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The Sparrow flies higher than ever thought possible

March 3rd, 2009 Kylee

You might think you don’t like science fiction, but you might really like the story of Jesuit priest Emilio Sandoz, the lone survivor of a long expedition in an unknown territory.  Sure, the “long expedition” may be a 40 Earth-year trip through space in a refurbished asteroid, and the “unknown territory” is the planet Rakhat, millions of miles from our solar system, but the setting is really secondary to the story.  In The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell has done what I thought was impossible: she has written a novel that includes space travel, aliens, and asteroids that doesn’t confuse me, bore me, or make me giggle when I’m not supposed to.  In fact, I absolutely loved it.

Sandoz isn’t your typical space traveler.  He’s extremely intelligent, but not when it comes to physics or aeronautics or any of those other science-y things that are so important on a spaceship.  He’s actually a linguist, one who specializes in learning languages by being thrown into the thick of them.  He’s worked in remote areas of Earth with tribes that rarely see modern men, but he hasn’t seen anything like what he finds on Rakhat.  His story begins in the year 2059, when he returns to Earth without the seven colleagues he originally left the planet with, utterly traumatized in mind and body.  He must explain himself to his fellow Jesuits, who learned from transmissions from a group that were sent to Rakhat after his own that Sandoz had murdered a child and worked in a brothel during his time away from the planet.  Sandoz admits that these shocking events are true, and explains how and why these things happened through a series of intense conversations with the priests and flashbacks to more innocent times, when enountering Rakhat and its inhabitants was merely an exciting idea.

At first, Sandoz’s situation doesn’t sound like something anyone could relate to, but I’d challenge anyone who reads this book not to empathize with him at some point.  His struggles with his faith throughout the novel are poignant and very real, and his need to reconcile his past as the son of a drug dealer in Puerto Rico with his unknown future in a very different environment also resonates with the reader.  And on top of it all, he has a great sense of humor.  Even better: he isn’t the only character that is so wonderfully written!  The novel is filled with characters just as fascinating as Sandoz, and their relationships and conversations throughout their ordeals are beautifully portrayed. I could go on and on about how much I love this book, but I think I’ll just pick up its sequel, Children of God, instead.

Entry Filed under: Literary Fiction, Science Fiction