Multiple voices richly evoke the fear of God, and of prejudice, among 13th-century penitents on the road to RomeTwenty years after his bold and original novel English Passengers won the Whitbread prize, Matthew Kneale has returned to similar territory with Pilgrims, another polyphonic historical tale following a group of English men and women on a long journey into the unknown. His cast this time is a collection of 13th-century penitents travelling to Rome to seek absolution for a colourful variety of sins. Though Kneale’s pilgrimage is set in 1289, a century before The Canterbury Tales, it’s impossible not to have Chaucer’s bawdy band of storytellers in mind as you read. There’s more than a hint of the Wife of Bath about the cheerfully lustful and independent Lady Lucy de Bourne, who has accidentally killed one husband and aims to divorce the second in the papal court, while travelling with her child by another lover and accompanied by the man she hopes to wed next in Rome – though an author’s note at the end tells us that Lucy is one of the characters based on real historical figures. Another is Matilda Froome, a self-declared mystic from Norwich who has given birth to 18 children before deciding – understandably – that God is calling her to a life of celibacy. There’s the naive Tom son of Tom, a ragged idiot savant who is begging his way to Rome to save his dead cat from the fires of purgatory. Bellicose Sir John has been forced to do penance for punching an abbot, while two of the others – anxious widow Constance and Warin, a tailor with class grievances – are clearly being manipulated by family members who fancied a trip at their expense.The comedy lies in the gulf between a character’s view of him or herself and the way they are perceived by the others Continue reading...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jul/13/pilgrims-by-matthew-kneale-review-witty-thoughtful-medieval-tales