Reading Notes - The Sparrow

I had to have surgery in September (old army wrestling injury, dammit) and all the downtime enabled me to go deep into what I was reading. Serendipitously, that novel, The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, had plenty of depth to plumb. The setup: after SETI discovers an alien radio signal from Alpha Centauri, a Jesuit mission travels light-years through the void to make first contact. My personal setup: I’m not a religious guy, but majored in philosophy in college, and, while I write about characters that have to make hard ethical choices, I still have a soft spot for questions of faith. The Sparrow poses many.

I was intrigued by the premise of the book. The more I got my head around it, the more sense it made. If we did receive evidence of extraterrestrial life and culture, who better to go than the Jesuits, who have a long history of first-contact missions with other cultures. I had to read it.

I enjoyed the writing as much as the concept. Russell doesn't rush, and the story doesn't get sci-fi-ish until about a third of the way through. By then I was so attached to the well-drawn, sympathetic characters, their relationships, and the stakes of their decisions that I didn't care what genre it was. And truthfully, the sci-fi stuff stays in the background throughout the story.

The only issue I had that rose to the level of mentioning is that Russell does a lot of foreshadowing. I mean, a lot. In the end, I suppose it was a good thing because—prospective readers should know going in—the ending is tough. Like so many actual Jesuit missions, this one doesn't end well. But it’s a thoughtful and subtly hopeful read.