Eternity, My Beloved tells the story of a rebel priest, Jerome Strozzi, who falls between the cracks of both church and state during the German occupation of Paris during World War II. Befriending prostitutes, petty thieves, and con-men, he becomes the unofficial pastor of the notorious Pigalle district. Told by a skeptical narrator who is himself searching for Strozzi's secret, this contemporary lyric masterpiece becomes a sustained meditation on love and freedom.
Jean Sulivan was born in a farming village in Brittany in 1913. In 1938 he was ordained a priest and served as a university chaplain. In 1958 he published his first book, and with the success of his third book, The Sea Remains, he received permission from the Cardinal of Rennes to set aside his pastoral duties and devote himself to writing. He moved to Paris in 1964 and over the course of the next sixteen years wrote over 30 books. He was considered by man to be the best Catholic writer in France at the time. He died in 1980 in an automobile accident.
REVIEW
Jean Sulivan, Rebel Prophet of God's Kingdom, October 14, 2000
The first giveaway of Eternity, My Beloved is the epigraph which informs the reader that the title is borrowed from Nietzche: "I have never found the woman by whom I would want to have a child except this woman that I love--for I love you, eternity, my beloved." Official Catholic teaching rarely quotes that particular German philosopher for a defense of celibacy! But the phrase very aptly captures the spirit of the novel's protagonist, Father Jerome Strozzi, aka Tonzi (based on an actual worker-priest named Auguste Rossi) who immerses himself in the demi- monde of Paris' prostitutes, pimps and petty criminals. Once again the narrator plays a major part, this time complaining that Strozzi has hijacked his plan to write a novel about a prostitute named Elizabeth. But Strozzi's combination of anti- bourgeois sentiment, gospel conviction and humility proves irresistible. Freedom, that elusive gift Juan Ramon spent most of his life seeking without realizing it and only finally grasped in an act of self-incarceration, is Tonzi's hallmark. It allows him to plunge into incriminating circumstances daily, to see God's providence in an act of betrayal, a missed train or an eviction, to touch the hearts of street-wise prostitutes simply because his agenda is entirely unhidden.
"A long time ago he had recognized as a secret vice the habit of embracing formulas [e.g., `Arise, take up...'], building arguments, using the Son of Man as another object, situating Jesus in history instead of, even today, living one's life sufficiently within His so as to grasp the meaning of those phrases and trying over and over to understand them. He apologized for being tactless, because it seemed to him that no one had the right to use these words if his own life had not first transformed them into bread and wine, into flesh and blood, and if he couldn't say them in his own personal voice." [61]
As the novel develops the narrator (named Sulivan) becomes more and more obsessed with Strozzi and his powerful influence over people, especially prostitutes. Like a true modern, he professes skepticism about Strozzi's celibacy but can find no evidence to impugn it; rather, the women speak of his friendship and his demand that they exercise their spiritual freedom. "All that he was good for was to rekindle light in eyes that had become dead. Meanwhile he was paying the price." He is regularly roughed up by the pimps whose business he threatens and reported to the chancery by virtuous Christians whose wayward pleasures he subverts.
The first giveaway of Eternity, My Beloved is the epigraph which informs the reader that the title is borrowed from Nietzche: "I have never found the woman by whom I would want to have a child except this woman that I love--for I love you, eternity, my beloved." Official Catholic teaching rarely quotes that particular German philosopher for a defense of celibacy! But the phrase very aptly captures the spirit of the novel's protagonist, Father Jerome Strozzi, aka Tonzi (based on an actual worker-priest named Auguste Rossi) who immerses himself in the demi- monde of Paris' prostitutes, pimps and petty criminals. Once again the narrator plays a major part, this time complaining that Strozzi has hijacked his plan to write a novel about a prostitute named Elizabeth. But Strozzi's combination of anti- bourgeois sentiment, gospel conviction and humility proves irresistible. Freedom, that elusive gift Juan Ramon spent most of his life seeking without realizing it and only finally grasped in an act of self-incarceration, is Tonzi's hallmark. It allows him to plunge into incriminating circumstances daily, to see God's providence in an act of betrayal, a missed train or an eviction, to touch the hearts of street-wise prostitutes simply because his agenda is entirely unhidden.
"A long time ago he had recognized as a secret vice the habit of embracing formulas [e.g., `Arise, take up...'], building arguments, using the Son of Man as another object, situating Jesus in history instead of, even today, living one's life sufficiently within His so as to grasp the meaning of those phrases and trying over and over to understand them. He apologized for being tactless, because it seemed to him that no one had the right to use these words if his own life had not first transformed them into bread and wine, into flesh and blood, and if he couldn't say them in his own personal voice." [61]
As the novel develops the narrator (named Sulivan) becomes more and more obsessed with Strozzi and his powerful influence over people, especially prostitutes. Like a true modern, he professes skepticism about Strozzi's celibacy but can find no evidence to impugn it; rather, the women speak of his friendship and his demand that they exercise their spiritual freedom. "All that he was good for was to rekindle light in eyes that had become dead. Meanwhile he was paying the price." He is regularly roughed up by the pimps whose business he threatens and reported to the chancery by virtuous Christians whose wayward pleasures he subverts.
By the end Sulivan has abandoned all pretense of plot and is simply describing Strozzi or quoting him. The pages read like the spiritual journal which is so far only his third book to appear in English. As an introduction to it, here is a final Sulivanism from Eternity based on Strozzi's life that makes explcit the Paschal character of that priest's mission: "Love wants eternity; it is closer to death than to life: nothing can prevent it from sooner or later being crucified."
