This week’s New York Times Book Review is a special edition devoted to the subject of world religion. They asked several authors to recommend novels with religious themes. Novelist and literary journalist Christopher Beha offered the following recommendation for Waugh’s Sword of Honour trilogy:
“I think it is Waugh’s best work, and it is also one of his most explicitly religious….As a traditionalist Catholic, Waugh was deeply disappointed by the Allied partnership with the Soviet Union, and the underlying theme of the book — that a civilization under threat won’t survive by abandoning what is worth preserving about it — is one worth remembering.”
Beha is a deputy editor of Harper’s Magazine and author of several books including two novels: What Happened to Sophie Wilder (2012) and Arts & Entertainments (2014). Both of these reportedly have religious themes mixed with comedy echoing those of Waugh. Beha says he was influenced by Waugh and Murial Spark in his fiction writing. He has in fact been described in the Roman Catholic press as a “Catholic writer” in league with such as Waugh and Graham Greene.
Thanks to Robert Murray Davis for pointing out this reference to us.
