The Problem of Sacrifice in Mary Gordon’s Final Payments

Abstract

Abstract: This article examines how Mary Gordon’s Final Payments (1978) represents a transition in the portrayal of sacrifice in Catholic fiction from pre-1965 works by Mauriac, Greene, and O’Connor to more contemporary ones. Further, when read in dialogue with the concerns of prominent feminist theologians, the novel’s uniqueness comes into sharper focus. Against this backdrop, Final Payments prefigures more recent contemporary Catholic novels that also explore the theme of sacrifice, but with even greater ambiguity. Final Payments thereby both responds to earlier Catholic fiction as well as foreshadows the works of subsequent decades.