Avenue of Mysteries

I didn’t love it. And I do like Irving. But my problems were:

1. Catholic themes felt sacrilegious and unconvincing.
   • I may be too sensitive here, but Irving’s use of Catholic iconography came across as surface-level and hollow.
   • The theology was too basic to engage with seriously. For example, Juan Diego holds the predictable progressive Catholic positions (pro-choice, anti-Church-on-sexuality) without ever really wrestling with them—they’re held as priors, not arrived at.
   • In contrast, A Prayer for Owen Meany, which I read decades ago and loved; took faith, doubt, and providence a little more seriously
2. Too much lasciviousness for my taste. Call me prudish, but the erotic content (with Miriam and Dorothy mostly) felt gratuitous rather than purposeful.
3. The heightened reality / myth-making—dump kids, a mind-reading sister, psychic lions—didn’t work for me. I mean, it was amusing/interesting in places but overall I couldn’t get into it.

— ᴘ. ᴍ. ʙ.

First published: 2026-05-19 | tweet | cast | subscribe

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