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A review by rettaroo
The Shelter Cycle by Peter Rock
In the short documentary, Follow the Leader, Jessica Filipas interviews a couple that were once members of the Church Universal and Triumphant and examines their choice to move to Montana with the group to await a prophesied apocalypse. She is able to get very close to her subjects both physically and emotionally and we learn that the director/producer/writer, Jessica Filipas, is related to the couple. Filipas’s approach is thoughtful and yet clearly skewed ideologically to reveal this church as having a very negative impact on its congregation. It is, indeed, portrayed as a cult. Watching this brief documentary after reading Peter Rock’s Shelter Cycle, while fiction, underscores Rock’s much broader and more sympathetic approach to the Church and it’s true believers even as he delves into the cult-like aspects of the organization and particularly its impact on its youngest members.
One of the most overt and important narrative strategies Rock uses to explore the nature of faith and spirituality in his text is the slide between four different narrative perspectives. Three of these perspectives are told in third person and they are divided by chapters or section breaks. Each section is devoted to one of three characters. We are brought very close to the consciousness of an individual character and what is focalized is honed to one character’s world view.
Early on, the reader is introduced to Wells. He is a non-believer and has never been indoctrinated by in the tenets of the Church Universal and Triumphant. In another section, the focalization shifts to his pregnant wife Francine, an ex-member of the Church. The reader is privy to her conflicted feelings. She is not a practicing member of the Church. She experiences the alienation of once belonging to such a group. And yet, she is nostalgic about her years with the Church Universal and Triumphant. In a third perspective shift, we are also introduced to Colville who grew up with Francine but is still an active believer in the tenets of the Church. These narrative perspective shifts allows for a deep interiority of the consciousness of each character. In this way, the reader is brought close into a spectrum of beliefs and ideologies held people who are touched by this church and its teachings.
It is the fourth narrative perspective that deviates furthest from the others. It is written in first person and is marked in the text very explicitly by a different font. Although this perspective brings us once again into the world view of Francine, the reader is actually brought even closer into her consciousness. Rock does this by shifting these sections not merely into first person. They are also reflective diary entries. In the third person sections focused on Francine, the reader does not always know what she is thinking and what she desires. She is subdued, reticent. Often we see her acting or moving through her world without completely understanding her motivation. But in this fourth perspective, the reader is brought into this world and becomes privy not just to many of their strange practices but also how they perceived these practices – how normalized they were in the world of church members, particularly the youngest members.
While I think the shifts in focalization do give the readers a more global perspective on the Church and its lasting influence, the teetering back and forth between the three characters occasionally creates confusion in the chronology of the story. I believe the confusion is most prevalent in the sections that focus on Colville. While I find Colville to be the most interesting character, he is also the one with the least consistent narrative logic. He is so insular and alone that the time the reader spends with him becomes blurry.
The temporal confusion I felt seems to be executed with a great deal of intent. And, it does allow the reader insight into a very insular world without casting a great deal of judgment on the characters. Rock, himself, explains, “I think I realized at a very early state that the easy or expected take on a church like the Church Universal and Triumphant would be a parodic or somewhat condescending one, a critical one. I had a desire to tell a happier story, from the inside, which seemed like it would be more unexpected and productive” (Barbash n.a.). He does succeed at avoiding parody and condescension. But this novel did not feel happy or productive. And, I wonder if the same focalization shifts and restraint might keep the reader from completely understanding what these characters desire in the wake of their disillusionment.
One of the most overt and important narrative strategies Rock uses to explore the nature of faith and spirituality in his text is the slide between four different narrative perspectives. Three of these perspectives are told in third person and they are divided by chapters or section breaks. Each section is devoted to one of three characters. We are brought very close to the consciousness of an individual character and what is focalized is honed to one character’s world view.
Early on, the reader is introduced to Wells. He is a non-believer and has never been indoctrinated by in the tenets of the Church Universal and Triumphant. In another section, the focalization shifts to his pregnant wife Francine, an ex-member of the Church. The reader is privy to her conflicted feelings. She is not a practicing member of the Church. She experiences the alienation of once belonging to such a group. And yet, she is nostalgic about her years with the Church Universal and Triumphant. In a third perspective shift, we are also introduced to Colville who grew up with Francine but is still an active believer in the tenets of the Church. These narrative perspective shifts allows for a deep interiority of the consciousness of each character. In this way, the reader is brought close into a spectrum of beliefs and ideologies held people who are touched by this church and its teachings.
It is the fourth narrative perspective that deviates furthest from the others. It is written in first person and is marked in the text very explicitly by a different font. Although this perspective brings us once again into the world view of Francine, the reader is actually brought even closer into her consciousness. Rock does this by shifting these sections not merely into first person. They are also reflective diary entries. In the third person sections focused on Francine, the reader does not always know what she is thinking and what she desires. She is subdued, reticent. Often we see her acting or moving through her world without completely understanding her motivation. But in this fourth perspective, the reader is brought into this world and becomes privy not just to many of their strange practices but also how they perceived these practices – how normalized they were in the world of church members, particularly the youngest members.
While I think the shifts in focalization do give the readers a more global perspective on the Church and its lasting influence, the teetering back and forth between the three characters occasionally creates confusion in the chronology of the story. I believe the confusion is most prevalent in the sections that focus on Colville. While I find Colville to be the most interesting character, he is also the one with the least consistent narrative logic. He is so insular and alone that the time the reader spends with him becomes blurry.
The temporal confusion I felt seems to be executed with a great deal of intent. And, it does allow the reader insight into a very insular world without casting a great deal of judgment on the characters. Rock, himself, explains, “I think I realized at a very early state that the easy or expected take on a church like the Church Universal and Triumphant would be a parodic or somewhat condescending one, a critical one. I had a desire to tell a happier story, from the inside, which seemed like it would be more unexpected and productive” (Barbash n.a.). He does succeed at avoiding parody and condescension. But this novel did not feel happy or productive. And, I wonder if the same focalization shifts and restraint might keep the reader from completely understanding what these characters desire in the wake of their disillusionment.