The Edge of Sadness

Author: Edwin O’Connor
1962 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Published: 5/31/61 Loyola Classics
Genre: Modern Classic, Religion (though I question this second category)
Rating: 4 of 5

First; I thoroughly enjoyed this book and didn’t even know its length for some months after finishing. I still can’t believe it is over 600 pages because it was such an easy read.

Second; let me expand on my problem with the “Religion” genre category as it applies to Edge. Yes, the main character, Fr. Hugh Kennedy, is a Priest and yes, the struggle involves his priesthood but the same can be said about John Grisham books and attorneys. O’Connor explores Kennedy’s life, vocation, and setting but in no way attempts to convert the reader to Catholicism any more than Grisham wants all his readers to become lawyers. In short, if you are a Hindu you will still enjoy this work. The conflict is not between a man and his religion but more between a man and his life as an alcoholic relating to his employment.

Now why do I love this story? Well primarily because the main character is challenged by circumstances other than the boring and overused kind, and works his way through them. It examines the ethnic neighborhoods, the disorder that results from alcoholism, ethnic family units, the unrecognized bigotry that results from the imposed interaction between people of dissimilar origins and different languages.

Fr. Kennedy was breezing along as a respected priest in a great parish until his Father died. Their relationship is explored but not with the boring details associated with old classics. The reader follows him into his alcohol abuse and as he works his way through rehab. He is then given a new parish in a depressed area of new Americans and finds relating to be difficult.

Circumstances allow him to refresh old relationships which are examined in a proper context which brings light not only to the facts but also to Fr. Kennedy’s interactions with old friends and culture. He grows, realizing that his being is not dependent on outside forces but those chosen by himself which define him.

At first you will think you are reading a worn out story of Irish neighborhoods but then you discover that you have been brought into a reality of situations that may well mirror you own experiences. This isn’t a book of mind altering quotes or surprising turns, but one you are happy to have read and will be surprised how many others have enjoyed the same experience.