The Gospel of Winter by Brendan Kiely (review)

When his father leaves for good, sixteen-year-old Aidan seeks comfort where he has been seeking it for the past few years, with the well-liked parish priest. Father Greg pushes him away, and when Aidan goes to their private place in the church basement, he learns why: he is being replaced by a younger boy, which forces him to confront the fact that Father Greg’s attentions were not an expression of love at all. Fearing exposure, the senior priest convinces Aidan to keep silent about Father Greg, to consider how much good he has done in the community, and to think about the way people would look at Aidan if they knew. Convinced but still confused, Aidan tries to sort out his feelings by spending more time partying with his friends Josie and Mark and remaining silent as scandals break in the priesthood, until a nearly tragic event convinces him to go public. Kiely’s lyrical prose is never explicit; readers will need to infer some details regarding what exactly happened between Aidan and the priest as well as between him and Josie. The sentiments and emotions he and Mark experience are sometimes overblown in their angst-ridden expression, but in this they fall into the grand tradition of fictional teens waxing eloquent in their distress, giving voice to truth even if that voice is more artful than realistic. Aidan’s initial determination to remain silent and even to defend his abuser makes sense given his desire to protect his mother from pain as well as to shield his own reputation; further and more tragically, part of him still believes what the priest told him about love, at least until he learns what real friendship means through Mark and Josie. Through sensitive handling of a timely issue, Kiely charts a potential path toward healing.