Literary Crushes
Day 7. I’ll be posting one a day for the next ten days–a list of my top ten completely platonic and not in any way obsessive literary crushes. Here follow my all-time favorite cerebral, brooding, and sometimes tragic heroes in my very favorite books about them.
Emilio Sandoz. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. As William of Baskerville noted in The Name of the Rose, there is a fine line between sainthood and heresy. When Emilio and a group of unlikely but devoted friends become the first humans to visit Rakhat and meet other beings, they believe that they are fulfilling God’s plan. However, Emilio must come to acknowledge that the divine plan might not only allow but necessitate some evils; what happens on Rakhat leaves him a shattered man who accuses God of betrayal. This is a challenging, difficult book to read, all the more painful for also being lovely.
Key points: space travel, anguish, dramatic irony, love, religion
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