Another Grief Observed
Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow
William R.L. Haley
April 1, 1999
The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell (Villard 1996) 256 pp.
Father Emilio Sandoz lies crumpled on the bed, a brokenshell of a man, a burned out, brittle human husk. His hands have been stripped of their muscle. The world is calling for the head of this Jesuit missionary on a plate, and his superiors are patiently waiting for his side of the story. The year is 2060 and the monastic refuge is in Naples, and the stage is set for Mary Doria Russell's novel, The Sparrow. The central figure in a cast of well-developed characters is Sandoz, a linguist, a priest, and "a soul looking for God."
In 2019 songs are heard coming from a nearby planet. While the UN debates for years about whether or not to investigate, the Jesuits, acting consistently with their five-hundred-year history of frontier missions, start planning a trip within ten days. A team of several scientifically astute priests is carefully chosen along with several thoughtful agnostics—a married couple, a single man, and a single woman. The prologue begins, "They went so that they might come to know and love God's other children. They went for the reason Jesuits lave always gone to the farthest frontiers of human exploration. They went ad majorem Dei gloriam: for the greater glory of God."
From here on the story alternates between the team's three years on the planet Rakhat and Sandoz's solo return back to earth in 2060. His friends and colleagues have all been horribly killed, and the report from the eventual un mission makes the priest out to be a whore, murderer, and catalyst for extraterrestrial civil war. Not only on the edge of death, he is now also vilified. The Father General, head of the Society of Jesus, says to Sandoz,
"Emilio, everything I have learned about ...
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