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wwatts1734's review
1.0
Before today I had only given a 1-star rating to one book here on GoodReads, and that was Bud McFarlane's first book, "Pierced by the Sword." I was talked into considering his second book, "Conceived without Sin", since, after all, "Pierced by the Sword" was his first novel, and of course a novelist will get better with more experience. I gave it a try and read "Conceived without Sin" cover to cover. I honestly have to say that it is arguably worse than "Pierced by the Sword."
"Conceived without Sin" has all of the faults of "Pierced with a Sword". The dialogue is horrible, with 1950s TV slang and banal conversations that go on for pages. CWS actually has a much weaker plot than PWAS. In PWAS, the Catholic SuperFriends characters came together in South Bend, Indiana to face the forces of evil, 1-dimensional contrived villains for an apocalyptic battle on the quad of Notre Dame University. In CWS, a different set of Catholic SuperFriends characters gets together in Cleveland, OH to win a local basketball tournament, see one of the SuperFriends through a wedding, another SuperFriend into a convent and a third SuperFriend through a suicide attempt. If that sounds confusing to you, it is even more confusing when this unravels through almost 500 pages of annoying text.
Besides these annoying characteristics, there were several very disturbing aspects to this novel which makes it truly worthy of the 1-star rating. GoodReads only gives me a limited number of words to spell this out for you, but I'll try in my alloted space. The first disturbing element of this novel is the impression that I got that McFarlane really has no clue what conversion is all about. In his novels, people who become Catholic turn into brand new people. It's almost as though the body-snatchers have kidnapped the convert and replaced him or her with a perfect facsimile of his former self that never sins, never has a negative thought and is totally dedicated to prayer and the sacraments. There is one character in particular, Buzz, who is described as a former baddie who used to beat his ex-wife, cheat on her, and was an alchoholic and a drug addict to boot. However, for most of CWS Buzz hangs out constantly with people who drink and smoke cigarettes around him, but it doesn't faze him at all. He isn't even tempted to drink. Furthermore, at one point in the book Buzz spends a few days in a beach house with a young woman, and is never tempted to sleep with her. This just doesn't happen in real life, especially with people who had serious struggles with temptation in the past. But in CWS, it's everywhere.
Another disturbing characteristic of CWS is McFarlane's treatment of women. In his books, McFarlane's female characters are only significant in that they pair up with the male characters or tempt the male characters in some way. In CWS there are two significant female characters. One of them marries a male character while the other one, who was in love with this same male character, enters the convent after the male and female characters get married. McFarlane has a married character who goes through counseling after he separates from his wife (it is significant that this character went to counseling alone, without his wife). In counseling, this married character is told that he should treat his wife like a fine violin and play her like a virtuouso. He is told that he should think of his wife as though she is a famous movie star. Now, if I came home to my wife and said to her, "honey, you are a fine Strativarius, and I want to learn to play you like a virtuoso!", my wife would slap me from here to Canada. It's just wrong to compare a woman to a musical instrument or any other tool. Likewise, no woman will be flattered if she discovers that her husband treats her well because in his mind he has turned her into Jennifer Lopez. It's really a clueless individual that would even suggest this. This, of course, is Bud McFarlane Jr.
The last distrurbing characteristic of CWS is the role violence and warfare plays in this book. Of course, violence and warfare took a major part in PWAS, but that novel was about apocalyptic warfare, so violence is to be expected. In CWS there is no war, no battle, but warfare analogies are everywhere. Buzz and Sam, the two main characters, meet with Buzz pummels Sam on the basketball court. Throughout the novel there are beatings described on the basketball court, the wrestling ring, the football field and other places. In one particularly horrible scene, a male character describes a flashback to his childhood where he was beaten senseless by a pair of public school boys who happen to be brothers. The male character, who was of course a Catholic school kid, gathered up his father and brothers and formed a deranged gang of thugs to exact revenge on the public school boys. McFarlane describes this senseless violence with approval. He seems to think that devotion and manhood are about fighting and struggle. This analogy extends to romantic relationships as well. McFarlane's characters don't love each other the way that characters in a great novel would love each other. They use their prayer time to gather up spiritual warfare weapons to fight for their beloved, or fight against their beloved. To McFarlane, love is war, and relationships are a battleground. It is truly a bizarre outlook, especially for a Catholic writer.
I would truly not recommend this book to anyone. For Catholics, this novel presents a skewed and disturbing perspective on spirituality and relationships that will not be uplifting at all. For non-Catholics, this novel will give a very bad impression of the Catholic faith. Bottom line, avoid "Conceived without Sin" at all costs!
"Conceived without Sin" has all of the faults of "Pierced with a Sword". The dialogue is horrible, with 1950s TV slang and banal conversations that go on for pages. CWS actually has a much weaker plot than PWAS. In PWAS, the Catholic SuperFriends characters came together in South Bend, Indiana to face the forces of evil, 1-dimensional contrived villains for an apocalyptic battle on the quad of Notre Dame University. In CWS, a different set of Catholic SuperFriends characters gets together in Cleveland, OH to win a local basketball tournament, see one of the SuperFriends through a wedding, another SuperFriend into a convent and a third SuperFriend through a suicide attempt. If that sounds confusing to you, it is even more confusing when this unravels through almost 500 pages of annoying text.
Besides these annoying characteristics, there were several very disturbing aspects to this novel which makes it truly worthy of the 1-star rating. GoodReads only gives me a limited number of words to spell this out for you, but I'll try in my alloted space. The first disturbing element of this novel is the impression that I got that McFarlane really has no clue what conversion is all about. In his novels, people who become Catholic turn into brand new people. It's almost as though the body-snatchers have kidnapped the convert and replaced him or her with a perfect facsimile of his former self that never sins, never has a negative thought and is totally dedicated to prayer and the sacraments. There is one character in particular, Buzz, who is described as a former baddie who used to beat his ex-wife, cheat on her, and was an alchoholic and a drug addict to boot. However, for most of CWS Buzz hangs out constantly with people who drink and smoke cigarettes around him, but it doesn't faze him at all. He isn't even tempted to drink. Furthermore, at one point in the book Buzz spends a few days in a beach house with a young woman, and is never tempted to sleep with her. This just doesn't happen in real life, especially with people who had serious struggles with temptation in the past. But in CWS, it's everywhere.
Another disturbing characteristic of CWS is McFarlane's treatment of women. In his books, McFarlane's female characters are only significant in that they pair up with the male characters or tempt the male characters in some way. In CWS there are two significant female characters. One of them marries a male character while the other one, who was in love with this same male character, enters the convent after the male and female characters get married. McFarlane has a married character who goes through counseling after he separates from his wife (it is significant that this character went to counseling alone, without his wife). In counseling, this married character is told that he should treat his wife like a fine violin and play her like a virtuouso. He is told that he should think of his wife as though she is a famous movie star. Now, if I came home to my wife and said to her, "honey, you are a fine Strativarius, and I want to learn to play you like a virtuoso!", my wife would slap me from here to Canada. It's just wrong to compare a woman to a musical instrument or any other tool. Likewise, no woman will be flattered if she discovers that her husband treats her well because in his mind he has turned her into Jennifer Lopez. It's really a clueless individual that would even suggest this. This, of course, is Bud McFarlane Jr.
The last distrurbing characteristic of CWS is the role violence and warfare plays in this book. Of course, violence and warfare took a major part in PWAS, but that novel was about apocalyptic warfare, so violence is to be expected. In CWS there is no war, no battle, but warfare analogies are everywhere. Buzz and Sam, the two main characters, meet with Buzz pummels Sam on the basketball court. Throughout the novel there are beatings described on the basketball court, the wrestling ring, the football field and other places. In one particularly horrible scene, a male character describes a flashback to his childhood where he was beaten senseless by a pair of public school boys who happen to be brothers. The male character, who was of course a Catholic school kid, gathered up his father and brothers and formed a deranged gang of thugs to exact revenge on the public school boys. McFarlane describes this senseless violence with approval. He seems to think that devotion and manhood are about fighting and struggle. This analogy extends to romantic relationships as well. McFarlane's characters don't love each other the way that characters in a great novel would love each other. They use their prayer time to gather up spiritual warfare weapons to fight for their beloved, or fight against their beloved. To McFarlane, love is war, and relationships are a battleground. It is truly a bizarre outlook, especially for a Catholic writer.
I would truly not recommend this book to anyone. For Catholics, this novel presents a skewed and disturbing perspective on spirituality and relationships that will not be uplifting at all. For non-Catholics, this novel will give a very bad impression of the Catholic faith. Bottom line, avoid "Conceived without Sin" at all costs!
chauceye's review
I powered through this and enjoyed it but was a bit disappointed by the ending. I felt like things were a bit unresolved for several of the characters. Perhaps the sequel covers that.
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