Word: montaillou
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...action takes place in Montaillou, a tiny mountain village that is falling under the influence of saintly wanderers known as Good Men who preach that the world was created by the devil and should be despised. The narrative, which is based on historical sources, unfolds from several points of view: those of an alcoholic widow, a lustful village priest, a cobbler struggling with his homosexuality, a conflicted Inquisitor. Craig has the gift of finding complexity in simple people, and she tells their stories in fluid, shapely prose that blends mysteries both religious and erotic with the scratchy, stinky realities...
When the Inquisition descends on Montaillou, Craig credibly and creditably allots all sides--heretics, informers, even torturers--a measure of sympathy. She demonstrates powerfully that even those who escape the rack, by good luck or God's grace, can end up being broken by life in other ways...
...Lizier had developed her own belief system, quite different from those of the establishment and the heretics. Lizier took pleasure in nature and her own body and found no sin in them. In the same way, through her fictional rendering of the lives of Lizier and the people of Montaillou, Craig marks an emphatic (c), neither of the above, on my Theology quiz...
While Craig admits that the cast of The Good Men may not exactly mirror the actual players in the heresy of Montaillou, this fact does not make them any less real in the world of the novel. Craig’s precise character development allows an intimate look at the psychology of each person. We see the village priest struggle to reconcile his vocation with his lustful desires, complicated by his secret sympathy for the Good Men. We watch as a yearning for the priest grows in both Lizier and her mother, and see the resulting resentment. We witness...
...people of Montaillou choose between the establishment and the rebels, they find themselves sinning against both. Their extramarital affairs, homosexual activities and broken vows of chastity prevent them from attaining whichever holiness they pursue...