Glittering Images is the first of a six-book collection known as the Starbridge series by Susan Howatch. I originally read her St Benet's trilogy, which comes after, and would classify those as "guilty pleasures". The two collections have some overlapping characters, so since I found St Benet's so engaging, I didn't hesitate to purchase the entire Starbridge series in anticipation of bingeing them. Unfortunately, that was approximately four years ago, and it's only been within a month that I completed my first of the six-book series.
Non-Spoiler Review
Charles Ashworth is a canon of the Christian faith. It pains me to admit that I can't specify further. I've read four books that exist within this universe, but I couldn't tell you what branch of Christianity they come from. Anyway, he is the prodigy of an arch deacon named Dr. Lang, who suspects one of his colleagues, a man named Jardine, of some manner of scandalous behaviour. Jardine is a religious authority with a lot of charisma, who has put forward a controversial motion to broaden the acceptable parameters for divorce. To make sure that Jardine's moral fiber lives up to his sterling reputation, Dr. Lang sends Charles to vacation at his residence to try and dig up as much dirt as he can.
Charles' investigation into Jardine's personal life is like, 200 pages of this 400 page book, and it's boring. It's mostly him rubbing elbows with Jardine's colleagues and slowly revealing his surface-level backstory. Things do eventually heat up, but it was within these first 200 pages that I initially gave up on the book.
The book might suffer a little from the fact that it exists mostly within the church. The protagonists of each of the St Benet's trilogy are people who initially exist outside of it. All the religious formality made things seem really rigid.
Of the four Howatch books I've read, this one is definitely the weakest. You can see indications of techniques that she would eventually use to great effect, but in this early product of hers, you can definitely tell there were some growing pains. I would recommend her St Benet's trilogy, which is later in the timeline, and there will be some references that you'll miss because of it, but they're just just better books. They're written so that you can read them as stand alones. If you like those enough, then maybe do like I'm doing and try her earlier works.
Spoiler Review
So like I said above, the first half of this 400 page book is dedicated to Charles' investigation into the personal life of Jardine. The second half has to do with Charles falling apart after being convinced of a scandalous occurrence and confronting the Jardine residence about it. Then he's forced to seek spiritual guidance from Jonathan Darrow (father of Nicholas Darrow, if you've read St Benet's) and rehabilitated. Then he reingages with his own family dynamic, learns he was adopted, meets his adoptive father, and then reengages with the Jardine residence. He then finds out that, while he was in a spiritually immature state when he confronted the Jardines, he was technically right about everything, he is genuinely in love with Jardine's assistant/secret wife, and manages to wrest her from the household and marry him.
So yeah, second half of the book is way more interesting than the first.
To clarify, the title of the novel glittering images is supposed to represent the sham, fake persona we put to the world to make ourselves look better than we are. Despite being an acclaimed professional, Charles is impacted by his childhood, influenced by having a secret father he wasn't aware of, causing him to deal with defensiveness from his adoptive father. He also grapples from outliving his first wife, who died in a car crash when she ran away from him after he accidentally expressed his frustration after learning that she was pregnant.
He suppresses his guilt, shame, and frustration. He puts forward a "glittering image" of a professional with no flaws. He needs to learn to confront and accept himself for who he is, which is the premise of the story.
It was a little weird that basically every theory Charles comes up with about the Jardines is correct. He shows up at their house, drunk and belligerent. He accuses Jardine of secretly marrying Lyle and tricking her into it. This gets him sent to Jon Darrow. Later on, everything he suspected turns out to be true and Lyle winds up marrying Charles.
I feel the need to at least mention that Charles meets his biological father. His adoptive dad picked up the pieces when his biological one wasn't able to and kept the whole situation under wraps. His bio dad chose not to disrupt things until Charles confronted him. He's a successful guy. Professional and charismatic, but with a history of trouble with addictions and women. Charles is eventually able to accept him, albeit with the disturbing understanding of how similar they are in their life struggles.
Overall, I would say this book shows the seeds of some of Howatch's stronger writing techniques. She is able to make you doubt the protagonist while giving you reason to feel that the story will validate him, only to later on justify your initial doubts. She builds up to an iconic possession scene, which seems to be a staple of her stories.
My favourite thing about Howatch's writing style is her unreliable narrator. This is best done when the book is shared between multiple perspectives. However, while this book only has one narrator, there is a stark contrast between the "glittering image" of Charles in the first half compared to his more genuine self in the second.
Overall, the second half is worth reading a lot more than the first, and I'd recommend The Wonder Worker as a better entry into the world of Howatch
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