A Fifth of November

In his nineteenth novel, A Fifth of November--perhaps his most accomplished work to date--Paul West describes the events surrounding the English Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Instigated by thirteen Catholic conspirators, most famously Guy Fawkes, the Plot was a failed attempt to blow up the English Parliament building and all within, including King James I. Catholics and priests were then ever more brutally persecuted throughout the country. At the heart of West's novel is the superior of the English Jesuits, Father Henry Garnet, hiding in tiny holes behind the walls of English mansions, left on his own, prompted by his sexual urgings, tormented by the smell of ham and eggs cooking, and debating in his mind God's ultimate righteousness. Shielding him from harm but also prolonging his discomfort is the eloquent and melancholy noblewoman, Anne Vaux. A Fifth of November follows Garnet, from when he first hears of the plot the conspirators have confessed their plan to him--what is his responsibility?--to his pilgrimage to Wales, his escape to Hindlip over the English plains, and ultimately his imprisonment in the Tower of London. All along, the figures who partake of this historical moment are brightly, often horrifically, drawn. West tackles through rhapsodic language, brilliant characterizations, and historical precision that most inevitable of topics: human evil.

About the Author :
Paul West was born in 1930 in England, and educated at Oxford and Columbia Universities. Besides 18 novels he is also the author of ten works of non-fiction. He has taught at Brown, Cornell, and Arizona. His honors include a 1993 Lannan Prize for Fiction, an Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. In 1996 the French government made him a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters. He moved to the US in 1957, and presently resides in Ithaca, New York.

Review :
"[W]ill unsettle many scholars, delight lots of revisionists, and make converts out of a great many history-is-dull believer." "[A]n exciting and evocative tale of love and treason." "West...continually reminds readers that the novel is a genre of infinite adaptability." "The rhetoric is gorgeous." "[...] Through the meticulous historical research that has become his trademark, West reveals Fawkes to be a bit player in a drama that consumed Britain for years and whose myriad repercussions continue to wreak destruction around the world. A Fifth of November documents in detail the last few months in the ghettos of European capitals, along the redrawn borders of the former Yugoslavia and, most of compelling tale is about religious intolerance and our enduring proclivity for cruelty...." "quaintness surrounding the English customs of Guy Fawkes Day (November 5) to reveal persecution, malice and a very modern paranoid style beneath the cause for the merriment. Guy, or "Guido," Fawkes was captured in a cellar beneath the Parliament building in 1605, where he had stored barrels of gunpowder in order to blow up the next session of Parliament. Robert crippled, Machiavellian figure, had Fawkes tortured into confessing the details of a conspiracy, mounted by certain "recusants" figure is Father Henry Garnet, the fugitive head structure gains a rich melancholy from our execution. Anne Vaux, a devout, feisty Catholic Little John Owen, a "lame and stunted" carpenter, devise "priestholes" in her houses to concealments: full of misdirections. In the middle of it, though, is a conspiracy and a flight, which West unfolds like some odd combination of Jim Bishop and Ford Madox Ford. His novel shows that history is a web of meanings in which human beings are tragically dollhouse of period detail Forecast: West is a prolific, inventive writer with a finger in many intellectual pies. As one of his most satisfying efforts in a long time, his latest may attract more review coverage and sales than usual. "