Pastoral (Quincunx, #1) by André Alexis

Pastoral (Quincunx, #1) Reviews

• 
  Jenny (Reading Envy)

  This is a book I meant to read last year during my Alaska/Canada spree, but just never got to it. Then I was looking at novels with music as a theme and this came back up, so I decided to listen to the audiobook as read by the author.
  
  The structure of the novel follows the structure of Beethoven's 6th Symphony (the Pastoral) and takes places in the small town of Barrow, Ontario. Pastoral also refers to the main character, Father Pennant, who is new to the town. Other characters stem off from encounters he has as he wanders the natural world.
  
  And somehow the author manages to examine love, fidelity, miracles, belief, friendship, place, home, and more. I enjoyed it although I would have liked it to be longer. I understand it to be the first book of a loosely joined novel cycle of sorts, and I am likely to read those.
• 
  Matt Quann

  First Book of Alexis' Quincunx
  
  A novel written with awe-inspiring grace and confidence.
  
  Before Trinidadian-born Canadian author André Alexis drew fame for his Giller-Prize Winning novel
  Fifteen Dogs, he began his ambitious Quincunx project with Pastoral. A quick visit to Wikipedia prior to my reading of the 160-page Pastoral gave me some insight into the Quincunx, and helped to contextualize the novel as part of a whole and an independent work. Alexis’ goal with the five novels is to “examine faith, place, love, power and hatred” (Wikipedia, Pastoral). Certainly a lofty goal, but one that Alexis seems more than capable of handling.
  
  Pastoral is a modern reimagining of the pastoral genre. Our shepherd here is Father Christopher Pennant who moves from the hubbub of Ottawa to the fictional rural town of Barrow. Christopher soon meets Lowther, a local caretaker, who seeks to challenge the young priest’s faith. Father Pennant also acts as intermediary in a Barrow love triangle that is at first humorous, but soon delves into a deeper examination about the nature of love. In particular, I loved the suggestion that people are tied to place in our memories. All the character interactions here lock into place beside one another, nothing ever feeling forced.
  
  It is my understanding that the pastoral seeks to take the complexity of urban life and move a character towards more simple rural existence. Of course, this interpretation also discounts seeming simplicity of life for simplicity of character and a dearth of complications. I thought that Alexis handled this deftly with characters that struggle with complex philosophical questions set against an idyllic background. Indeed, the imagery here is powerful and well-written. You’ll see the rolling hills and small streams where Father Pennant walks, and perhaps you’ll come close to recognizing the hair salon in which an act of public nudity takes place.
  
  The economy of words in this short novel means that no character, scene, or topic overstays their welcome. Instead, each part of Alexis’ novel is given the space to breathe between readings. Indeed, despite its brevity, I found myself delaying the ending if only because each reading stirred up a new thought, and each reading left me richer than before. What’s more, my reading of Fifteen Dogs last year helped inform my reading of Pastoral. Though the books are wildly different, they both deal in the same themes and seemed to stage a discussion with one another in my mind.
  
  With the Quincunx, it is as if Alexis is building a room where fiction is able to engage with itself in the mind of the reader. Alexis is helping to guide the reader through thoughts and philosophy using storytelling. Though each of the novels can be enjoyed on their own, when taken together, they elevate one another.
  
  Pastoral is a terrific novel and one that I’d recommend to any reader. If you enjoyed Fifteen Dogs, then this is worth your time. I also have a sneaking suspicion that those people who enjoy Stoner might also be partial to Pastoral. For those even more ambitious, there’s three of five books in the Quincunx that have been released.
• 
  Lauren

  Pastoral has a quiet grace that you don't often encounter in modern literature. The story is a simple meditation on the rural town of Barrow, Ontario, and its inhabitants, over one year of time.
  
  Alexis structured this novel around Beethoven's Symphony no. 6 (Pastorale), which
  one music critic described as "...like looking at a landscape that changes slowly with the lengthening of the shadows and the deepening of the light, in which time is virtually suspended."
  
  The quote for the symphony could easily apply to the story. I can see what Alexis was working towards. The story is character-driven with very little "plot", other than the relationships and occurrences within the town. The novel begins when a new priest comes to the church in town, as he meets the townspeople, so does the reader. There's some quirky characters, there is a young love triangle, there is true friendship and devotion, and there is some unexplained phenomena that test faith and belief. Amongst these characters, there are also detailed descriptions of nature and the history of the land, including a great side-story about Regina, Saskatchewan.
  
  In this idyllic setting, it is a challenge to gauge time period. It could easily be Thomas Hardy nineteenth-century England (
  Far From the Madding Crowd came to mind multiple times - likely because of the sheep farming aspect in both books, and all the characters around town), but there a few well-placed words and situations that question if this is taking place "now".
  
  This was my first book by Alexis, and I plan to follow this up with his better-known and prize-winning novel
  Fifteen Dogs, which happens to be the next in the loosely-defined "Quincunx" series.
• 
  Leo

  I knew I had read Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis previously but thought it was last year, but turns out it was this year! This book went a lot better for me, although I gave the other book 3 stars and this one 4 stars. I enjoyed Pastoral million miles more but not quite enough for a 5 stars. I found myself more invested and enjoyed the format more with this audiobook and didn't feel like I've should have read it as an ebook instead. Worked out just fine as an audiobook
• 
  Krista

  pas•to•ral
  adjective
  1. (especially of land or a farm) used for or related to the keeping or grazing of sheep or cattle.
  2. (in the Christian Church) concerning or appropriate to the giving of spiritual guidance.
  
  noun
  1. a work of literature portraying an idealized version of country life.

  
  With the full definition in hand, what might one expect from André Alexis's
  Pastoral? Sheep, a pastor, and a portrayal of idealized country life? Check, check, and check, we get all three. But Pastoral is also the common name for Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, and this book echoes the structure of the musical composition, having five movements that follow Beethoven's intent:
  
  

  1. Awakening of cheerful feelings upon arrival in the country.
  2. Scene at the brook.
  3. Happy gathering of country folk.
  4. Thunderstorm; storm.
  5. Shepherd's song; cheerful and thankful feelings after the storm.

  
  And as I read on this
  blog, Alexis gave himself even more rules while writing this book:
  
  

  Pastoral is musical in structure. In every chapter, there are 5 elements that absolutely must be mentioned: bread, candle, sheep, prayer book, water. But the order in which they appear varies in this way:
  chapter one: a, b, c, d, e
  chapter two: b, c, d, e, a
  chapter three: c, d, e, a, b
  chapter four: d, e, a, b, c
  chapter five: e, a, b, c, d
  where a = bread, b = candles, c = sheep, d = prayer book, e = water

  
  I want to include all of this information because, even though Pastoral is a mere 160 pages, there is meaning and purpose behind every word of it. Written in the
  Southern Ontario Gothic style (complete with mysteries, miracles, and small town interconnectiveness), the story is set in the fictional hamlet of Barrow (which itself is defined as: a large mound of earth or stones over the remains of the dead) and use is made of that:
  
  

  The earth, which has only two words, intoned the first of them ('life') noisily, with birdsong, the gurgle and slap of rushing water, the suck and squelch of the ground itself. Not that its other word ('death') was banished. As they walked in a field, Father Pennant spotted a small clearing over which bleached animal bones (ribs, skulls, backbones and limbs) were strewn. Among and through the bones, young grass grew. It was like an open ossuary.

  
  This is Barrow as first seen by Father Pennant: a young priest taking on his first parish, who is initially disappointed by the rural setting; mistakenly thinking that small towns mean small problems, small impact. Soon enough, though, the priest is settled into the community, and even more important than the connections that he makes to the people of his parish are the connections that he makes to the natural surroundings, prompting a crisis of faith in which he can't decide on the relative primacy of God and Nature and Love.
  
  

  It occurred to him that Barrow itself was neither good nor evil but was, instead, animated by whatever it was that animated the land, the thing that animated each and every one of them and, so, revealed itself in its hiddenness. In fact, one felt, or he felt as he walked -- blasphemous though the thought was -- that God was only an aspect of the hidden, an idea brought into being by man in order to point to a deeper thing that had no name and reigned beyond silence.

  
  Pastoral is peopled with fascinating characters, and because of the book's length, the plot is necessarily tight and stripped down, covering just eight months (and for a book set in Canada, it's refreshing that it's the winter that's omitted). Dialogue is natural and, consistently, the writing is interesting and earthy.
  
  

  After Tomasine's burial, the ground in the graveyard was more dense than it had been, with another body -- like cold, curdled earth -- to digest. The currents of air that visited Barrow had one less person to circle or caress. And the wind as it blew through town made a sound ever so slightly altered. The ants had one less hazard, the birds one less predator, the worms one more meal.

  
  Needless to say, I enjoyed Pastoral very much.
  
• 
  Betsy Robinson

  In a back-of-book "Note on the Text," Alexis writes that "Pastoral is, in part an homage to Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, the Pastoral Symphony. The novel's chapters follow the logic of the symphony whose fives movements are entitled:
  1. Awakening of cheerful feelings upon arrival in the country
  2. Scene at the brook
  3. Happy gathering of country folk
  4. Thunderstorm; Storm
  5. Shepherds' song; cheerful and thankful feelings after the storm"
  
  I'm listening to the symphony as I type and, from the first notes, the book sprang to life for me in a new way. I recommend listening before you read this lyrical contemplation of a pastor's journey to and life in Barrow, a small town in Ontario, Canada. Is there a God? Or is "God … only an aspect of the hidden, an idea brought into being by man in order to point to a deeper thing that had no name and reigned beyond silence."
  
  This is the kind of stuff I ponder forever. And the writing here is divine.
  
• 
  lauraღ

  Of course, it’s wonderful to contemplate Nature, but without the miraculous the earth is only a coffin.

    
  I do think I need to revise my list of things I don't like in fiction/writing. I always go on about how much I dislike omniscient POV, and I really truly do, but something about the way it's employed in literary fiction and classics just always works for me. I would be tempted to say it's because there's no abrupt head-hopping (the thing I hate most) but that's not always true! This was such a well-crafted piece of fiction. Went into it completely blind, as is my wont, and even though it ticked almost none of my usual boxes, I really enjoyed it. We're following a pastor who has just moved to a small town, the relationships he builds with some of his parishioners (including the caretaker at the parish and a young woman in an unwilling love triangle) and the strange events that take place around him. Or are they miracles? I loved the descriptions of the land, the beauty of the landscape, the pastoral. Very interesting writing, the way we'd flow from character to character. It has a magical realism sorta vibe without ever really going there? I love when books get weird, and this does, in a really particular way. It's very thoughtful and slow, but I felt engaged the entire time. I don't particularly like reading about religious characters, but this was sublime. And I loved Lowther so much; I want to travel back to uni days and write an essay about him.
  
  Listened to the audiobook as read by the author; enjoyed it a lot. I'll definitely be reading more from Alexis. Even though I wanted a little more from the ending of this, wanted it to go a bit longer, I just adored the craft and the writing and the style. Super interesting.
  
  

  Comfort came from the continuity of submission. Kneeling, praying, he was himself at his most open and at his most genuinely human: ignorant, hopeful, humble in the face of the unknown.
• 
  Phyllis

  At the beginning of the story, Father Christopher Pennant arrives in April in the small town (pop. 1,100) of Barrow, Lambton County, Ontario to serve in his first parish. Soon he meets Lowther Williams, a somewhat inexplicable man who cooks & cleans for the Father in exchange for room & board in the rectory. Among the parishioners are Elizabeth Denny, who is caught in a bit of a love triangle with her fiancé Robbie Myers and her rival Jane Richardson. Over five months, Father Pennant explores Barrow and comes to know the community of people there, while he, Lowther, and Elizabeth separately and together consider the relationships between love & self, the natural & the divine, and life & death, all through a lens of faith & doubt. The Barrow locale -- its land, its history, its flora & fauna -- is as much a character in this book as any of the humans.
  
  This novel is the first of Andre Alexis' Quincunx Cycle. It is, as its title conveys, a pastoral. Even that descriptor supports many meanings, as Father Pennant is in part the shepherd to his parishioners, the country life of Barrow includes a herd of sheep, and several individual sheep trigger various events throughout the novel. The author's "A Note on the Text" at the end of the book adds greater depth to its form & structure.
• 
  Marilyn

  I went and researched the meaning of Pastoral after reading this book. ......'pastoral' people devoted to the care of livestock raising, or relating to spiritual care or guidance especially of a congregation in a place of worship.
  Canadian author Andre Alexis writes a very short and engaging book bringing a new priest to the church in Barrow, and his 'pastoral care' of his 'flock'. Imagination abounds in this enjoyable read. I also enjoyed it because the imagination of it all was short and sweet, I did not sour, maybe on reflection closer to 4 stars.
• 
  Eggp

  Faith and love in doubt
  there has to be more to life
  sheep, for example.
• 
  alittlelifeofmel

  Andre Alexis has quickly become my favourite Canadian author. There's just something about him I cannot put my finger on. He writes books almost as if they were made for me.
  
  This book is not really going to be for everyone. It's actually quite boring, nothing happens, and it's just about day to day life in a small Canadian farming community. A Priest moves to town, and you get to follow the lives of 5-6 characters in this town. It's more about characters than plot, which is just my thing.
  
  I really liked this and I have no idea why. It just felt very comfortable and calm to me, and is a nice break from the fantasy chaos mayhem that I usually read about.
  
  Andre Alexis is an automatic autobuy author for me now, and I own everything he's published and cannot wait to read the remainder of his works.
• 
  Laleh

  Vivid, mystic and lyrical stories from a small town in Ontario. Each section based on a movement of Beethoven's pastoral.
  
  Very similar feel to Days by Moonlight by the author; though less nuanced and less dramatic.
  
  I listened to the audio-book narrated by Andre Alexi himself. The audio-book is strongly recommended.
• 
  Marilyn Boyle-Taylor

  Again a wonderful read from Alexis. Coincidentally, I just came across a few quotes from Northrup Frye before I started reading, on the difference between a pastoral /Arcadia and utopia. Since this topic is of interest to me, I was delighted to have that enhance my reading of Alexis' work. His ease of style, combined with layers of reference (not intruding upon the novel in any way), make for a great read for me. I have only one of the five books in his Quincunx to still read:
  Days by Moonlight. I'm hopeful that this one is every bit as enjoyable as the other four have been. BTW, I did not read these books in the order in which they were published and I don't think it hurts one bit to read them this way. Each novel is written as a standalone, though all set in Southern Ontario and Toronto, and each follows a different main theme (faith, place, power, love, and hatred) and format (allegory, romance, etc.), so it is intriguing how Alexis' style/voice comes through in all of them.
• 
  Michael James

  Andre Alexis is a national treasure and everyone should read all of his books.
  
  This is a short and soft read about a priest who gets a congregation in a sleepy backwater town and the crisis of faith that follows. There is an intertwined and parallel storyline about a young woman with a cheating fiance who similarly experiences a crisis of faith, albeit about the concept of love.
  
  I loved the entire book although I fairly loathed the ending. I'm not taking off any stars though, because sometimes stories don't end the way you want them to. Not the author's fault.
  
  No regrets on the purchase.
• 
  Haleigh

  This book was unlike anything else I've ever read. I really enjoyed the familiar descriptions of the Southern Ontario landscape, and Alexis really excelled at capturing what it feels like to meander your way through a hot Ontario summer. I also found the conversation on the relationship between religion and nature to be valuable. Excited to read more of Alexis' work!
• 
  Emmett

  *I received an advanced reading copy of this novel as part of the Goodreads First Reads program.*
  
  André Alexis's Pastoral was a quick read, but managed to leave a lasting impression. The story itself is simple in that nothing fantastical or overly dramatic occurs, but that is exactly what makes the novel stand out. Everything occurs in the small town of Barrow over the course of just a few months between a relatively small cast of characters, but the thoughts of the characters and the trials they face are all very engrossing. Anyone who has lived anywhere even remotely rural or with a small-town vibe can easily connect with the story. Each one of the characters is just striving to live their own life and any drama is usually the kind that fuels light gossip between people living in close proximity, without much to fill their days other than work and socializing with the other denizens of the town.
  
  Despite the novel's short length, I still managed to become very invested in the lives of the individual characters and I found myself anxious to discover where each of their paths would lead them by the conclusion of the novel. It's easy to imagine having met any one of these townspeople with their own complex thoughts, desires, and emotions. The pacing is excellent and Alexis's writing is also deserving of praise. His style of writing comes off as both humorous and deliberate, irreverent and matter-of-fact. After reading, one is left with a distinct feeling that is difficult to express clearly, but is nonetheless both light-hearted and affecting at the same time. I could easily recommend this novel to anyone (and do!).
• 
  Ryan Grinas

  Captivating and elegant prose moves this narrative along. I found this novel to be very slow and ultimately kind of boring; the events that Pennant experiences seemed to be building to a greater message about enjoying life but it never manifests. The scene with the talking sheep is the one really memorable moment in this novel that otherwise serves to deliver a lackluster romance plot.
• 
  Andrea Paterson

  This is the fourth book I read in the Quincunx series (though the first published) and another amazing read. I can't wait to read all five of these books again when the eventual revised omnibus is released. Alexis is working some serious literary magic here.
• 
  Skye

  CW: unexpected murder/suicide scene halfway through
• 
  Lori

  Audible version: I bought this book, because, in spite of my own lack of religion, I like reading stories about monks, pastors, priors, and priests. Pillars of the Earth was a favorite, Father Brown mysteries, The Hawk and the Dove trilogy - I loved them all. So I figured this was going to be perfect for me. But I don't like Father Pennant. He seems far too naive where I want wise. And he's gullible and judgy and superstitious. Maybe that's part of the story, and because I'm quitting just over halfway through, I'll never know that he grows into his role. But the book just bores me and I don't care about Liz and her cheating fiancé or about Louther (sp?) or any of the other provincial folks in this book. I had high hopes, because most of these books take place long ago, but this one was in the 21st century, but it just didn't fly with me.
• 
  Ali Maretzki

  I judged this book by its cover at the library and I'm so glad that I did. This was such a perfect read for me specifically because it was: set in Ontario, dealt with God as nature/God as God themes, and followed the relationships in a small town as the main fodder for story (my favourite kind of story). I only wish it had been a bit longer.
• 
  Matthew Ochal

  A really interesting little meander. Weird to have read it at 3am but hey so it goes.
  
  Its got me in a weird place now. Not sure ill get to sleep. It deals with some big themes in a sort of indirect way that i dont think ill be able to really step back from or verbaize
• 
  Marco den Ouden

  I read and loved Alexis's Fifteen Dogs just over a year ago, so when I saw that the third book in his five-book philosophical series, The Hidden Keys, was out, I decided I should read the first book, Pastoral, first. The series sets out to examine faith, place, love, power and hatred.
  
  This first novel in the series finds newly ordained Catholic priest Christopher Pennant, a young man who grew up in Ottawa, assigned to a bucolic parish in the fictional town of Barrow (population 1100) located in Lambton County, Ontario at the southern end of Lake Huron. The nearest city is Sarnia.
  
  An end note tells us that the novel is an homage to Beethoven's Pastorale Symphony and follows a similar structure. Alexis grew up in Lambton County and it has deep personal meaning for him.
  
  The name gives one a sense of a sleepy hollow of a town but belies the tension and drama that emerges. In a telling bit of dialogue, a man offers his daughter some sage advice: "Don't go kissin' by the garden gate, 'cause love is blind but the neighbours ain't." In a small town like Barrow, everybody knows everybody else's business.
  
  The daughter, Jane Richardson, is one of several intriguing characters in the book. She is a bit of a wildcat, sophisticated, urbane, adventurous and loathes this rural backwater. She can't wait to shake its dust off her feet and see the world except there's a man - Robbie Myers. Robbie is engaged to Elizabeth Denny, a country girl at heart who he has loved since they started seeing each other at age fourteen. But Robbie is also in love with Jane and seeing her. The two girls are opposites in temperament and he feels a need to have both of them in his life. He swears he loves them both equally.
  
  This romantic triangle is played out dramatically as the two women confront each other and devise a test to see who Robbie really loves the most with unexpected consequences for all of them. The book explores the complexity of love with insight and compassion.
  
  That is one sub-plot. Another concerns a man who believes he is doomed to die at age 63. His father died at that age, as did his grandfather and great-grandfather going back seven generations. It's a curse he believes he cannot escape. His 63rd birthday is fast approaching. He had planned on the former pastor, Father Fowler, guiding him from the world of the living to the afterlife. Now Fowler was dead and this new young priest was taking over. Was he up to snuff?
  
  The man's back story is fascinating. How does one react if one believes that one will die at a certain age, not before and not after? If one knows one's fate, does he throw caution to the winds? And what sort of event could shake him to his core and turn his life completely around and headed in a different direction?
  
  And then there's the connecting thread, Father Pennant himself. The city boy didn't count on a rural parish. Over the five month course of the novel he encounters three miracles - a group of moths mysteriously flying in a geometric pattern, a man walking on water, and a talking sheep. Do these events confirm his faith or confound it?
  
  How these conflicts and questions are resolved are both dramatic and engaging. You care very much about these people, just as you cared about some of the canine characters in Fifteen Dogs. The book asks a lot of philosophical questions about faith, place, and the nature of love. And the love of nature as well.
  
  The book started out a bit slow for me. The first chapter is an idyllic introduction to the the town and some of its inhabitants, a bit of a snoozer. The story really starts to roll when the rumours about Robbie's illicit affair with Jane are brought out into the open in chapter 2. Then the story starts to sizzle.
  
  I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did. It is a terrific read.
• 
  Adam

  Greatly enjoyable, even with a somewhat predictable love story and depiction of a Priest's internal (and external) struggle. The 'miracles' debunked throughout, and yet in the end something felt miraculous. The characters were enjoyable and you can't go wrong with a good question of faith and morality story. First in the Quintox, third of my Alexis reads, I was anticipating this one and overall Andre did not disappoint. Maybe a bit too close to home to read as anything out of the ordinary, but highly enjoyable nonetheless.
• 
  Chelsea

  This book was really beautiful. Plotwise, it's a look at the comings and goings of a small rural town in Ontario, focused around the new pastor who comes to town, and the few residents with whom he interacts. André Alexis writes with such grace and simplicity that seems harder to come by in modern literature. He uses such a thoughtful, light touch to explore the major themes (marriage, miracles, friendship, death), you almost don't realize how deeply introspective and moving it is until you've moved into the next chapter. Truly wonderful to read.
• 
  Leif

  Sometimes the basics shine. In a novel named Pastoral, you should expect the baseline: et in Arcadia ego, etc etc. But this is much better and different than a
  Tom Stoppard play turned novel. As a writer, Alexis does witty and wise things with this concept, moving it to small-town Ontario (that's Canada's biggest province, mind) and throwing its age-old torments (the nature of belief, love, and so forth - "faith") into the deep end of narrative snipped from contemporary slice-of-life stories. Alexis also lifts the name of a friend of mine wholesale into the story - I suspect, given the suspicious timing of a residency and some other factors - but that's not really important here, except to highlight the myriad ways in which he grounds Pastoralby reinventing contemporary life in a traditional style.
  
  I liked the snappy, quick-moving pace of the novel and the ruthlessness by which it refused to have a "favourite" character. Instead of some kind of "relatable" so and so, the narrative proves both ecumenical and observant as it plays at the relationships through which the characters interact. There's a lot of fun in foibles, especially when they are juxtaposed through the social flaws through which we all make sense of the world. Doubly so when the fun is kind-hearted. That's the kind of pastoral you can expect here: sheep appear in the background, and death too, yes, but mostly it's kindness and soul-searching. Perhaps not in equal measure. Perhaps.
• 
  Mauberley

  I so loved 'Fifteen Dogs' that I had to read more of Alexis' work. Unfortunately, I came to this book and was horribly disappointed. Was it the Rube Goldberg quality of the 'miracles'? Or was it the absurd love triangle? Was it the rather limp narrative of Barrow Day or was it the entirely colourless portrait of Father Pennant? So many disappointments in less than 170 pages. That said, I look forward to reading both 'Childhood' and the author's next novel which, I believe is scheduled for publication later this year (2016).