Several of you have told me you didn’t like Patrick at the beginning of Keeping Faith, but grew to like him as you progressed through the book. Congratulations, you took the hook. That is exactly what I wanted to happen. Actually, I didn’t even like him at first so what could I expect you to do differently?
The guy had major flaws, but don’t we all? His just hit at the core of our sensibilities, and because of that, we didn’t want to like him. He was reckless and self-centered and immature, although he would have argued with that. But as he aged a little, we all grew to appreciate his failures and why he was the way he was. After all, that is part of what the book is about—how the actions of one person, in this case, the cowardly, sick priest, can intervene negatively in a normal life and basically change it forever.
The priest really could have been anybody who was cruel and mean and ruthless. He didn’t have to be a man of the cloth to fulfill this role; it just worked for this book. And the book wasn’t meant to try to expose the dark side of the Catholic Church. That too could have been any forum, but again, that’s the one that worked for me.
As you know from reading the newspapers in recent years there have been many “Patricks”; the victims of others who took advantage of the innocent. I realized in reading some of these news articles that when we don’t put a face with a victim, it usually doesn’t have as great an impact. If we know the person, then our reactions are different. It doesn’t mean we don’t sympathize or even empathize, but it generally isn’t at the high level it should be. So I wanted you to get to know Patrick, to visualize him, to see the boy and then the man.
The first Patrick was just an innocent kid, who you probably wouldn’t have noticed in a room of 10 year olds, except for his striking blue eyes that almost took you off guard, wondering what was behind their brilliance. Certainly he wasn’t the cutest kid in the room—that would probably be reserved for the blond or dark haired kid. Instead, Patrick was a gangly red head with a mischievous, captivating personality. As his first grade teacher, you might have recognized him as a disorganized, carefree little guy who would rather pick up a frog than a book. If you had been his fifth grade teacher, you might have noticed a more circumspect boy whose thoughts where somewhere far away, but you wouldn’t be able to put your finger on the reason. That was the character I wanted to build upon. Where it went from there was up to fate for him and imagination for the reader.
Once you begin to get a sense of him, I hope the general themes of the book begin to unfold. And, just as with the title having a double meaning, there are several themes. I mentioned one in the first part of this blog, and I don’t need to try to influence you as to what they all are because I believe it is important for the reader to have the latitude to draw out his own thoughts, to make judgements and decide the direction the book is taking.
There is no right or wrong analysis. That said, however, you must know that in some way it is important to see that the book tries to show how each person in this world is connected to another, and how often, unknowingly or without much thought, we can forever make an impact for good or bad. And then that tends to have a domino effect which becomes apparent as the chapters take shape.