and tragedy are avoided only because consequences, often beneficial in ways we do not intend and of which we have no awareness, result. Auchincloss is a master of the East Coast upper class and its trials. Incredibly, we are drawn into this world of casually accepted privilege and find that it too includes humane human beings.

View all my reviews