| Plot Summary of Earth Has No Sorrow |
|---|
"
Putnam, Jun 2001, 23.95, 272 pp.
ISBN: 0399447470
Lily Connor was born and raised as a Catholic, but left the church to become an Episcopalian minister. She is a tentmaker, earning a living outside the church and has no assigned church although the diocese would like her to serve in one. Her closest friend, Anna Baneta, watched the Nazis kill her parents for harboring Jews. Anna went to an orphanage and then to Auschwitz before immigrating to America.
Lily and Anna work for the ecumenical council sponsoring an event involving the Holocaust. When they arrive at the church to insure everything is ready for the worshippers, they find a Nazi flag and some vandalism. Anna thinks she knows who is behind the sacrilege and tells this to Lily before leaving to take a bus home. However, instead of reaching her destination, Anna vanishes, leaving Lily determined to find her.
EARTH HAS NO SORROW is a powerful work that does not preach, but questions some of the basic tenets of organized religion through Lily's crisis of faith. Readers feel her anguish, confusion, and sorrow over what she believes is a failure on her part. The complex mystery contains numerous feasible suspects, which makes for a difficult guess as to whom is the culprit. Michelle Blake uses a missing person's tale to focus on religion, but never decrees any judgment.
Harriet Klausner
"
Harriet Klausner, Resident Scholar
|
|
| Review Analysis of Earth Has No Sorrow |
|---|
|
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
|
|
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 20%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20%
Spying/Terrorism Thriller
Yes
Cloak & Dagger Plotlets:
- kidnap/rescue
Kid or adult book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Main Character
Gender
- Female
Profession/status:
- religious figure
Age:
- 20's-30's
How much violence does he/she use?
- none
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Female
Age:
- 20's-30's
Profession/status:
- unemployed
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- an average amount
Motive of antagonist
- insanity
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- Northeast
Style
Person
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
Amount of dialog
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
|
|
