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Reviewed by Ruffina Oserio for Readers' Favorite
In Michael O’Neill’s Lilli’s Question, an idealistic seminarian encounters a young girl, Lilli Geisler, on a bus while backpacking through Europe. Their brief connection ends in Madrid, where Lilli asks the question that would haunt him throughout his life: “Why be a priest?” Jim McGann’s odyssey begins in 1960 with this encounter and follows his journey across decades as he endures the trauma of losing a brother, Tommy, to war in Vietnam, experiences a crisis in his vocation while serving at St. Robert’s Parish, his stint in Wisconsin, and a journey that makes him grow in the ranks of the church to become a controversial bishop. His passionate, chaste love affair with a woman named Sally in Big Sur challenges so many of his theological ideals. Now Archbishop of San Francisco, he is inspired by Lilli’s question to challenge some aspects of the church’s doctrine, especially ecclesial inequality. Why would he risk everything to stand against a tradition that has defined the church for centuries?
Michael O’Neill’s book explores the question that many Christians struggle with and presents a hero in a priest who is deeply human and flawed. He is a man of great intellect yet plagued with uncertainty; he is compassionate but restrained by his religious vows. Other characters are well-drawn, especially Father Frank Gazzardo, the closest friend to Jim since seminary days; a man not easily fooled, short, often blunt, yet irreverently smart. Lilli’s Question offers a thoughtful reflection on the loneliness of religious leadership and questions whether staying faithful to institutions can blend well with prophetic witness. This story uses a first-person narrative voice that is meditative and infused with psychological realism. The novel was a page-turner for me, and the vividly rendered backdrops gave clear images of the sunlight of the Rhône Valley, the Catholic culture of San Francisco, and the desert of Nevada that reflects both despair and retreat. The finest book I have read on sacrifice, vocation, and the courage it takes to reform long-held traditions.
