At the climax ofThe Dearly Belovedarrives a christening.
Its the mid-1960s, and were inside Third Presbyterian Church in Lower Manhattan.
As he starts speaking, Charles heart and throat tighten.
Credit: Simon & Schuster
The resulting book is wise, nuanced, restrained, and perhaps most radically kind.
The first section introducesThe Dearly Beloveds quartet.
Without her grief, she could not fathom the lightness of his relief.
She fears their life could be without religion How would she understand the workings of the world?
How would she accept its mysteries?
but James, unlike Lily, is eventually drawn to its power.
His faith is intense and confused and pointed.
Charles and Lily marry; James and Nan marry.
Extremism gets outsize focus.
Cynicism rules the day.
Perhaps thats whyThe Dearly Belovedfeels so galvanizing.
Theyre rendered with distinctive detail: They make mistakes, contend with their flaws, seek redemption.
From there, life goes on.
Nan senses God has abandoned her after she miscarries.
James sharply political view of his position jeopardizes his ministry.
Charles drifts from his wife through his continued dedication to the church.
Then, unexpectedly pregnant with twins, Lily takes center stage in the books final third.
The acuity of Walls vision, particularly the way her characters project onto one another, shines even brighter.
These areThe Dearly Beloveds story lines.
They sound small, but feel immense: urgent quests to find meaning.
They find no endpoint, but encounter pain and beauty in friendship, in parenthood, in marriage.
Charles knew all was not well, Wall writes.
All was not well, all would never be well; but all was not lost.
She realizes the power of the novel in its simplest, richest form.A-
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