The Book of the Needle
Arise Evans (a historical character) is a Welsh mystic and tailor who finds himself in the religious and political turmoil or the mid-17th century. Forced to leave his rural home and become an apprentice tailor, he moves closer and closer to the centre of events, ending up in London, where he tries to persuade the great and good (and the great and bad) that his visions have been granted by God to enable him to make prophecies that are of critical significance to the kingdom.
He is writing a combination tract and memoir using the tools and techniques of his trade as a tailor as a metaphor that can be applied to life and faith. This is the most fascinating part of the book; who would have thought that tailoring could be so interesting?
What is less effective are the stock situations of my-wife-doesn’t-understand-me and my-teenage-son-is-a-rebellious-pain-in-the-fundament. Some of Arise’s experiences are strangely understated, such as his three-year imprisonment. More important is the lack of any resolution. Arise’s character and sense of divine mission are well set out, but The Book of the Needle has a fadeout ending that left me wishing that it had given me a plot, or at least a story.
