Eucharist (or ‘The Lark Ascending’)

Abstract

The story is told from the point of view of a mysterious ‘other’, who narrates the life of a Church of England Priest encountering a crisis of faith after a calamitous event has disturbed the habitual tranquillity of the Parish. At times, the story becomes a kind of dialogue between the Priest and this mysterious narrator, but for the most part is narrated with a ‘you’ voice. The technique inevitably and inescapably foregrounds the presence of the narrator, and invites the reader to question that narrator's identity to a greater extent than in either the third- or first-person (in the latter case, this identity is usually made explicit). In the case of my own story, this identity is the key to the outcome. If the reader is able to identify imaginatively with this narrator, then the technique can be very effective; if not, the reader can feel disenfranchised from the creative process. In short, if the technique works, the reader takes on the perspective of the character and is ‘invited into’ the text; if it fails, the voice becomes impenetrable and excluding.