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Book Review Humanity soars on a wing and a prayer

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

By Mike Hudson

CONTRACT WITH AN ANGEL, by Father Andrew M. Greeley. Forge Publishing, distributed by St. Martin’s Press. 304 pp. $23.95,

The millennium approaches, and with it all manner of giant meteors, aliens from other planets, prophets of gloom and doom and hobgoblins of every stripe are invading the movie theaters, television screens and bookstores. Are these really the “End Times” described in the Bible? Or will Year 2000 come and go like any other?

In particular, a fascination with angels has developed. John Travolta and Nick Cage have recently played angels in movies; Patty Duke hosts pseudo-documentaries purporting to describe angel interaction in the lives of real people; respectable firms like the Harris organization have conducted polls on whether people believe in angels (most apparently do); the TV show “Touched By An Angel” is watched by millions of people, and now the good Father Andrew M. Greeley has gotten into the act with this new novel, “Contract With an Angel.”

Either you’re buying into this stuff or you’re not, but the proliferation of these kinds of offerings would indicate that many are.

The prolific cleric has written so many bestsellers that one wonders where he finds the time to hear confession. On the other hand, with 15 million copies of his books in print and presumably being read, a case could be made that many of his parishioners are too busy reading to go to confession, or to have anything to confess to if they did.

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The story here concerns Raymond Neenan, a communications magnate in the Ted Turner-Rupert Murdoch mold who, we are told, has been unconscionably mean to everyone around him, from his parents to his son to his wives and mistresses to the people unfortunate enough to have to work for him. On a turbulent airplane flight, he meets an angel who convinces him that in order to save his soul he ought to mend his ways, make up for past behavior, and start being nice to people.

The angel, Michael, fixes Neenan a couple of heavenly vodka drinks and has him sign an anti-Faustian pact, pledging his soul to God.

One of the book’s major flaws is that Neenan meets up with the angel on page one, so that the reader never really gets an appreciation for just how mean he used to be. Since his transformation occurs almost immediately, we only get to hear about Mean Raymond in Nice Raymond’s flashbacks, which come off rather like someone in a 12-step program recounting the misdeeds he perpetrated back when he was drinking or taking drugs.

Greeley has a breezy writing style that undoubtedly accounts for his wide popularity, given that, if “Contract With an Angel” is any indication, his grasp of plot and drama fall somewhat short. The novel’s predictably happy (sappy?) ending is telegraphed so far in advance that any reader who can’t guess what it is after reading 50 pages or so hasn’t paid much attention.

The book is the literary equivalent of the “family entertainment” that politicians are always after Hollywood to make, and it would not be improbable if “Contract With An Angel” did wind up as a big screen or television project.

The return, in a big way, of spiritual themes to popular entertainment over the last few years is a phenomenon that sociologists have already begun to comment upon. This new novel will provide more grist for their mill.

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