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Evil: A Novel
Newly appointed professor Dee P. Scrutari turns her anthropological gaze on the tribe of males who dominate St. Jude’s, a prestigious Jesuit liberal arts college in the northeast United States. When she can’t get a straight answer to her question of what happened to the previous occupant of her freshly painted office, she teams up with a band of colleagues marginalized by the college—a liberation theology nun, a gay priest, and a Jew—to find out what evil lurks in the department of religious studies. A feminist spoof at once funny, sobering, provocative, and full of affection for the academic world, this book is as brave and unflinching as Dee P. Scrutari herself.
200 pages, Paperback
First published October 28, 2005
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 6, 2015
A Jesuit-owned college in Connecticut is the scene of Diane Bell’s 2005 novel of intrigue in academia and the Church.
Professor Dee Scrutari is newly appointed to the faculty of St Jude’s, and she uses her anthropological expertise to assess what she sees around her – brilliant women whose ideas and experience are tolerated, but barely encouraged by the hierarchy. And the strange story of her immediate predecessor, deceased, and the lingering sense of disquiet in the quarters she once occupied – into which Dee has just moved.
As the academic years 1995-97 unfold, Dee and a small group of cohorts attempt to assist students to break through the confines imposed by the senior male faculty members, without suffering dire consequences.
When they start digging up dirt on some members of the Church, including one of St Jude’s own, the anonymous threatening phone calls begin.
Bell’s novel provides a fascinating insight into late 20th century double standards, and reminds us that, where progress has been made, it is not as great as we would have hoped.
“Evil” is both social commentary on the period it depicts and a mystery all the more sinister for the way it reflects mores, behaviours and intolerances still prevalent today – just better disguised for being socially unacceptable.
So much for the message… as for the story, well, I’ll just say I felt the resolution lacked sufficient drama to be satisfying.
Review by Kerry Hennigan
6 March 2015.
Professor Dee Scrutari is newly appointed to the faculty of St Jude’s, and she uses her anthropological expertise to assess what she sees around her – brilliant women whose ideas and experience are tolerated, but barely encouraged by the hierarchy. And the strange story of her immediate predecessor, deceased, and the lingering sense of disquiet in the quarters she once occupied – into which Dee has just moved.
As the academic years 1995-97 unfold, Dee and a small group of cohorts attempt to assist students to break through the confines imposed by the senior male faculty members, without suffering dire consequences.
When they start digging up dirt on some members of the Church, including one of St Jude’s own, the anonymous threatening phone calls begin.
Bell’s novel provides a fascinating insight into late 20th century double standards, and reminds us that, where progress has been made, it is not as great as we would have hoped.
“Evil” is both social commentary on the period it depicts and a mystery all the more sinister for the way it reflects mores, behaviours and intolerances still prevalent today – just better disguised for being socially unacceptable.
So much for the message… as for the story, well, I’ll just say I felt the resolution lacked sufficient drama to be satisfying.
Review by Kerry Hennigan
6 March 2015.
Displaying 1 of 1 review