Sunday Review: The Sparrow (a novel)

Theological sci-fi

By Morris Dean

Only today do I have in my hands a printed copy of Mary Doria Russell's 1996 novel, The Sparrow—a large-print edition I borrowed from a public library to check the spelling of a few things, like the name of the planet Rakhat, four lightyears away from Earth in the binary star system Alpha Centauri.
    I wanted to check the spelling of the names of the appealing characters who leave Earth in 2019 on the 18-year trip to Rakhat, including the one who arrives back in 2069—the Jesuit priest Emilio Sandoz, whose last name sometimes sounded like "Santos" in Rick Rohan's otherwise excellent recording, downloaded from the National Library Service. I've listened to over a thousand books from the NLS, and no reader has been better than Rohan at expressing the text and doing character voices. Unfortunately for those who depend on commercially available recorded books, I can't find that Rohan's recording is available outside the NLS. Audible's version is read by David Colacci, but he's presumably a competent reader.
    I wanted to check the names of the two intelligent species the travelers encounter on Rakhat. The crew pass idyllic months at the beginning of their visit with the rural Runa, whose name I had expected from Rohan's reading to be spelled more like "Runaah," with significant stress on the second syllable. Then they meet a city-dwelling merchant who comes to conduct some business with the Runa, a member of the race of Jana'ata, with all the "a's" alike except for the final one's sounding like the "aah" from "Runaah." The merchant's name is Supaari, an ambitious individual who eventually exploits the visitors to improve his status in the society of his race's bustling city, Gayjur. Rohan's imitation of Supaari's speech is wonderful, and I wish I could let you hear a snippet.

The novel opens in 2069, with Sandoz returned to Earth in very poor health and awaiting an inquiry by the Jesuit order to determine what happened. The United Nations mission that went to Rakhat to see what the Jesuits were about transmitted back a report that has left the Jesuits a shattered society and faring poorly.
   The action switches often between 2069 and 2019, when the mission was conceived and organized, with flashbacks to introduce Sandoz and his friends and his Jesuit colleagues who go on the mission. What happened on Rakhat is revealed both through scenes of the inquiry and present narrative of the four years approximately 1937-41 on Rakhat. All of these time changes are managed clearly and coherently by the author, whose work is a remarkable achievement involving a great deal of scientific, psychological, philosophical, and religious knowledge as well as literary skill in writing scenically and portraying believable characters (even on a planet 4,000,000,000,000 years away, if I have the number of zeros right).

The novel's title is a reference to Matthew 10:29: "Not one sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it." [p. 656 in the large-print edition]
    Therein lies a significant problem that I have with Ms. Russell's work—its apparent assumption that an understanding that God exists and sentient beings on other planets are His children (her second novel is titled Children of God) somehow gives us a leg up in trying to know what's going on in the universe. Sandoz's evil suffering on Rakhat requires him to choose between accepting that God does not treat his children fairly or acknowledging that there is no God. But that paradox has been around for millennia. The Old Testament Jews had the same problem. The Sparrow provides nothing new on that score, and the passages addressing the paradox make for tedious reading. I do not plan to read the sequel.

Note: according to Wikipedia, the rights to produce a film based on The Sparrow have been purchased for Brad Pitt's production company, and Mr. Pitt is expected to play the role of Emilio Sandoz.
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Copyright © 2013 by Morris Dean

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