The Torpor of 'Converts'
A review for Defector
For Defector, I reviewed a disappointing book by the British journalist Melanie McDonagh, called Converts: From Oscar Wilde to Muriel Spark, Why So Many Became Catholic in the 20th Century. It’s a serviceable enough as a rehearsal of well-known anecdotes about its famous subjects (and rote introductions to its less famous ones) and while usually a book of that sort would lead me to write a review that indulges my own pleasure in repeating its contents, this one also contains really quite scandalous treatment of Vatican II, regurgitating the most knee-jerk reactionary takes, often from formerly great artists and thinkers deep into their senescence, and then turning around and saying “don’t shoot the messenger, I’m only repeating what they said.” Well, I think the stakes of that subject are a little higher than that, and require a little more care, even if your primary interest is what other people said. As I often tell my students, every word you put down is your choice, even if it was initially said by someone else.
