The Celibate

by Michael Arditti

Overview

The first published novel by the award-winning, bestselling and acclaimed Michael Arditti

'It is unusual to find an English first novel of such unflinching moral seriousness ... a varied and involving read' Gregory Woods, Times Literary Supplement

'An exceptional book - at its core it combines the sexual with the spiritual' Sunday Times

'An ambitious first novel, which traces the liberation of a human soul through a gradual revelation of the meaning of passion and the Passion' Candia McWilliam, Independent on Sunday

The Celibate is the story of a young man with a mind full of God, but a heart closed to love. While studying at the theological college, he is confused by his feelings for a fellow ordinand and suffers a nervous collapse at the altar. His college principal sends him on a placement to London, where he enters an unfamiliar world of outcasts, down-and-outs, rent boys and religious fundamentalists.

In increasing despair, he embarks on a journey through the world of Jack the Ripper, the devastation of the Great Plague and the mysteries of his own family. As the past and present come full circle, he finally understands the true meaning of Passion.

This is an intelligent and emotive novel, potent with atmosphere and rich in ideas and insights. It employs a unique fictional structure which integrates the contemporary and the historical, the personal and the theological, the comic and the polemic in a revelatory way. On its initial publication, it was hailed as the debut of a major literary talent.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781908129345
Publisher:	Quercus Publishing
Publication date:	04/22/2009
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	456 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Michael Arditti is a novelist, short story writer and critic. His novels are The Celibate (1993), Pagan and her Parents (Pagan's Father in the USA) (1996), Easter (2000), Unity (2005), A Sea Change (2006), The Enemy of the Good (2009), Jubilate (2011), The Breath of Night (2013), Widows and Orphans (2016), Of Men and Angels (2018) and The Anointed (2020). His short story collection, Good Clean Fun, was published in 2004. He was awarded a Harold Hyam Wingate scholarship in 2000, a Royal Literary Fund fellowship in 2001, an Oppenheim-John Downes memorial award in 2003 and Arts Council awards in 2004 and 2007. He was the Leverhulme artist in residence at the Freud museum in 2008. His novels have been short- and long-listed for several literary awards and Easter won the inaugural Waterstone's Mardi Gras award. In 2012 he was awarded an Honorary DLitt by the University of Chester.

Editorial Reviews

Explores important themes among them the role of sexuality in spiritual development.

New York Times Book Review

This overambitious couch confessional seeks out parallels between the spiritual and sexual odyssey of its unnamed gay narrator (born into a repressive Jewish household, he flees into the uneasy embrace of the Catholic church) and two historical catastrophes: Jack the Ripper's 1888 serial-murders and the 1665 outbreak of bubonic plague. After suffering a nervous breakdown at the altar, the narrator has been forced to drop his duties as a priest, enter psychoanalysis and take a job as a walking-tour guide. By turns defensive, glib and self-loathing, he wavers between the story of his troubled life and the historical anecdotes that he takes so much to heart. Unfortunately, Arditti's (Pagan's Father) serious themes are at odds with a superficial style inappropriately crammed with showy wordplay and stagey asides. Worse, the historical set pieces never justify their place in the narrator's tale. In the book's first half, they strain to connect the narrator's nave sexual experiences (with East End rent-boys and pimps) to Jack the Ripper's mutilations ("male sexuality at its most appalling extreme"). In the second half, the history lectures work better, as a village's endurance of the plague stands for the narrator's personal suffering during the AIDS epidemic. Still, if the narrator is, as one hustler puts it, "a spiritual voyeur... a praying Tom," he doesn't entice the reader into watching along. (June)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This novel is the tale of a novice priest who suffers a nervous breakdown during mass. Ensuing psychoanalysis reveals his hatred of the church, his latent homosexuality, his realized homosexuality, and his torrid affair with a male prostitute named Jack who baptizes him in the faith, so to speak, with a shower of urine. And this is just part of what the novel offers. In what the author no doubt believes is clever counterpoint, the psychoanalytical monologs are interspersed with a second stream of monologs from the troubled priest's day job as a tour guide of Jack the Ripper's murder sites. At this point, Dave Barry would feel compelled to say, "I'm not making this up." Unfortunately, Arditti (Pagan's Father, LJ 8/96) is, and he has produced an astonishingly bad story. In fact, this novel's very existence strains credulity. Not recommended.Paul Hutchison, Bellefonte, Pa.

Library Journal

It takes courage to write about faith in this faithless world, particularly from a homosexual viewpoint. But in The Celibate, Michael Arditti's first novel, the author's anger, conviction and sharp observation hold the reader's attention throughout—The Times

It takes courage to write about faith in this faithless world, particularly from a homosexual viewpoint. But in The Celibate, Michael Arditti's first novel, the author's anger, conviction and sharp observation hold the reader's attention throughout—The Times

It takes courage to write about faith in this faithless world, particularly from a homosexual viewpoint. But in The Celibate, Michael Arditti's first novel, the author's anger, conviction and sharp observation hold the reader's attention throughout—Alistair Bruton, The Times

An ambitious first novel, which traces the liberation of a human soul through a gradual revelation of the meaning of passion and the Passion—Independent on Sunday

An ambitious first novel, which traces the liberation of a human soul through a gradual revelation of the meaning of passion and the Passion—Candia McWilliam, Independent on Sunday

This deeply spiritual novel ... a carefully crafted, intensely analytical and deeply honest theological quest where the storyline becomes consumed in a broader faith journey—Peter Stanford, Catholic Herald

An ambitious first novel, which traces the liberation of a human soul through a gradual revelation of the meaning of passion and the Passion—Independent on Sunday

A bold and multi-layered first novel and one which negotiates a remarkably taut high-wire between frailty and ardour—Graham Anderson, City Limits

This deeply spiritual novel ... a carefully crafted, intensely analytical and deeply honest theological quest where the storyline becomes consumed in a broader faith journey—Catholic Herald

This deeply spiritual novel ... a carefully crafted, intensely analytical and deeply honest theological quest where the storyline becomes consumed in a broader faith journey—Catholic Herald

A fine political novel. Michael Arditti's eloquently beautiful style burns with passion and commitment. My mind and emotions were engaged for all of its 341 pages. A brave, unique book, this deserves the widest possible readership—John Roman Baker, Rouge

A bold and multi-layered first novel and one which negotiates a remarkably taut high-wire between frailty and ardour—City Limits

It is unusual to find an English first novel of such unflinching moral seriousness ... a varied and involving read—Gregory Woods, Times Literary Supplement

A bold and multi-layered first novel and one which negotiates a remarkably taut high-wire between frailty and ardour—City Limits

I found Arditti's heartfelt, even desperate, plea for tolerance and acceptance moving and honourable, not to mention timely—Karen Lewis, Literary Review

An exceptional book - at its core it combines the sexual with the spiritual—Sunday Times

A fine political novel. Michael Arditti's eloquently beautiful style burns with passion and commitment. My mind and emotions were engaged for all of its 341 pages. A brave, unique book, this deserves the widest possible readership—Rouge

A fine political novel. Michael Arditti's eloquently beautiful style burns with passion and commitment. My mind and emotions were engaged for all of its 341 pages. A brave, unique book, this deserves the widest possible readership—Rouge

It is unusual to find an English first novel of such unflinching moral seriousness ... a varied and involving read—Times Literary Supplement

It is unusual to find an English first novel of such unflinching moral seriousness ... a varied and involving read—Times Literary Supplement

I found Arditti's heartfelt, even desperate, plea for tolerance and acceptance moving and honourable, not to mention timely—Literary Review

I found Arditti's heartfelt, even desperate, plea for tolerance and acceptance moving and honourable, not to mention timely—Literary Review

An exceptional book - at its core it combines the sexual with the spiritual—Sunday Times

An exceptional book - at its core it combines the sexual with the spiritual—Sunday Times

From the Publisher