Gale seems to have hit his stride of late. Along with Notes from an Exhibition this is a book I know I'll want to read again. Although it took me a while to get into the format of different chapters from different characters and times after the dramatic opening scene, I soon found this very captivating reading which caused me to gasp out loud at one stage. Recommended. ( )

Loved this book ( )

The story of Barnaby, a vicar in Cornwall. Told through a process of going backwards and forwards through the chapters. Great writing. Will read Patrick Gale again. ( )

Review: A Perfectly Good Man by Patrick Gale.

The author conveys the story with some exploration of motives, life decisions, insight into family relationships, explaining the flaws of humanity and the behavior of the characters he developed. The story was well planned out and very easy to read even though the author went back and forth with the time span until near the end when everything came together.

The book was written with many characters narrating throughout the book. The author started his collaborating dialogue with the main character, Barnaby Johnson, a priest and Lenny Barns, a twenty-year-old paralyzed former rugby player who wanted Barnaby to pray for him while he committed suicide.

The rest of the story introduces other characters that live in the small parish area. I learned a lot about Barnaby, his family and some of the reasons he became a priest. However, I don’t know why people called him “A Perfectly Good Man” when he had many flaws or should I say sins that were opened to the public for all to know and see.

Parts of the story I found interesting but I felt a slow pace uninteresting and confusing section through the middle of the book but it did come together at the end with understanding and a message of love, morality and faith…. A life in a parish setting.
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I thought this was an excellent book. I think the approach of focusing each chapter on one person with stated age worked well (compared with, for example, stating the year of each chapter's events). This approach draws attention to the fact that it's the person and their stage in life that is the chapter's subject. The gradual pulling together of the whole picture from these various snapshots also worked for me as a device to keep my interest. Further, I found the much bigger issue - sexual identity - to be dealt with in a sensible and intelligent manner. I am just a little surprised that the Cornwall society is depicted as largely accepting of gay & lesbian people . . . but I've never been to Cornwall and I am aware that the UK seems far more advanced in this area than the colony in which I live. I suppose the biggest theme of the novel - the question of what is a good person - is what really made me read the book. The focus on parent roles, death, and relating to adult children was something that resonated with me. My first Patrick Gale book, and it definitely won't be my last (unless I die suddenly in the very near future) ( )