Analysis of depicting saga fiction in the novel earthly powers by anthony burgess

The main idea of the novel “Earthly Powers” by Anthony Burgess and analysis of depicting Saga fiction
Earthly Powers is a panoramic saga novel of the 20th century by Anthony Burgess first published in 1980. It begins with the "outrageously provocative" first sentence: "It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me."
On one level it is a parody of a "blockbuster" novel, with the 81-year-old hero, Kenneth Toomey (allegedly loosely based on British author W. Somerset Maugham), telling the story of his life in 82 chapters. It "summed up the literary, social and moral history of the century with comic richness as well as encyclopedic knowingness", according to Malcolm Bradbury.
The novel appeared on the shortlist for the Booker Prize in the year of its publication but lost out to William Golding's Rites of Passage. In an October 2006 poll in The Observer, it was named joint third for the best work of British and Commonwealth fiction of the last 25 years (along with Ian McEwan's Atonement, Penelope Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower, Kazuo Ishiguro's The Unconsoled, and Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children).
Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess is an exercise in narcissism and self-indulgence. The main topics in the story are good vs. evil and homosexuality. The story begins in the 1970s, back tracks to 1918, and then moves forward to return to the 1970s when the main character, Kenneth Toomey is an old man.
The story begins with noted author Kenneth Marchal Toomey celebrating his 81st birthday. Toomey lives in Tangier with his secretary/lover Geoffrey Enwright. Toomey is visited by the Archbishop of Malta who requests that Toomey write about his brother-in-law, Carlo Campanati aka Pope Gregory XVII. Carlo had performed a miracle that would ensure that he be canonized in the Roman Catholic Church. Toomey was the only witness to the miracle.
Toomey struggles greatly with his homosexuality and how it wars with his values and the values of the Church. Although Toomey accepts his orientation, the Church does not, and it causes a great deal of doubt, trouble and pain for the writer. Toomey seeks advice from several church officials throughout the book, none of which is sympathetic or very helpful.
Toomey confesses to his sister, Hortense, who confides the secret in their mother. Both condemn Toomey's choices and ensure that Toomey's father never learns the truth.
Toomey becomes involved with a series of men who are either unavailable or abusive. The first lover is Val, a young man who abuses Toomey. Toomey eventually has an affair with Rodney Selkirk, a married man. Toomey is arrested for homosexual activity and flees the country shortly before his trial. Rodney dies of the flu. During this time, Toomey's mother also dies.
Toomey's father remarries and Hortense moves in with Toomey. Hortense meets and marries Domenico Campanati, a jazz musician. Domenico is the brother of Carlo Campanati, a priest who will eventually become Pope Gregory XVII.
Carlo and Domenico have another brother, Raffele, who, when fighting against the Chicago mob, is murdered.
Toomey becomes close to Carlo's mother, Concetta, a stalwart women who openly opposes the Nazis and attempts to kill Heinrich Himmler. Concetta dies and Toomey learns more about her activities through her personal effects.
Carlo continues his work and rises rapidly through the Church until he is named Pope. Carlo, a man who loves excess, lives only five years after his inauguration.
Hortense becomes a successful sculptor but suffers many personal tragedies including the dissolution of her marriage to Domenico, the death of her son, John, and the death of her granddaughter Eve. Hortense has also lost an eye in a tragic accident and spends the rest of her years working and being cared for by her lover, Dorothy.
Toomey continues to travel around the world, basking in his notoriety and often getting into trouble for his actions. Toomey is eventually mugged in Rome and moves to England to live out his days with Hortense.
Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess follows protagonist Kenneth Toomey, a retired gay writer, on the day of his eighty-first birthday. Although Kenneth has achieved much commercial success, he does not feel that he has produced any work that he would consider high art, therefore, feeling a sense of failure as a writer. He feels isolated as a result of his homosexuality, which ended his ties with his family as well as the church. Throughout the novel, Burgess contrasts Kenneth’s character with that of Carlo Campanati, a priest who seeks reform, the adopted son of an affluent Italian family. While Kenneth is intensely pessimistic, Carlo is an eternal optimist.
As the novel opens, Kenneth is in bed with a young boy when he receives news that the Archbishop of Malta has come to see him. After getting himself together, Kenneth greets the Archbishop, who has come to request that Kenneth attest to the fact that the recently deceased Carlo Campanati once performed a certain miracle cure in Chicago, making him eligible for canonization.
The rest of the novel consists of Kenneth’s reminiscing about past events, which takes the reader on a journey through the better part of the twentieth century, beginning with Kenneth’s early memories of coming to terms with his sexuality. When he was still a young writer, Kenneth recalls confiding in his sister, Hortense, about his sexual orientation. Hortense reveals this information to their mother, who writes Kenneth a strongly-worded letter expressing her disappointment.
Kenneth thinks that he might turn to the church to provide him some solace in his time of need, but after confessing his homosexuality to a priest, he finds that he is chastised and rejected. Feeling out of sorts without family or the church in his life, Kenneth realizes he must, nevertheless, live a life that is true to himself. He begins a romantic relationship with Rodney Selkirk, an actor who is performing in one of Kenneth’s satirical plays being put on in London. One night, when Rodney and Kenneth are in bed together, the door bursts open and Rodney’s wife catches them in the act. She is accompanied by two police officers that arrest Kenneth on the spot. Kenneth decides to leave England rather than await trial, nervous as to what the outcome would be. He is unable to return home for many years after his departure.
After Kenneth leaves England, a deadly influenza outbreak claims many lives from 1917 until 1918. Both Rodney and Kenneth’s mothers fall victim to the disease. Kenneth’s sister, Hortense, comes to visit him in Paris, and Kenneth introduces her to his friend, Domenico Campanati, the brother of Carlo and Raffaele Campanati. Hortense is instantly attracted to Domenico, making it her mission to seduce him. By the end of the year, the two are married, and shortly thereafter, Hortense gives birth to twins.
Kenneth goes to Chicago, where Raffaele lives and works as an importer of Italian goods. While Kenneth is there, Raffaele is murdered by the mob. Carlo Campanati rushes to be with his brother, but by the time he arrives, Raffaele is already gone. Devastated, Carlo wanders the hospital, crossing paths with a teenaged boy Godfrey Manning who is dealing with a fatal case of tuberculosis. Moved by the boy’s condition, Carlo offers him his blessing, after which the boy makes a miraculous recovery. The story of the boy’s recovery circulates around the hospital and is written about by one of the doctors. Kenneth also witnesses the event; the Archbishop of Malta is hoping Kenneth will attest to this sighting in order to move forward with Carlo’s canonization.
Certain ironies surrounding Carlo’s religious fervor emerge later on in the novel, for example, when John, Hortense’s son, and both Kenneth and Carlo’s nephew, and his wife, Laura, go to Rukwa to study African culture. In Rukwa, John and Laura are murdered and cannibalized by natives who have been converted to Christianity and who interpret the consumption of the body of Christ literally.
In another twist of irony, Ann’s daughter, Eve, and her husband have moved out to live on a commune in the California desert led by the charismatic God Manning, a character modeled after Jim Jones. A congressman comes to investigate the commune and is shot and killed. Afterward, the members of the commune take cyanide and die. The leader of the cult is the same person Carlo saved miraculously in the hospital in Chicago years earlier.
At the end of the novel, Kenneth is back in England living with his sister, Hortense. He has finally come to terms with his own homosexuality and the judgment brought upon him by his family and the church.