The Wonder Worker
by Susan Howatch
List Price: $14.00
Pages: 561
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0449001504
Publisher: Fawcett Columbine
Susan Howatch was born in 1940. She obtained a law degree from London
University and then immigrated to the United States, where she lived for
eleven years. During that time she wrote eight novels, including her international
bestsellers, Penmarric and The Wheel of Fortune. In 1980
she returned to England, where she began to study Church history. The
result was the six novels that make up the Starbridge series. In
1993 she made headlines by funding a lectureship in theology and natural
science at Cambridge University.
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Q: You've previously written about Nicholas Darrow, Lewis Hall, and Venetia Hoffenberg in the Starbridge
books, yet The Wonder Worker isn't a sequel, exactly. What made
you come back to these characters?
SH: At the end of Mystical Paths (book 5 of the Starbridge series) there is a flash-forward
to Nicholas Darrow's ministry of healing at St. Benet's church in London
in 1988. After the Starbridge books, I wanted to write a novel
about the ministry of healing set in modern London. It made sense to pick
up Nicholas Darrow's situation and use it, spinning off three or four
Starbridge characters.
Q: You often use the viewpoints of several different characters to tell a story. What are some of the
difficulties in giving each character his or her own voice, and, particularly,
in speaking so convincingly through different genders?
SH: I do not find it difficult to give each character his or her own voice unless the character
is very like me. Fortunately, this is a great rarity--although of course
there is something of myself in each character. As for gender, it's simply
an aspect of personality, of varying degrees of interest or importance.
My interest in people lies way beyond the stereotypical boundaries of
gender. As Jung said, a man's soul does not reside in his genitals.
Q: You've described having multiple narrators as resembling "how it is after an accident: Everyone
tells a different story--and none of them is entirely right." Is there
a story for you as an author that is truer than any of the individual
characters' stories?
SH: There should be a story for the reader that is greater than any one of the individual
narrations. This is because the reader is put by me in the position of
God--i.e., he or she has the whole overview, and knows more about the
characters in the end than they know about each other.
Q: Alice's narration opens and closes the book, which gives her version of the events more prominence.
Why did you choose Alice for this role instead of one of the other characters?
SH: The fact that Alice narrates two sections instead of one does not make her more important
than the other narrators. The story simply required her to do the beginning
and end.
Q: Alice shares a name with the heroine of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, something that
Lewis Hall notes in his section of the book. Carroll's Alice seems to
be the quintessentially sensible and down-to-earth British girl in a frequently
irrational world. Do you see your Alice as sharing some of her qualities?
Is she in a similar situation?
SH: Alice is certainly exploring an unknown, fascinating, and occasionally alarming world like
Carroll's Alice. But the comparison with Alice shouldn't be pushed too
far.
Q: The British title for this book was A Question of Integrity, while the American version
is The Wonder Worker. Both titles seem to me to refer to Nicholas
Darrow. Was that your intention? Did you mean for the titles to refer
to any of the other characters?
SH: The Wonder Worker was my own choice of title, and I'm glad the Americans kept it. The name
A Question of Integrity was purely a marketing decision made by
my UK publishers. All the characters in the book wrestle with integrity
versus fragmentation/corruption. The Wonder Worker applies not
only to Nicholas Darrow but also to Lewis and indeed to anyone practicing
the ministry of healing--it is the "shadow" side of every true, honest
healer and can take over with disastrous results if ever they're tempted
to lose their integrity. Nicholas Darrow enacts this theme in the story.
Q: Nicholas begins the book very successful in his relations with others, yet ends disastrously. Alice
in turn begins disillusioned with life, yet ends believing in Nicholas
after everyone else has abandoned him. Could you speak some about the
themes of fall and redemption, which these reversals suggest?
SH: Once Nicholas was destabilized (by his collapsing marriage) he became self-centered instead
of God-centered--i.e., he lost his integrity, his focus on a balanced
life, and allowed his pride, his arrogance, and his selfishness to gain
the upper hand. The story describes how he was helped to recognize this,
regret it, and try very hard to turn over a new leaf and get his act together
so he could begin a new life. This illustrates the great Christian themes
of sin, repentance, forgiveness, redemption, resurrection, and renewal.
Alice, on the other hand, simply develops her personality as she is finally
enabled to embark on a process of self-realization. This too is a Christian
theme: the more fully ourselves we become, the more we can play an individually
designed part in God's creative scheme of things.
Q: One critic has written about your work, "There's a lot of demonology in these books, but done
in simultaneous translation into psychodrama, so if you prefer to think
of jealousy, rage and denial in Freudian terms, rather than as the devil
within you, you will be comfortable." Nicholas and Lewis are both clerical
figures, yet both speak in the language of secular humanistic self-help
programs. Do you see a tension between religious belief and faith in modern
psychology? Are you suggesting that this is a direction religion is taking
in the modern world?
SH: There should be no tension between psychology and Christianity. They both deal with the
soul and are both concerned with helping people to become more fully themselves
and to lead the richest possible life. Unfortunately, some forms of Christianity
and some forms of psychology hype up the differences and make them seem
more opposed than they really are. There are indeed differences between
the two disciplines, but there is no reason they should not be regarded
as complementary paths to the truth. There are many Christian priests
who are qualified psycho-therapists/counselors/psychologists and feel
comfortable speaking both languages, just as Nicholas and Lewis do in
the book. I do not think it's a particularly new direction, since long
before Freud, spiritual guides were demonstrating a profound understanding
of the human psyche.
Q: You yourself have made a spiritual journey as a writer, from the earlier Gothic mysteries and
family epics to the Starbridge series and then this book. What
led you to become a writer in the beginning, and how do you feel your
writing, and your relationship to it, has changed?
SH: I write because I enjoy it. I still write because I enjoy it. I think the creative high
is the most powerful form of pleasure there is. Unfortunately, for every
creative high there are hours and hours of hard slog, so one isn't always
in a state of ecstasy!
Q: What is the function of the epigraphs before each section and chapter?
SH: I thought the quotes at the beginning of each chapter were an interesting reference to the
actual traditional Christian ministry of healing as it is practiced in
the U.K. today--it deals with a whole range of modern malaises and sheds
fascinating lights on the healing process and God's role in it.
Q: Rosalind says that wonder workers "can never resist the temptation to Ôfix' people," and even Nicholas
uses this term, "fix," sometimes. Doesn't this suggest a mechanistic view
of healing?
SH: Rosalind was speaking
caustically about a ministry of which she totally disapproved. Nicholas
uses the term "fix" when he disapproves of his own drive to power. True
honest healers don't "fix" people. They heal by the grace of God through
Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit. It's the wonder workers who "fix"
people to bolster their egos and satisfy their craving for power.
Q: The crisis in the book seems to be sparked by Nicholas and Rosalind's estrangement, which is
due to his devotion to his work at the church. Do you see a religious
calling as fundamentally incompatible with most "normal" marriage commitments?
SH: A religious calling need be no more incompatible with marriage than any other career. But
as with other professions, marriages can suffer if the parties don't get
the balance right. Some priests prefer not to marry, some priests do.
It really all depends on what kind of person you are and how you want
to organize your energy.
Q: Critics frequently refer to Trollope and C.S. Lewis when they discuss your work. Who are your strongest
literary influences?
SH: Trollope. Iris Murdoch. Graham Greene. Raymond Chandler. Not C.S. Lewis.
Q: What do you want readers to get out of this novel?
SH: Pleasure. A novelist's primary duty is to entertain. If readers also get enriched or enlightened
or inspired or whatever as a by-product of the entertainment, that's fine,
but none of that will happen unless the book is first and foremost readable
and entertaining.
Excerpted from The Wonder Worker © Copyright 2008 by Susan Howatch. Reprinted with permission by Fawcett Columbine. All rights reserved.
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