Book Review
Fallen - David Maine.
The premise of this book is to tell the story of Cain and Abel and of the Fall from the point of view of the characters involved. It is a premise with great potential, but it falls far short of the mark. Maine's writing is solid, and when he is not engaging the biblical material directly, he shows a great deal of imagination. But, as he reaches back into the family's history (The tale being told chronologically backward) he falls back on stock answers to the difficult questions posed by the biblical material. His answer to what the fruit of the tree of knowledge reveals is the disappointingly pat Freudian and Catholic answer that it is sexual desire which was obtained from the Tree. While the biblical text can certainly support that reading, it is not the only reading there is, and thus proves dull and predictable. The novel also argues that Cain was simply born evil, a rather disappointing conclusion after spending a few chapters watching Eve struggle with the problem of Nature Vs. Nurture in how a child will turn out. And of course, Maine's wallow would not be complete without the obligatory scene of the pubescent child observing mom and dad having sex, and trauma ensuing. Maine's portrayal of Abel is . . . insipid. Abel is a "Gallant" straight out of Highlights Magazine whose "Shoulds" and "Should nots" irritate his father and brother no end, who is incompetent at anything but raising sheep, who can't count, and who suffers from a pollyana-esque vapidity that make the murder utterly understandable - God and Eve seem to be the only figures in the book who can countenance him. All of this makes Maine's need to fall back on Cain being born evil all the more disappointing. Maine gets off to a strong beginning, with Cain as the creative force behind his son Enoch's eponymous city, and a potentially fascinating character, but by the time the book has revealed all it has to reveal, Maine concludes that we are governed by our natures entirely. He even engages in that classic canard of standard Catholic misogyny, having Eve suspect that it was her own Evil nature that allowed her to be tempted, that had Adam found himself in the same position, he would not have succumbed.