Propinquity

by John Macgregor

The overnight classic by New York Times writer John Macgregor. A genre-leaping mystery which asks questions about life's meaning (and answers some of them). Few novels in 2013 have drawn more attention than Propinquity.

"A novel close to unclassifiability." - Times on Sunday

Winner of the biennial Adelaide Festival Award - one of the world's great writing prizes.

"The depth of visionariness of this novel will reward many readers." - Dr Barry Westburg, Radio 5UV

"Plenty of wit, lots of exuberance. One of the most imaginative novels to appear for some years." - The Age

                     "An international rollercoaster." - Times on Sunday

A 2013 Amazon sensation, Propinquity is about the relationship between the "engagingly dangerous" Clive and the ethereal Samantha - a medievalist who discovers a secret tomb deep under Westminster Abbey, and isn't sure what to do about it.

The tomb contains Richard the Lionheart's queen, reputedly a carrier of the same gnostic illumination dispensed by Christ. Samantha and her lover begin unwinding its 800-year-old enigmas.

Propinquity is quite a page-turner (see Chapter 13's ritual sex among the tombs at the heart of Christendom), and contains some unexpected plot twists. Most strikingly, our heroic couple discover that the entombed queen may not actually be dead, but in a coma induced by herbs. So there's an international chase to find the antidote, lost for centuries, and bring her back to life: To watch those blue, medieval Saxon eyes open, and behold the modern world...

"If she can be revived, then a gnosis master walks the earth again... The prospect is too exciting to ignore. Macgregor is a masterful writer. His prose moves with an elegant, engaging cadence... A down-under view of the world that is laced with wit and cynicism." - John, NC, USA (Amazon)

"Whether Macgregor is describing the cold recesses of Westminster Abbey, the voodoo trail in Haiti, or buttering crumpets in Mullumbimby, the flowing assuredness of his prose sucks the reader in." - The Australian

"An engagingly dangerous hero." - Times on Sunday

                      "What a journey." - Linda Robinson (Goodreads)

"Has none of the cheap, frenetic thrills of Dan Brown's book, nor the mind-bending (read: confusing) complexity of Eco's Pendulum. Yet either of these books could have been inspired by Propinquity." - Denise Greene, USA (Amazon)

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Conspiracy Theories, Action

372 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

After his novel 'Propinquity' won the Adelaide Festival Award for Literature, John Macgregor wrote the story development for the Australian movie 'Shine'; worked as a political aide to Senator Janine Haines, federal leader of the Australian Democrats; was deported from East Timor while reporting on human rights abuses by the Indonesians; interviewed three prime ministers for the capital city dailies; won Australia's investigative journalism prize (the George Munster Award) for exposing an FBI scandal; and reported from Burma on slave labour under the generals for 'The New York Times'.

He recently completed 'The Mechanics of Changing the World: political architecture to roll back state & corporate power' - to be published in 2024.

Interview about the book on the Kim Iversen Show:

https://rumble.com/v6fhwem-revolution...

Reviews

[Linda Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a journey. I've written before about how John Crowley's Aegypt came so close to a revelation for me, a lifting of the physiocultural veil between life and truth, and how eager I was to come closer. Macgregor did. There is an ethereal-meets-mundane storyline for Propinquity: the book was published in 1986, sold ~600 copies when the publisher folded. The chance of the award-winning Propinquity disappearing was high. The similarities between canonical scripture today and what could have been is eerie. Serendipity that today, November 1 is the anniversary of the closing of the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, rounding out two centuries of organizing what scripture would be relegated to posterity and which, the fire of oblivion. Macgregor's book has three segments. Propinquity, Temerity, Serendipity. Propinquity introduces us to the collegial friends Clive, Julian, Alistair, Gilberte, Jim. What do the smoking, drinking, horny college boys have in common? Perhaps more than just proximity. In Termerity, Macgregor gives us a glimpse of the men's lives outside the classroom. He launches them into the storylines that portend how the future will impact each; one goes walkabout into Aboriginal Australia, another in the heady uniformed realm of presidential security. Clive abruptly finds himself in corporate leadership, while Alistair sloshes into tropical revolution foment. And we meet, in a bizarre twist of fate, Samantha Goode, the catalyst for the global adventure revealed, and her Very Reverend father, the overseer of Westminster Abbey: one devoted to revealing what lies in the icy cold lower darkness of the Abbey, one equally determined to keep the secret forever. The book is an extraordinary adventure, both in the reading, and the knowledge it imparts. There are a few pages in Chapter 15 that cover British Isles history concisely. The spiritual elements are profound. I copied a line from the book into my heart "he is vulnerable only to me which is the ultimate safety," and a small list of spiritual attributes from the book: Mellowness. Humility. Vigor. Those three suit Propinquity et al. The gospel of Thomas shares this wisdom from Jesus - if you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you. Macgregor helped himself toward salvation, and with the long effort to get the rights to Propinquity back, saved his book as well.

[Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

What grabbed my attention about Propinquity, prompting me to give it a read, was its backstory. It was originally published in 1986 after winning a contest that included a publishing contract. It was acclaimed by the critics on publication, but then died on the vine when the publisher was sold. The story was said to be much like Dan Brown’s bestselling The Da Vinci Code, even though it pre-dates it by seventeen years.

Propinquity has also been described as “more literary” than Dan Brown (I imagine a lot of people saying “what book isn’t”) and that description is apt. It has the language, word choice, and sometimes lyrical use of the language I’d expect to see in literary fiction and which is, at least for me, a positive. Another quality I sometimes associate with literary fiction has been described to me as “nothing very exciting happens.” That’s how I felt the first quarter of the book where we got acquainted with the protagonist, Clive Lean, and a few of his friends who figure heavily in the story. Over the twenty-seven years since Propinquity was originally published the structure of a typical mainstream novel has changed. Gone are the days that the advice I was given as a youngster (“you can’t abandon a book for at least 100 pages, because a lot of times the story doesn’t get going ‘til then”) as the advice of “the experts” has become “you’ve got to grab the reader on the first page, if not the first paragraph” with action, conflict, or something to pull them into the story. I’ll leave it to you to decide whether that’s a good or bad development. Your thoughts on this might also be indicative of how good a fit this book would be for you. However, I’ll say that the conditioning I’ve received from reading a steady diet of more recent books and the expectation I started with of a “Dan Brown-like thriller” had me scratching my head at that first part.

And then it happened, the mystery-thriller-religious-conspiracy parts of the book started happening and the tension started building. Finally. Enough foreplay and I was into the action. While it has been too long since I’ve read Dan Brown to compare directly, I’ve read others of the type more recently and once it got going found Propinquity to be as advertised, a more literary yarn with lots of history as currently perceived combined with some alternative history (some that stretched, but didn’t break my ability to disbelieve).

**Originally written for "Books and Pals" book blog. May have received a free review copy. **

[Iona Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book free in return for a review.

It is a well-written, humorous book with a unique plot.

The protagonist, Australian Clive Lean, amasses a fortune in a not completely ethical manner and travels to Oxford to complete his medical studies. He becomes friends with a girl called Sam whose father happens to be the Dean of Westminster Abbey. Sam has thus access to all parts of the Abbey and this leads to Clive being introduced to Berengaria, the queen of Richard the Lionheart (of Robin Hood fame). Though Berengaria has apparently been dead for 800 years, her body is strangely well-preserved owing to the extreme cold in the depths of the Abbey where it has lain.

In its latter half, the book becomes quite thrilling, as Clive, Sam and Clive’s student friends decide to attempt to bring Berengaria back to life ….

We are edified about both British history and Gnosticism, Berengaria having been a Gnostic.

I would strongly recommend this spiritual thriller, the author being extremely articulate (though his French isn’t quite up to par – “petit ?? bourgeoisie). The book is an enjoyable read. (Though I didn’t understand how one could “have gnosis”, like a spiritual fix.)

[Tonya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Propinquity is not an easy book to classify into a specific category, which makes it a truly wonderful book to read. There are things about this novel that will appeal to fans of historical fiction, contempory fiction (contempory meaning the 70s), romance, mystery, spirtuality and friendship.
The novel begins with an introduction to Clive as a young student in Australia along with three good friends. They are all preparing to go onto secondary school but disenchantment and fate sends them on their separate paths. Clive wanders along for a bit and ends up in England studying at the Oxford. He meets Sam, the daughter of the dean of Westminister Abbey. He's quickly caught up with her, and with the mystery and secrets she promises are hiding underneath the Abbey. Supposedly Berengaria, Richard the Lionhearted's Queen, is buried underneath in a secret chamber along with documents that could could change the way one views religion.
I found this to be a well plotted, very entertaining novel. I really enjoyed the characters development throught the story. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a great story!

I received this novel for free in exchange for my honest review through Goodreads Read It and Reap program.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Propinquity by John MacGregor is a thoroughly surprising book. Readers need to keep this in mind when embarking on its journey, because the opening section, when we meet Clive Lean and his friends, gives no hint whatsoever of its eventual focus and direction.

Clive Lean is Australian. He is a Geelong Grammar School lad, whose father is in business, owning a concern that makes and sells bits and pieces for your garden, but, perhaps significantly, nothing that actually grows. Clive and his diverse friends get up to the kinds of thing that lads do. They smoke a lot, lust a little, imagine futures they cannot envisage, live for the present and write off the occasional car. Dad will bail you out if anything goes wrong. Clive’s school record rather sums up his early experiences, in that it lists one of his attributes as “small bore”. Well, at this stage he seems to be.

The diverse group then diverges. One member eventually joins the Italian Presidential Guard, and another seeks liberation in Haiti. Somehow, Clive becomes a medical student in Oxford, which must be an indication of Clive’s raw talent, since his elevation to prestige elite status did not seem to be the result of either application or effort. His father dies and leaves him the business, which he tried to manage for a while before selling it off in dubious circumstances, a transaction whose consequences will re-emerge later to create subtle, if convenient diversion.

At Oxford, Clive continues his pursuit of Sobranie Black Russian, chemical stimuli concocted for purposes of research and the occasional drink. Despite his elite status, he has slightly less focus than we might expect from the average adolescent, despite his being significantly older, since he has already spent significant time being the owner and manager of his own business. And this lack of focus continues, until he meets Sam.

She was married once, and has two adoring and adored children. Her father is a pillar of the English establishment, in that he helps to hold up the Anglican Church, perhaps with his entirely rigid, even petrified attitudes. Sam apologises for him in advance, before Clive is introduced. Clive and Sam’s relationship soon graduates beyond friendship with remarkable success and ease. Their taste for love-making inside medieval tombs, however, might be termed bizarre. Let’s put the lid on that one…

But it is in the cold of a medieval tomb that their relationship really does blossom. The blooms grow out of Sam’s interest, nay obsession, with the fate of a former English queen, whose resting place under Westminster Abbey has only recently been discovered.

This review, rather like the book, has taken time to reach its point. From here, the story of John MacGregor’s Propinquity develops like a thriller. The pace quickens. The events flow. But also the characters seem to grow via their association with this princess of Gnostic France, who took the hand of an English king, and was entombed eight hundred years ago.

Propinquity is a book that needs its plot, and when this comes along with the queen’s body, it fairly races along. Summarised, there are travels, discoveries, a car chase, archaeology, a touch of medicine, learned research, some tissue analysis, trips to the archives, an occasional guerrilla war, a brush with Haitian voodoo, a medieval revival, brushes with the law, theft, and a court case, but not necessarily in any particular order. The experience is interesting, engaging, sometimes credible and eventually enlightening. Here is a group of people in search of meaning, something bigger than mere belief, and more significant than religion. Faith it may be, but this is faith generated out of action, out of doing, out of acknowledging life, rather than searching for it. Throughout their pursuit of the complex, the sensational and the status-giving, there emerges a simpler idea, a veritable raison d’etre, an unquestionable truth that might be obvious, if only we could see it.

Propinquity thus reveals it spiritual journey, which is itself surprising. By the novel’s end, we realise, perhaps, that the label “small bore” might apply to any of us. Equally, as a result of this process, our bore may just have diminished, but our range may have grown a little.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

When John Macgregor approached me about reviewing this book, I was skeptical: not because it's self-published (though actually it isn't, really - his original publisher folded), but because of the comparisons to "The Da Vinci Code." While DVC had an entertaining plot, the writing was execrable. One Dan Brown novel being more than enough for me for one lifetime, I agreed somewhat dubiously.

Very quickly (as in, on page 1) it became clear that there was little likeness between the two books. Macgregor's narrator and main character, Clive Lean, has a witty, understated and often darkly humorous voice. Nor is he an International Man of Mystery, but an Australian schoolboy, and it's easy enough to follow him into the first part of the novel, the eponymous "Propinquity", and his prep school life. I have to admit, though, that I looked back at the blurb more than once during part 1, and even wondered if I'd got the wrong book by mistake. Keeping in mind that this first section is almost half the book, I couldn't really see how this Separate Peace-esque story was going to segue to subterranean London and religious conspiracy theories.

Rest assured that it does - if somewhat meanderingly, and via a couple of acrobatic twists that award 20-something Clive an independent fortune and a place studying medicine at Oxford. This second section, "Temerity", is where the story grabbed me. In London, Clive meets a woman, Sam, with an interest in medieval history and an in at Westminster Abbey, via her father, the Dean. I never quite connected with Sam's character, maybe because she seems (at least initially) to function mainly as a vehicle for the information dump that's inescapable in this kind of story. But whether you like her or not, she does get Clive into the Abbey, and face to face with Berengaria, the perfectly preserved, 800 year old, erstwhile wife of Richard the Lionheart, and the ultimate focus of the story.

(Spoilers ahead!)

At this point the book takes a sharp turn from coming-of-age novel to speculative adventure (if that's even a genre?) and the pace picks up quite a bit. I loved the premise that Berengaria was still alive and could be revived, and all the concomitant planning and plotting. Many reviewers complain that the re-entry here of Clive's school friends, all of whom happen to be perfectly positioned to help him with the resurrection, stretches credibility. But doesn't the idea of reviving a dead medieval queen?

Anyway, the "kidnap" of Berengaria is particularly fun, as are her ultimate revival and Clive & co.'s cross-continental flight to avoid the authorities. In section 3, "Serendipity", though, the story falls a bit flat. All along, the purpose for reviving Berengaria has allegedly been the revelations she and her writings will provide, which will undermine the established Christian church. To be honest, I never quite understood how this would work, and maybe that's the point: in a nice bit of dark humor, Clive's purportedly church-shattering worldwide expose fails entirely to elicit any interest.

The problem is that no other purpose for Berengaria ever emerges, beyond her helping some of the individual characters achieve gnosis. I suppose - and respect - that Macgregor didn't want to end his story with a bang. But all through part 3, my inner adrenaline junkie was yelling, "This is a freaking 13th CENTURY WOMAN! Why isn't she going, 'Holy Bloody Hell, save me from this Hell into which I've awakened!' Or at least getting air sick?"

Ah well, I suspect that's just me, and at this point John Macgregor is wishing he'd picked someone rather more erudite to review his book. Anyway, the bottom line is, if you like scholarly adventure stories, and/or intelligent speculative fiction, give this one a try. I promise it'll be time better spent than on Dan Brown!

[Hock Tjoa · Rating 5 out of 5]

​
This is a leisurely but well-told story of friendship (the "propinquity" bit) and "the meaning of life" (no less) retailed in the first person. It begins and ends in Australia (Geelong Grammar School, parts north of Melbourne, the outback in Queensland), with major (nearly two thirds of the book) developments in England (Oxford, Westminster Abbey, Cornwall) and minor episodes elsewhere.

Wit and well-turned phrases abound, making this a great pleasure to read: a Divinity master in the grammar school is introduced complete with degrees, "M.A., D. D." a friend is described as a "great believer in apocalypse, both personal and universal," the aborigines were "not a people you can sum up very tidily," a report of conversations with another character includes the aphorism "nihilism means nothing to me," meeting the Dean of Westminster the MC discovers that "levity was on the Dean's terms or not at all."

Despite the leisurely unfolding of the story, some revelations come with breath-taking compression: the MC's love interest takes all of half a page to think about his overtures and respond with the conclusion that "we would have each other but it would not be enough"; to his later profession of love and desire for family she replies snappily and with finality that they couldn't "breed in captivity."

The telling of the tale of four friends from school saves the author/MC the awkwardness of "flashbacks" to explain who these various individuals were and how come the MC could rely on them unconditionally at critical moments of the great adventure to resuscitate Brerengaria, a late medieval queen who had experiences and documents that would precipitate a cataclysm in established religion.

Much of this large middle portion of the book reads like a thriller, faintly akin to some recent pop-theological-conspiracy pulp fiction. It involves to the "meaning of life" theme of this book and of course that winds up being not a threat to established religion or the world as it is understood but a very personal discovery--redemption, nirvana, gnosis, whatever.

The style of the book, however, is nothing like any of the recent best-selling folderol. There is an old fashioned grace in the language and a dated quality to some of its references: the word "propinquity" itself, a reference to the "hollowness reflected in Punk," John Kerr as a "well preserved" former Governor General of Australia; and the book is dedicated to Gough Whitlam. This is mostly because although the book has been reissued in 2013, it was originally published in 1986 when it won the Adelaide Festival Award.

The award was well-deserved and the book remains a brilliant read.

[Julian Greene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Propinquity
Author: John MacGregor
Published by Amazon Digital Services
ISBN: 148418601X

To compare this book to the DaVinci Code or to Foucault’s Pendulum, those popular bastions of conspiratorial religious intrigue, is to do grave disservice to Propinquity. Propinquity has none of the cheap, frenetic thrills of Dan Brown’s book, nor the mind-bending (read: confusing) complexity of Eco’s Pendulum. Yet either of these books could have been inspired by Propinquity.

When I saw a brief synopsis, I wondered if it had been inspired, as were the others, by Baigent and Leigh’s Holy Blood, Holy Grail, but MacGregor’s obvious personal knowledge of the finer points of his subject matter (in terms of loft, not tedium) laid that thought to rest. Instead of an arresting display of researched knowledge, Propinquity is about knowledge of another depth altogether. Don’t be misled by various synopses; the story doesn’t jump right into the religious intrigue, it is approached stealthily, until one finds himself immersed.

Truthfully, Propinquity deserves to stand on its own merit rather than be compared to any other book. While heresy, alleged murder, and their duly inspired capers within the pages are undeniable central themes of the book, they are far from the core of the work. Given its early copyright date of 1986, part of the purpose may have been a conspiratorial revelation, but it doesn’t matter now. For today’s reader, that cat is already out of the proverbial bag. This leads deeper than surface shock, and, I suspect, that is the whole purpose.
The character development is delicious, and through it all is the thread of…well, of propinquity: proximity for all the characters, as well as for the reader, and for all threads. I wondered initially at the title, but after finishing the book, I doubt anyone could find a title more apropos.

The author conveys a bit of self-consciousness concerning the “lyric imprecision of words,” but he needn’t have worried. One senses that the message itself desired to be revealed. Yet “message” is a misnomer as there is nothing didactic about it—it is straightforward, unambiguous, and unassumingly breathtaking.

It is literate and literary, yet wholly accessible. In the beginning I found it delightfully Joyceian, but it quickly outstrips Joyce in terms of readability. This is a warm, humorous read about friendship, meaning, and self-discovery. However, adding the page-turning religious intrigue ramps it to a different level altogether, leaving you, if you wish, in a higher dimension from whence you departed.

[LibraryGirl2008 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Propinquity is a slow-burning contemporary novel that follows the life of the young, wayward Clive Lean, an Australian medical student who wends his way through existence before stumbling upon a conspiracy involving London’s Westminster Abbey, the religion of Gnosticism, and an 800-year-old cryogenically frozen saint.

Unbeknownst to most people, Berengaria of Navarre, wife of Richard the Lionheart, lies entombed beneath the Abbey in an underground chamber. As we later learn, she was something of a heretic and the disciple of an East Indian Gnostic, but her followers saw her as a sort of female Christ-figure. Yet, as the members of Monty Python are fond of saying, she’s not quite dead—just lying in a drug-induced coma (and there are members of the Holy Church that want to keep her that way). When Clive learns of the location of Berengaria’s body from his girlfriend, the daughter of Berengaria’s caretaker, he and his medical school buddies take on the challenge of trying to resurrect her.

Some have compared Propinquity to The Da Vinci Code, which was published some 17 odd years after Macgregor’s novel. Whereas The Da Vinci Code is all plot and little substance, Propinquity is mostly substance with a dash of plot thrown in—in other words, it’s a novel of ideas and philosophy. There is no real definitive action in the first third of the book. The novel simply coasts along, following various characters as they navigate the course of their offbeat lives, before introducing us to the defining plot element in Chapter 9. It was only after Clive announces his plans to resurrect Berengaria and attempts to put those plans into motion that the novel had my full and undivided attention. However, his plans turn out to be not as important as what Berengaria stands for (Gnosis) and its place as a theme in the story. As I was reading the book, I thought, “There really is too much background story before the interesting part.” But having finished the novel and considering its literary quality, perhaps it’s just the way it should be.

In the end, I’m not quite sure I’m the best person to review philosophical novels. Some parts just went right over my head, and I still couldn’t tell you what Gnosis is, even after reading a dumbed-down explanation of it on the Internet. The reader who will appreciate this novel will be someone who is interested in philosophy, is patient, thoughtful, and overall, open-minded. Propinquity is definitely an interesting read, but overall not recommended for consumers of mainstream/commercial fiction.

[Logan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A while back, I volunteered to review a book entitled Propinquity by John McGregor. And being a procrastinator, I kept putting off doing the review for this awesome book. (And for that, John I completely apologize).
(Warning: Spoilers ahead)
Propinquity is a roller coaster ride that starts off slow. You are first introduced to the characters that will come and go in the book, led by Clive Lean, the man who signs his company away to a man who is a hobo just to avoid the bad mark of having a company go under on his watch. Then there is the liberationist, who is always willing to give his life just because that is the thing to do, and ends up going to Haiti to do just that. Finally there is the man that will end up as the member of Italian Guard.
As Clive leaves his company behind, he decides to go back to school, and meets a woman, who has some interest in Medieval history, specifically the wife of Richard the Lionhearted, Berengaria of Navarre. It is here that the story begins to pick up steam, as the plot begins to explain why Berengaria of Navarre is important. Allegedly, she had some secret writings that were against what the church was preaching and that was the reason she was killed.
So, Clive and the lady goes and starts looking for the queen. Well, they don’t have to look far, as the lady actually knows where the queen is buried since her dad is actually in charge of the church where she is buried, unbeknownst to him. So they break in one night and steal the body and find the writings which are also with the body, and begin to figure out a way to bring Berengaria back to life.
Wait? Bring her back to life? Yes, come to find out, Queen Berengaria was not actually killed, just put into a very deep sleep, and this is where the liberationist comes back into the story. Clive and his girlfriend travel to Haiti to visit a witch doctor who indirectly give him a cure for a sleeping spell. When the Clive and the girlfriend come back, they bring the Queen back and the back story is explained of how the sleeping happened.
Matters are tied up nicely, and the book does a great job of making you think about your beliefs. John has done a lot of research into Medieval culture and the church. The book is well worth your time, and is worth your money on in any media.

[Carl Brookins · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the definitions of the title is a nearness in time. This highly imaginative novel deals with both the twentieth century and the thirteenth. It would appear at first blush there isn’t much. Propinquity. The novel begins in Australia and it ends there. In between, the uncertain narrator touches down in England and Haiti. Moreover, the principal character in the novel is Berengaria of Navarre, wife of Richard I, King of England. She appears to have been a student and perhaps a dispenser of gnosis. Gnosis comes from the Greek for internal secret knowledge which, if properly recognized, leads to an exalted and serene existence.

When the novel begins, Clive Lean is a young student in school in Australia. With friends he muses over the meanings of life and the roles of religions. Once his life develops and he becomes wealthy he journeys to England and through a chance encounter with a randy student of the medieval, is able to explore the crypts of Westminster abbey and to make a surprising discovery. Here, in an unmarked coffin, lies the body of a queen of England. Perhaps.

Why here? Why now? And what messages lie in the ancient documents discovered with the remarkably well-preserved queen, a queen whom, so far as is stated by the chroniclers, never set foot on fair England’s shores. Those questions will only be answered by readers of the novel. I hasten to point out this is not a history text, nor is it a mystery in the conventional sense. Yes, crimes are committed, crimes that result in an international outcry and a multi-continent chase.

All of this activity is related with considerable wit and erudition and a propinquity that will satisfy most readers.
The dialogue is often crisp and sometimes meandering, occasionally thrilling. The many characters in this morality play are clearly and humanely drawn. Unlike many novels in the genre, a good many questions raised during the narrative are never answered and that, ultimately, is, I suppose, the point. At least, one of the points. Because, finally, frustrating though it may be, I suspect that each thoughtful, careful reader will finish the novel with a sigh, a smile and a nod of recognition.

Originally in very limited release in 1986, the occasionally shows its age, but it has aged very well.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

As child grows to man, Australian protagonist Clive Lean waits for exam results and know he's still "confusing God with the education authorities." Meanwhile his father assumes the mantle of "responsibility- and hard work - which has been to this century piety was to others." But times are changing as the Seventies come to Australia. Soon this self sufficient young man will be walking the hallowed grounds of 1970s Oxford colleges. A journey through cults, religious architecture, drug taking and love follows, crossing Dan Brown with Andrea Kaufmann’s Oxford Messed Up, and resulting in a mix of mythological mystery, Australian coming of age story, psychological tale of self-discovery, and Gnosticism reborn from a hidden tomb.

The first half of the novel tells of natural birth, death and coming of age, as the young man twists and turns in the winds of fate, trying to decide his path. Chance sends him to England. Fate and coincidence gather together the perfect investigative team. And a desire to change the world, one institution at a time, is nicely contrasted with the need to change ones self.

Serendipity plays a vital part in this tale, where Gnosticism is a true, lost path, and people who see what they want to see, ignore the mysterious truth of a brand new resurrection. “Her reposeful hands (are) clasped in front of her” and Clive’s “conscious mind seem(s)hardly to function” as mystery deepens in the depths of England’s history. But the story swings again to Australia, coming full circle, closing its gaps, and rescuing its protagonist at last from “that second tomb [of the] heart.”

Complex, world-spanning, history-shattering and more, Propinquity is an intriguing tale, told slowly, with some truly fascinating conversations and arguments behind its cool mystery and startling discoveries. Plenty of food for thought.

Disclosure: I was given a free ecopy and I offer my honest review.

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Descriptions of Clive Lean’s grammar school life in Australia and future plans for medical school doesn’t leave one to think that his life will be especially spectacular. However, as Clive’s friends gradually head off in separate directions, his life takes a couple of detours. Clive winds up at Oxford, England and meets a woman named Sam. Sam’s father is Dean of Westminster Abbey and Clive soon learns that the Abbey is filled with secrets. One of these secrets concerns Berengaria, the wife of Richard the Lionhearted. Sam’s knowledge about Berengaria changes Clive’s life into an unexpected and risky adventure that could turn Christianity upside down.

Propinquity is divided into three sections. After reading the first section of what appeared to be a well-written, thoughtful mainstream story, I wouldn’t have guessed that the story would transform into something of a fantasy. On the other hand, a quest to reveal a startling religious truth does open the door for that possibility. Religion, spirituality, and quests are threaded throughout the story, yet the plot takes a drastic turn when Clive and friends try to do the unthinkable to expose the truth.

Given the subject matter, I was surprised by the lack of a strong antagonist. This novel takes a different approach from the epic good and evil battles of other religious conspiracy stories, which will be refreshing for some, yet disappointing to others. While I was half expected a huge confrontation from Clive’s actions, it’s also true that a good story filled with tension and ethical dilemma doesn’t have to involve lots of shooting and chase scenes to make it entertaining.

[C.M.J. Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

November 7, 2013
Update: The author contacted me and told me he has had the book edited since my original review, which follows:

Knowing the history of Macgregor’s Propinquity made the book a fascinating read; he published it about 18 years before The Da Vinci Code was released, and the material is comparable. But there the similarities end.

Propinquity is not a thriller in the classic sense, and the pith of the story didn’t begin until about chapter 9. However, what it lacked in pace and suspense it more than made up for in humor. Macgregor’s writing is witty, erudite, and amusing, and those qualities, which the book has in spades, are what engaged me. Oddly enough, the story left me feeling that he has great potential as a humorist, although I doubt that that was his goal.

Those of you who follow my reviews know that I’m an editor and that I evaluate and rate with a book’s editorial merit in mind. This book had errors, but none were egregious enough to jerk me out of the story. In evidence were some word misuse, punctuation and spelling mistakes, and typos (e.g., “snapping at my hells,” which was rather Freudian and droll, actually, considering the subject matter). A few places had word repetitions such as “she she” and “telling him telling him.” In short, the manuscript could use a good polishing.

That being said, here’s something I’ve never said before: The wit and sophistication of the work overshadowed its redactional deficiencies, and I was able to ignore them and enjoy the book.

I look forward to what this author has to offer.

[Edo Bosnar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I zipped through this book rather quickly, much like a good genre thriller that you can read on the beach or during travel by air or public transport, it's not by any means "light" reading. It actually covers some really weighty and thought-provoking topics, such as church history, gnosis and even, to some extent, medical ethics, but mainly the personal growth of its central character. And it's all written quite brilliantly in a story that flows and develops quite naturally.
Even though it was written way back in the 1980s, it still seems fresh and topical (in some ways even more so than when it was first published). As an aside, I found the reference to a scandal involving the British prime minister's husband quite amusing...
Needless to say, I highly and warmly recommend this book.

[Paula M. Youmell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enchanting read!

What I thought was a slow beginning was but a leisurely stroll into a serious page turner.

I find it hard to believe this book was not a best seller when originally published in 1986, read the books history and found out it was "stuck" in warehouses due to publishers collapse.

Glad it is back and I stumbled upon it! Thanks to the author for re-releasing.

Stop wasting time reading reviews and order the book, it is a great read!

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overall an interesting book despite it not being the type I usually read. Interesting characters and plot causes me to rate it five stars.

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Richard the Lionheart's widow is a zombie who holds the key to all spiritual knowledge. Geelong Grammar schoolboy (slightly grownup) dezombifies her. She tells every main character the secret, except him (the narrator). Then it fizzles out. The end.

[Chris Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The word propinquity describes the relationships people make, romantic or otherwise, through shared interests or activities. In other words, one is most likely to form a close bond with somebody they spend a lot of time with. And in the case of the novel, Propinquity, by John Macgregor, there are plenty of close bonds formed, between classmates and lovers. Propinquity's first half is largely about the relations between main character Clive Lean and his school buddies, Lake and Gilberte. A romance also brews between Clive and the lovely Sam. While some may complain these early parts are too much background, they are also the book's most entertaining, with some fun encounters involving Clive inheriting his father's failing business, and an experimental drug trip in medical school. It's the book's last half that draws comparisons to The Da Vinci Code, and this is where the book also, unfortunately, loses my interest.

Clive has ambitions to enter medical school, and the grades to do so as well. His closest buddies also share his ambition, but soon other interests get in their way. Lake has a spiritual longing to discover something that will give his life meaning, so he travels to the Australian country side and interacts with some aboriginal people there. Gilberte also loses interest in medical school and travels to Italy to become a bodyguard. A third friend, whose name escapes me, has more radical, socialist ideas and turns his desires to aid a revolutionary cause in Haiti. This leaves Clive distraught, as his core group of friends leaves him with his increasingly disillusioned goal of achieving a medical degree. The death of his father releases this from him as he inherits his father's business.

The business, however, only lasts so long and Clive is yet again on track to earning his doctorate in medicine, this time in Oxford. Here the true plot of the story begins to unfold, when Clive meets Sam, the daughter of the Dean of the Westminster Abbey. Sam teases Clive with some mystery concealed beneath said abbey, and Clive somehow finds this very intriguing. Unfortunately, Clive's enthusiasm failed to infect me. Macgregor very slowly, painfully slowly, prods this secret out from Sam, though he does, in the meantime, make some very amusing detours.

No doubt, the comparisons to The Da Vinci Code are meant to stir greater interest in Propinquity, which was actually written first, but was recently re-published. Not having read Dan Brown's best-seller, my own comparisons will be limited, but I can say both books have to do with the Catholic church hiding, for thousands of years, some secret that would supposedly transform the entire organization if made known. Unfortunately this is where the book becomes its most tedious. When Sam teases Clive with a sense of mystery, I felt a sense of dread that the novel was about to turn away from what had been making it so much fun.

And indeed it does. Part of the problem is that Macgregor does not clearly reveal what this mystery is, or what is truly at stake if its secrets are released to the public. The characters seem very excited to reveal their new discovery to the public, but their excitement also seems to mask a certain naivete. There have been many attempts to discredit firmly established Christian beliefs, particularly those that seek to disprove events in the Bible, but it makes no difference. Faith is not so easily shaken by claims made by even the most expert of historians and scientists. Such a document as Clive and Sam uncover is more likely to go unnoticed except by a very small minority of scholars. This wouldn't be such a problem, however, if Macgregor had set his sights on something more solid than "gnosis," which he never clearly defines.

Macgregor certainly has talent. It's a rare book that makes me laugh out loud as much as this one did. I can't help but wish Macgregor had continued along the same lines as at the novel's start, but then, I guess, where else would it have to go? Perhaps it's simply that this is not the type of story for me, which delves too heavily into an abstract philosophy that seems to hold no real practical value. In the end this feels like two completely different stories mashed together. The first is about a group of young men seeking themselves during college. The second is an action fantasy drama about toppling a major religious institution's beliefs. Surprisingly it's the first that's the most fun. I'd like more of that one.

[Patty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Propinquity starts off as a tale of young men in boarding school in Australia. I must admit it took me a bit to get used to both the writing style and the locale. There are some things that just don't make sense to an American audience unless you have some knowledge of Australia. It's also good I have a decent vocabulary...

The main characters are introduced and they are young men who just don't know where they are going in life. They seem to be meandering along. They graduate and seem to float into medical school as if it's "the thing to do." All except one - he goes off to "find himself." The main character Clive, suddenly finds himself at the head of the family corporation when his father dies unexpectedly. Problems ensue and he soon finds himself heading to England to finish his medical degree. There he meets a lovely young mother who decides to share a burning secret that she has kept for the longest time. This is where the supposed Dan Brown similarities pop in. But to me it really wasn't anything like a Dan Brown novel and that is both good and bad. It had the silliness of plot at the core of the whole "the Catholic Church has been lying to us for millenia" aspect but the characters were a touch more developed and interesting and to be honest had the book just followed these gentlemen to some sort of conclusion I think I would have enjoyed the book more.

It really seemed like two different books squished together for lack of complete definition of either one. The first one about the coming of age of young men in Australia had more promise - at least in my opinion. The second one about resurrecting a medieval queen was like a Keystone Cops adventure. I don't know - I am not one to shy away from the impossible in my reading; I do love a good time travel novel but it has to be presented with some semblance of plausibility and this just didn't have that to me. It just fell short in too many ways. I found it hard to believe that this young woman would give up her secret so easily. I found it hard to believe she would accept Clive sharing it so cavalierly and I found it hard to believe that this body would remain in stasis for 800 years and just arise. The plot needed more development to make me believe. I suspect I could have been made that believer but the start of the book had been written in such a way as to hold me as a reader at a remove. Perhaps it's an American vs. Australian way of looking at things. I don't know. But I just couldn't invest in the second plot and gnosis wasn't mine.

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Propinquity is a book that should be read by a lake, or in a cabin in the mountains, slowly and without rushing. The book unfolds leisurely, without the dramatic cliffhangers and increased tensions that mark current commercial novels.

Written in the early 80s and re-released in 2013, the book bears the marks of a time past when there were no reality TV shows, no available Internet. Although those of us who lived in that time felt the ramped up speed that left the slower 50s and 60s behind, the comparison for today's reader leaves the 70s and 80s looking like something from a horse-and-buggy era. (I also would have enjoyed this book much more had there been fewer typos and errors.)


All that by way of saying that Macgregor eschews the cliffhanger and allows the characters to drift into adulthood, waver into the big adventure, and alas, waffle through to the ending. The four boys we first encounter in their final year of Australian high school grow up, go their separate ways, and their threads weave through the book and the main character's life with no intensity or drive, just a slow, almost coincidental meandering.

About a third of the way through the book Clive Lean, the protagonist, goes off to London, and by mid-point has met Samantha (Sam) the woman he will love, and has seen the "corpse" of Queen Berengaria, wife of Richard the Lionhearted and dead for 800 years. Clive's quest to revive Berengaria and to understand the cataclysmic shock to organized Christianity that her life and death (and life) will cause, are the central points of the second half of the book.

This is an interesting book. It allows the reader to travel with Clive, enjoy his trips from Australia to London, Oxford to Port-au-Prince Haiti, and wonder about Christianity and Gnosis. But we never really feel Clive's wonderment, and it's questionable whether Clive ever really feels anything himself. It is not a religious book, it is a philosophical coming of age story, to be enjoyed slowly.

3.5 stars

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Never have I ever read anything like Propinquity before. I literally had mixed feelings for this book. I absolutely hated one half of it and absolutely loved the other.

This book started out terribly boring and had a insufferably slow pace. So boring, in fact, that I was half reading-half snoozing up until I reached its second half, by which the main plot has only started to unravel little by little. In more times than once did I find myself fighting the urge to put down this book, give it one star rating, and mark it as a DNF.

My primary issue was that I wasn't particularly pleased with how Clive's background story - his experiences in high school and all - were forced in there before the real story began. Since it didn't play that much of a part in the later chapters and in the actual plot, I wish that the author had just cut it short and made it a brief introduction rather than stretching the main character's past stories by a dozen chapters long.

Things got much much more interesting, Thank God, on the latter 50 percent of the book. The writer did a much, much better job in storytelling and the events that transpired from that point were so spectacular. The teamwork between him and his colleagues, the infatuation between him and Sam, the journey they underwent in a quest to revive the medieval queen. The climax was one of my favorite parts of the book, but the one I loved the most was Clive's trip to Haiti. I really got a glimpse into their culture and beliefs and I find it amazing when writers succeed to make me feel like I've been to a certain place when I actually haven't.

If I could give the 1st half of this book a one star, and the 2nd half of it a five star rating - I would, believe me. But for now, I'm giving it three stars for such a tragic beginning and yet a beautiful ending.

[Sarah-Jayne Briggs · Rating 2 out of 5]

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

So... the blurb of this book made it sound really intriguing, but having reached the end, I feel like I've missed a lot about what this story was about.

One of the biggest issues I had with this book was that I felt it took a long time to get to the actual plot. Apart from a strange dream, no mention at all was made of the Queen until about 40% of the way through the book. I felt a lot of the first part could have been condensed down. I wasn't able to connect with the POV character very well and I got very confused about what time period the book was set in. The speech was, at times, quite formal - more suited to Victorian times than modern day.

The use of history wasn't too bad, though there was a summary of the monarchy that I found was quite boring to read. There was also a lot of summarising of conversations and things. Once they found the body, the story moved a bit faster, but up until then, I felt that a lot of the book was unnecessary - especially the car accident that seemed to have no further relevance. Also, I was more than 50% of the way through the book before finding out the name of the main character.

I did find some of the books to be quite contradictory. For instance, the group is medically trained enough to perform certain procedures, but don't use the correct term for medical instruments.

I was a bit disappointed by how hard this book was to read. It did have one of my pet peeves - switching between first and third person. I think this book could have been improved greatly, but I didn't feel any emotional connection to the characters. There was too much telling rather than showing and not enough character development.

[Rena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Copy received from Giveaway.

I find this story to be quite enjoyable to read. The events of the story flows quite smoothly from one event to another. While religion was quite a big topic within this story, I find that I can understand it quite a bit a it didn't delve too deeply into it and breaking up the story with dry religious dialogue.

The reason for only 3 stars is because while I realize that building the main protagonist character is important for the story, I was more interested in the person that they were going to revive that was hinted throughout the storyline and unfortunately for me, the ball only started rolling towards the second-half of the book. At one point, I even forgot what the story was even about when I read the first-half.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed this book quite a bit and would recommended to whoever like this sort of story to give it a go. It has been compared to 'The Da Vinci Code' and while I have never read that one, I feel that it will be pretty similar albeit a little less convoluted.

[Annette Rothery · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have awarded Propinquity three stars because as far as I am concerned it had a basic flaw - the main characters had nothing about them that made me care about them. I neither liked nor disliked them. Clive Lean, the protagonist, is , I feel, a rather shallow, self-centred individual

The Kindle version that I read has lots of errors - spelling mistakes, mis-types, duplicated words etc - all of which should have been edited out for this edition.

I can agree with other reviewers that much of the book is well written and I enjoyed reading about the school days, the trip to Haiti and the abduction of Berengaria. But it just felt contrived rather than a natural story progression from start to finish. I certainly think that Berengaria will be thankful that it is all fantasy and that she is much happier to be safely buried in the abbey at l'Epau, rather than living in Australia with this bunch of misfits.

I wonder if John Macgregor would make alterations to the basic story if he was writing it today?

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The blurb of Propinquity was very intriguing and that was what pulled me into reading this book, unfortunately I couldn't really get into the story. I wasn't connected with the characters and to me the entire book was disjoined. It was like a leg was stuck with super glue in place of a hand. Though the entire idea was amazing it just wasn't what I wanted to read. The thing I liked was Clive's character. I think that was what forced me to plough through the book. Another thing I liked about Propinquity was the fact that they were college kids instead of high school ones. That was a plus point...

OVERALL THIS BOOK RECIEVES A 3.5

*Received this book for an honest review

[Kimberly Loschiavo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book free in return for a review.

This book is so strange, but in an awesome way. It is so out of the norm of my usual stack of reading material. what drawn me to this book was his history and backstory. This book is not a quick read though, and in this case thats not a bad thing.

There is a lot of story packed into this book, and then after some serious buildup comes the thrill.

I am so thankfull I said yes to reading this book. I would put it in my top 10 I've read this year.

[Nanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like a good conspiracy theory book and I liked the many different twists and turns in this one. The characters were well thought out and adventurous and it was a good read. I recommend it to those who liked the Da Vinci Code since it is in the same genre.