[[A.N.Wilson]] is another in a long line of (mostly) British fiction writers of a religious bent, Catholic or Anglican, who want to take the reader somewhere slightly different. Rather than a novel meant to entertain or to draw one into experiencing another time and place or to see the world through the eyes of someone with a life experience radically different from one's own -- Wilson uses the devices of fiction (character, plot etc) to lure the reader into looking at some aspect of the human condition from 'afar'. In this case, a comic examnation of the futility of thinking you are the master of your fate. There's nothing terribly subtle about Wilson's 'message', except that few can think or write as imaginatively or with such appealing humor: creating situations that are ridiculous yet pathetic (dancing nuns in mesh tights, Arab twins whose only English is the Shakespeare they have memorized and who run away to Israel figuring no one will look for them there), characters that are annoying yet loveable (blowsy Jonquil, drunken Lubbock). The title and chapter headings pointedly refer the reader to the famous poem of Cardinal Newman, "Lead on, kindly light, amidst the encircling gloom . . ." and indeed the novel is built around the poem. The protagonist, Norman Shotover, in despair over the chaos in his life signed up as a priest in the Catholic Institute of Alfonso (get the acronym?) and the novel begins at the point he is desperate to leave the order. He begins plotting ways to get himself thrown out, but his superior, Cassidy, not only won't have it but begins to suspect Shotover of scheming to discredit the order or worse. At first everything Norman tries brings him accolades, then it all goes horribly wrong and he runs away. Throughout he cannot seem to get away from a fellow priest, Lubbock, an alcoholic who yet seems to have that mysterious quality of charisma, that Norman utterly lacks. Norman persists at trying to be master of his own destiny no matter what the obstacles. When soused, Lubbock tends to sing lines from the Newman poem, "The night is dark, and I am far from home,/Lead though me on . . ." and so on, just in case you are not getting the drift. Other novelists of this type? Spark, Waugh, Greene - they don't create characters for you to 'care' about per se, but using wit, humor and just plain good writing, create a stories with the purpose of makng a point of some spiritual kind, about the quality of grace to the finality of death or in this case, the odd doctrine of both believing in free will, but also accepting that you haven't actually got any. . . . Many pick up these novels expecting to be amused and to 'care' about the characters and are baffled or disappointed and even angry at where the authors take them. Of course, there are plenty of non-religious or spiritually inclined writers who also write this way, but this is a particular sub-category, I think. ( )