The Clowns of God
The Clowns of God (1981) is a novel by Australian writer Morris West. It was originally published by Hodder and Stoughton in England in 1981. This is the second book in West's "Vatican trilogy", following The Shoes of the Fisherman and preceding Lazarus. Synopsis In the last decade of the twentieth-century, Jean Marie Barrette (Pope Gregory XVII) claims to have had a private revelation about the end of the world. In order to prevent him revealing this the Curia tells him to either resign or be declared insane. Critical reception Helen Brown in The Canberra Times noted: "There is plenty of action and suspense, but towards the end the theological debate becomes a little repetitious. The questions are posed again and again, but the answers are forever delayed. There seems to be no way out." In her literary study of West and his work, Maryanne Confoy noted: "In this, as in several West's novels, we are confronted with a single character who has the task of challenging the world. The compassionate but enigmatic papal figure who struggled with the oppressive institution, Kiril of The Shoes of the Fisherman, is offset in The Clowns of God by the charismatic figure of