Joyce Cary's last novel, written in distressing circumstances. He was increasingly immobilised by motor neurone disease and a photograph from his biography "Gentleman Rider" by Alan Bishop (1988) shows him at work with the aid of slings and pulleys to manage.
The novel expresses an awareness of his impending end. It presents a conflict between faith-healing and established church views counter to the phenomenon.
Both opponents, Preedy the faith-healer and Sison the curate, are captives. Their captivity results from their both being bound up and driven by fear, jealousy, egoism and passions good and bad. The death of a child, as a result of neglect by a parent under the influence of the faith-healer, crushes the curate's conventional Christianity; that is, until finally he receives a communication from someone else, who reveals that the death of her child has wrought a miracle of eventual forgiveness and peace in her world.
This book also develops the theme of media interest in faith-healing during the late 1950's, as witnessed in the Billy Graham crusades. Alongside the the contest of wills of the religious characters is an equally earnest one at board level of "The Argus" newspaper, suffering declining readership. Hooper, a nasty piece of work, is hired to pursue the interest in religious affairs of the time. His position also becomes that of a captive to the zeal and impassioned points of view of newspaper board, clergy and those unfortunates swept up in this tide of rigid beliefs about what really constitutes the miracle of God's love in the world.
Good writer - good reading.