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A review by laporziuncula
Citadel of God: A Novel about Saint Benedict by Louis de Wohl
2.0
I had high hopes for really liking this book, but I was pretty disappointed in it. I vacillated between giving it a two at times, a four at others. I was going to give it a 3 but honestly now that I'm reviewing it I can't even give it that.
I would not really call it a novel about St. Benedict. It's really about the political intrigues in Rome during the Gothic reign of Italy. St. Benedict shows up very rarely and briefly and the times when he does it often seems a bit forced, like de Wohl realized he hadn't mentioned him for a long time and had to throw something in. It's often just a vague reference that "the holy man on the mountain was the one person that knew such and such a thing was going to happen."
It was somewhat interesting for awhile but I lost more and more interest as the book dragged on. It didn't help that the characters that feature most prominently are so incredibly unlikable. I found it hard to follow the plot but that may have been because my eyes were glazing over from boredom of chapter after chapter describing someone having other people killed.
It's really too bad, I've loved de Wohl's novels most of the time but I honestly really wish I could get back the hours I spent reading this. Meh. It does have some lovely prose, I'll give it that.
I would not really call it a novel about St. Benedict. It's really about the political intrigues in Rome during the Gothic reign of Italy. St. Benedict shows up very rarely and briefly and the times when he does it often seems a bit forced, like de Wohl realized he hadn't mentioned him for a long time and had to throw something in. It's often just a vague reference that "the holy man on the mountain was the one person that knew such and such a thing was going to happen."
It was somewhat interesting for awhile but I lost more and more interest as the book dragged on. It didn't help that the characters that feature most prominently are so incredibly unlikable. I found it hard to follow the plot but that may have been because my eyes were glazing over from boredom of chapter after chapter describing someone having other people killed.
It's really too bad, I've loved de Wohl's novels most of the time but I honestly really wish I could get back the hours I spent reading this. Meh. It does have some lovely prose, I'll give it that.