My previous review spent far too much time on how I discovered Smeriglia, followed by some thoughts thoughts on his first comic collection. There was also a bit of explaining some things about Italy. This review is going to have a fair bit of commentary itself but in the middle.
Preti: Il mistero della fede (Priests: The mystery of the faith) is about a young priest who goes to a parish for a three month internship. Comedy ensues.
That’s it. That’s all I got for the synopsis, and frankly I think that is all I need. Like the previous short story collection, this is a satire. That might not be immediately evident. I hate to say this book failed, but I think it is guilty of preaching to the choir. Let me elaborate.
The young priest goes to a parish for a three month internship, but who is running that church. Well, it can be looked at as if it is run by the most incompetent priest in the world. That would be the interpretation if you are coming to this book from a point of view of faith. The elderly priest often responds to difficult questions with the most ridiculously cliched answers possible:
(Panel 1: YP: What do you think of the bible?
OP: Now… It’s not like I read it every day.
Panel 2: YP: Well, in general?
OP: Well, sure, it’s a great book
Panel 3: YP: Sure, I noticed that too.
OP: Y’know, it depends on what you’re look for.
Panel 4: OP: After all it a very complex book.
Panel 5: YP: But, do you think is has allegorical stories or should be taken literally?
OP: Depends.
Panel 6: YP: On what?
OP: The sensible parts should be taken literally. The rest is allegory.)
Yea, that’s funny. But it is funny because this is the kind of shit I have heard from believers over the years. In that light, it is a critique of the silliness of faith in general. But I wonder to what extent someone will write this off as being about an incompetent priest alla Father Ted.
I don’t know how this book is for. Italians are shipped off to Sunday school, but as far as I can tell from my tenure here it really doesn’t stick. Sure, the catholic church is located here, but we aren’t Poland. When you compare religiosity here in Italy to religiosity in the USA, I know which one looks like the more back-ass-ward country of religious zealotry, and it isn’t the one famous for its wine. Italy seems downright secular compared to Joel Osteen’s America. Perhaps I just have the wrong perspective on this, coming from a largely secular family in a largely secular part of the country.
But this isn’t meant to be a blog of political analysis. If you can read Italian, dislike the church, and want a decent laugh, than pick this up. I find Smeriglia’s drawings to be cute, and largely effective for what I think he is trying to do. If you are interested and don’t speak Italian, this whole series started as YouTube videos, and you can find them there with English subs (I think). Some of Smeriglia’s work gets posted to instagram in translation, so that is another option you can check out.
Failures in Polymathy 