The Cunning Man

The Cunning Man by Robertson Davies
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Should I have taken the false teeth?"

Not a bad opening sentence for a novel in which all the action is precipitated by the death at the altar on Good Friday of a beloved priest in Toronto's high church Anglican parish of St Aidan's. The narrator, the cunning man of the title, Dr Hullah, has been a police surgeon and he has his suspicions about the sudden death of the old man. But his friend from childhood, Father Charlie Iredale, won't let him beyond the communion rail and the doctor does nothing about it.

The book is a sort of diary, which Dr Hullah calls a case book, in which he reminisces about his youth at school with Father Iredale and Brocky Gilmartin, the man who married the woman Hullah loved. Many other characters weave in and out of the story, including Darcy Dwyer and DeCourcey Parry, the musical director and organist who provide the excuisite music for St Aidan's services, "the ladies," an etcher and a sculptor in whose yard next to the church the doctor has his clinic, and a hypochondriacal patient whose miraculous cure at the grave of Father Hobbes puts in motion unstoppable eddies that affect all of the church and art community.

2011 No 171