LAZARUS by Morris West

Finished  We 7/17/24

One of my ancient paperbacks that I finished Tu 5/31/94. Well worth a second look.

A very conservative Pope has an emergency bipass operation and realizes that he's been far too hard on himself and fellow Christians. He decides to ease up on his strictly 'by the book' point of view on God's plan for humanity. And during the pope's health emergency there is an assassination plot brewing involving the Japanese and Mossad. Also, members of the church hierarchy are very much against his new attitude towards the gospel and seek to sideline his progressive agenda. 

However, I did not like the ending. Why did the pope have to be assassinated? The message seems to be that we've had good popes and bad, but it's all part of the divine plan and humans should not ask the reason why. 

I noticed that this novel is the third part of a trilogy. I would like to read the other two books or anything else by Morris West. I really liked the book and his writing style. 

From Kirkus Reveiws:

"Concluding volume in a papal trilogy begun with The Shoes of the Fisherman (1963) and The Clowns of God (1981). Here, West's storytelling is in stronger form (after a fumble with The Clowns of God)--though what begins as character study hairpins half-way through into a thriller that adds a lesser suspense. His Holiness Leo XIV--the aged, iron-willed, unsmiling Pope from a peasant background--is about to be opened up for bypass surgery. His superb Jewish heart surgeon warns him that being so near death will bring on a profound psychological change, perhaps long-lasting depression, and a general weakening of mental powers for at least three months. He should avoid stress, not expect to do major works for quite some time--and should lose a lot of weight. Tove Lundberg, director of counseling, also wants the Pope to share with her any grief he feels. Leo awaits the knife and foresees his return from the dead as if he were Lazarus. On the eve of his operation, a defrocked priest who has married and fathered two children becomes a widower when his wife dies in Leo's hospital. The Pope tells his close Irish secretary, Malachy O'Rahilly, to look into the case and give aid--but the ex-priest murders his children and then commits suicide. Meanwhile, the Jewish surgeon and Malachy both are alerted that a terrorist group--The Sword of Islam--has put a $100,000 contract out on the Pope's life. Can Mossad help? And if Leo survives the knife, will he even have time for a change of character that will allow him the heart's warmth for bringing back into the fold the Catholics who have been shut out by his icy encyclicals? Well written, nicely paced, and absorbing for general asides on the papacy--its lapses, handling of money, and the crinkles in a Pope's purple. The gunfire does shrivel the novel's high aims, and Leo as Lazarus is not profoundly moving. But any book by West should draw the crowds."

Link to the book's review at Los Angeles Times:

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-04-15-bk-1638-story.html